Mark Thompson starts work at New York Times as BBC scandal grows

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/12/mark-thompson-new-york-times-bbc

Version 0 of 1.

Brushing off suggestions that a scandal engulfing former colleagues at the BBC would impact on his new job, Mark Thompson's tenure at the New York Times began Monday as the crisis at his old employer escalated.

The paper's new boss has repeatedly insisted that he had no knowledge of the child abuse scandal linked to former star presenter Jimmy Savile now rocking the BBC.

Hundreds of people, some as young as 12, are believed to have been sexually abused over the course of decades by Savile, once one of the BBC's best known stars.

The scandal has sparked a police investigation, two official inquiries and led to the resignation of George Entwistle, Thompson's successor at the BBC, and several other key executives.

"Like many people I'm very saddened by the recent events at the BBC. But I believe that the BBC is the world's greatest broadcaster. I have no doubt it will once again regain the public's trust both in the UK and around the world. It is full of people with real integrity and talent and I have no doubt it will get back on its feet really soon," Thompson told ITV News on Monday morning.

Asked what the crisis would mean for his position at the Times, he replied: "It will not in any way affect my job."

New York Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr sent an email to staff Monday morning welcoming Thompson, who joins, he wrote, at "a time of tremendous change and challenge". The email did not mention the fiasco at the BBC.

Last month, as the scandal broke, Sulzberger gave Thompson his full support. "In the months leading to our decision to bring Mark to the Times Co, Michael Golden, our vice chairman, and I, along with the rest of our board of directors, got to know Mark very well," he wrote in a letter to staff.

"Our opinion was then and remains now that he possesses high ethical standards and is the ideal person to lead our company."

But his appointment in the face of the scandal has been questioned internally, most notably by Times public editor Margaret Sullivan.

"His integrity and decision-making are bound to affect the Times and its journalism – profoundly. It's worth considering now whether he is the right person for the job, given this turn of events," she wrote in a recent column.

Thompson was the BBC's director general from 2004 to October 2012. He was not in charge during the years when Savile is said to have engaged in widespread child abuse.

The former children's TV presenter died last October, and Thompson was in charge as Newsnight, the BBC's flagship news programme, was preparing an expose of the Savile scandal.

That programme was subsequently shelved, but the BBC did run a package of Christmas tributes to Savile, a decision that has ultimately led to senior resignations and heavy criticism at a parliamentary hearing.

Thompson initially said he had no knowledge of the Newsnight programme. He later said he had a "chance meeting" with a journalist who mentioned the investigation into Savile. "I wasn't told any specific lines of inquiry and certainly not anything related to the BBC," he told the New York Times.

Lecturing as a visiting professor at Oxford University earlier this month, Thompson once again said he had nothing to do with the decision to drop Newsnight's investigation into Savile. "Like many other people at the BBC and despite what you may have read, I had heard none of the stories about Jimmy Savile," he said.

Thompson has agreed to answer questions by parliament and by the independent investigators examining the events at the BBC.