Despite both Jeremy Paxman and Lord Patten unequivocally stating Entwistle was a ‘talented’ and ‘honourable’ man who found himself in a difficult position, this morning’s front pages were less than tactful, united in declaring that Entwistle had to go.
The Sunday Times ran with a five page spread and a headline reading: ‘BBC boss quits over ‘shoddy journalism’ at Newsnight’ whilst The Sun ran with the considerably crasser ‘Bye Bye Chump’, saying “bungling Entwistle quits as Beeb boss after fiasco of Newsnight paedo slur.”The Mail declared a ‘bloodbath at BBC as chief quits’. Former BBC editor Kevin Marsh said in The Daily Mail's story that: "Despite having once edited Newsnight, he was entirely at sea. Entwistle's job was to look after the BBC in troubled times. He was never up to it."
The Observer and The Independent, whilst recognising the magnitude of Entwistle’s resignation in their headlines, tried to remind readers what the actual story should be about – the victims of sexual abuse. Ian Birrell's article for The Independent said the rumours surrounding the future of many BBC employees, such as Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman, could be realised: "The corporation is in meltdown, so anything is possible. For now Tim Davie, the BBC audio and music chief, will stand in. But the next BBC director-general will simply have to be an outsider, given the culture change which is so glaringly needed in the BBC's management. You just can't go for another remote corporation bureaucrat. This was obvious to anyone listening to the Humphrys interview (which, in exposing the BBC at its worst, also showed the BBC at its best)."
John Ware, the Panorama investigative reporter who writes for the Observer, said that it was Entwistle’s ‘lack of curiosity’ which resulted in him missing any warning signs about the inaccuracy of the programme but questioned if the McAlpine story was ever subjected the usual referral process: “Not quite, it seems.”He explained: “The Jimmy Savile crisis has caused such paralysis at the top of the BBC that the people who normally would have been consulted, were, I am told, not directly involved on this occasion. These include the BBC's deputy director of news, Steve Mitchell; the director, Helen Boaden, herself; and David Jordan, director of editorial policy and standards. Because they are in the line of fire, accused of being slow to react over Savile, a shadow management team were handling the Newsnight programme.“Knowing Boaden, Mitchell and Jordan as I do, I would find it hard to believe that whatever catches they might have dropped on Savile, they would not have caught McAlpine and thus spared the BBC the enormous damage that this debacle has now heaped upon the Savile incident.”
Sir Max Hastings, ex Daily Telegraph and London Evening Standard editor, went further, asking wither the position of director general is even doable: “One of the issues I think we got to look at before Chris Patten starts thinking about who should be the next director general, some of us have been saying and some columnists have been discussing today, is the job of the director general doable?“When I was an editor I was responsible for around 300 journalists and I found that to be pretty full-time job. It is physically impossible for the DG to supervise across the whole spectrum of the BBC. I think the whole structure has got to be reconsidered.”
Meanwhile Newsnight economics editor, Paul Mason, said: “I played no part in reporting the story that in the end is said to have identified him, but I will join in the apology to him because it is an enormous problem…an enormous and egregious error to be accused of something you haven't done that is absolutely not on, and a massive mistake by the BBC.”
