"What undermined Entwistle were exactly those failings which he wanted to address": Lord Patten on the "tragedies" surrounding BBC chief's departure
Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC trust, appeared on the Andrew Marr show this morning to discuss the resignation of BBC chief George Entwistle.
Patten said in the interview that while Entwistle’s “lack of curiosity” played a part in his resignation, one of the "tragedies" was that what undermined him were the failings he wanted to address: “[Entwistle] wanted to do all of the right things and what undermined him were exactly those failing which he wanted to address.
“From the beginning, unfortunately, he was at least implicated in the first crisis, because he'd been director of [BBC] Vision when that original Newsnight programme [on Savile] had [not] gone out. So it made it very difficult for him to tackle to whole thing.”
Lord Patten went on to say “He's a very, very good man. Cerebral, honourable, brave and I'm afraid this would have overwhelmed a lot of people with those skills.”
Marr questioned Patten on Entwistle’s “catastrophic, car-crash” interview with John Humphrys on the Today Programme, Patten commented: “You don't go on an interview with John Humphrys and expect the bowling to be slow full tosses.
"And that's why he's such a great journalist. And throughout this the BBC in the way we have covered ourselves, has held on to the fact that above all we are a news organisation and our credibility depends on telling the truth about ourselves and about others, however horrible it may be.”
When asked by Marr about the inaccurate Newsnight programme which aired Friday 2 November Patten said: “When I heard that the [Newsnight] programme was being made, because the tweet was brought to my attention on that Friday and mentioned Conservative politicians, I couldn't have then have phoned them up and asked, what this about Conservative politicians.
“That would have been regarded as grotesque interference.
“But I did subsequently ask whether the programme was being properly edited, whether it was being managed and I was assured that it was.”
Patten said following the last major BBC crisis after the Hutton inquiry the BBC was re-organised to separate the regulator - the BBC Trust - from the executive so that: “There would no longer be a position in which the chairman had, as it were, some executive responsibility for the editorial content of the BBC and that's the position that I and we have been in.
“But I don't want to hide behind what my job is supposed to be in saying that I think that I now have to make sure that in the interests of the license fee player and the audience that the BBC has a grip.”
Marr then asked if Patten felt his position was under question, with Patten replying: “It's bound to be under question from Rupert Murdoch's papers, let’s be clear about that.
Patten added that with numerous inquiries going on, his job now was to, “learn the lessons of those inquires so that we restore confidence and trust in the BBC and if I don't do that I'm sure people will let me know.”
Patten also said that the next director general would begin on Sunday, but in the meantime the acting director general, Tim Davie, would be given full support.