George Entwistle just resigned after he admitted that the latest - the second - lapse of journalistic integrity and journalism standards at Newsnight, the BBC's version of Carte Blanche, has caused a crisis of trust between the British public and the BBC.
"I have decided that the honourable thing to do, is to step down from the post of director general," George Entwistle said. Wrong journalistic decisions and shoddy journalism at the BBC and the Newsnight programme has done terrible damage to the BBC's reputation.
George Entwistle was only appointed in July and is now out the door at the BBC after seven weeks due to his bad handling of the BBC's journalistic lapses amidst mounting pressure on himself and the BBC.
"In the light of the fact that the director general is also the editor in chief, and ultmate responsible for all content; and in the light of the unacceptable journalistic standards of the Newsnight film broadcast on Friday 2 November, I have decided that the honourable thing to do would be to step down from the post of director general."
"The BBC should appoint a new leader."
The acting director general will now be Tim Davie as the BBC looks for a new permanent director general. Why is this important? Well Tim Davie, currently in charge of the BBC's radio output and who joined the BBC in 2005, was supposed to take over from the beginning of December as the new chief executive of BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm.
BBC Worldwide of course supplies the channels such as BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies to MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV service in South Africa. That will clearly now not be happening.
