Removing the heads of the BBC is a Herculean task akin to fighting the Lernean Hydra.

The events leading up to the resignation of director general George Entwistle show the strengths and weaknesses of the BBC.

The shoddy journalism of the Newsnight team exemplified a woeful  lack of quality controls before running with a potentially sensational story.

By all accounts, they relied on the testimony of one man (Steve Messham) without doing the most basic of checks to verify its accuracy. Lord McAlpine, the politician at the heart of the fake scandal was given no opportunity to defend accusations that he was responsible for sexual abuse. Continue reading →