I know from experience that the BBC is an empire of 支配（する）／統制する freaks and cowards

By Max Hastings for the Daily Mail

Published: 00:02 BST, 23 October 2012 | Updated: 09:53 BST, 23 October 2012

The Savile スキャンダル has thrust the BBC into one of the gravest crises in its history: in the words of 会社／団体 退役軍人 John Simpson, ‘the worst in my 50 years’.

Yesterday’s ‘一時的な’ 辞職 by Newsnight’s editor is only a beginning. Some of the 会社／団体’s most 上級の (n)役員／(a)執行力のあるs, from the Director-General downwards, could 井戸／弁護士席 lose their 職業s ― and deserve to.

BBC 信用 Chairman Lord Patten has spoken of a ‘cesspit’ of 発覚s and 主張s. The entire moral ethos of the 会社／団体 is 存在 called into question.

'The worst in my 50 years': John Simpson

'Cesspit': BBC 信用 Chairman Chris Patten

Such a crunch is 延滞の. Most of the men and women who rise to the 最高の，を越す of the BBC 階層制度 are self-serving bureaucrats of meagre abilities and scant 編集（者）の judgment. Their most 目だつ 技術 is in 安全な・保証するing extravagant rewards. Their most 一貫した characteristic is cowardice.

In 最近の days, a succession of former BBC panjandrums has taken to the airwaves, to 主張する sanctimoniously it is 考えられない that 最高の，を越す 管理／経営 would 干渉する in 編集（者）の 決定／判定勝ち（する）s, as is 申し立てられた／疑わしい to have happened in the 鎮圧 of Newsnight’s 報告（する）／憶測 on Jimmy Savile’s paedophilia.

Yet every presenter and 生産者 who has worked at the sharp end of the 会社／団体 knows this （人命などを）奪う，主張する for a travesty. 上級の (n)役員／(a)執行力のあるs meddle 絶えず, almost always to stop the broadcasting of anything that might 脅す their own chauffeur-driven 存在s.

In the 早期に Seventies, I worked as a reporter for two BBC TV 現在の 事件／事情／状勢s programmes,? 24 Hours and Midweek. We took it for 認めるd that the departmental bosses with their grey 控訴s, grey manners and grey morals took a 手渡す whenever 政治家，政治屋s or 大君s bent their ears.

In 1973, I made a film about Robert Maxwell, produced by Tom Bower, who later became famous as the old monster’s 伝記作家.

Maxwell was already known to be a crook, but that did not stop him ロビーing the BBC incessantly, to get our film 起訴，告発 of him 軟化するd. 会社／団体 経営者／支配人s buckled almost without 抵抗. Bower and I were 軍隊d to 受託する 相当な changes to make the script more 同情的な to Maxwell ― 恐らく in the 指名する of fairness.

Cowards and bureaucrats: Most 上級の BBC staff 欠如（する） 編集（者）の 裁判／判断

A newspaper reporter who appeared in the film, and saw to his disgust how it was emasculated, said: ‘The BBC’s idea of fairness is to say: “Okay, perhaps the world isn’t flat, but to be fair, perhaps we should agree that it might be flat some of the time.”?’

That episode 反映するd the same (n)役員／(a)執行力のある pusillanimity so vividly 陳列する，発揮するd over Jimmy Savile. We now know from email transcripts, and last night’s 前例のない Panorama film, that Newsnight reporter Liz MacKean wrote to a friend on November 30 last year, 説 programme editor Peter Rippon had told her ‘if the bosses are not happy [he] can’t go to the 塀で囲む on this one’.

As the BBC now 収容する／認めるs, this is in direct contradiction of the 見解／翻訳／版 of events first given by Rippon. We also know that Director of News, Helen Boaden, 警告するd George Entwistle, now Director-General, on December 2, 2011, that his Christmas 尊敬の印s to Savile would have to be 再考するd if the Newsnight 調査 went ahead. Instead, however, the latter was 停止（させる）d.

Seven years ago, I 苦しむd my own experience of Helen Boaden’s 編集（者）の 見通し. As a guest on 無線で通信する 4’s Sunday morning programme, Broadcasting House, I was 招待するd to comment on some Northern Ireland 選挙 results, and gave my opinion that it was a sad day for those of us who 報告（する）／憶測d on Ulster for many years to see Ian Paisley’s party on 最高の，を越す, when he had played such an evil 役割 in the start of The Troubles.

Some time later, I received a phone call from a BBC lawyer. Paisley was 告訴するing in Northern Ireland, he said, and the 会社／団体 手配中の，お尋ね者 me to join it in making a broadcast 陳謝. I laughed and said: ‘That wouldn’t be very 納得させるing when I’ve been using the same words about him in print ― even in a 調書をとる／予約する ― for almost 40 years.’

The next I heard from the lawyer was that, unless I joined the BBC in its 陳謝, I would be 削減（する） loose on my own to を取り引きする Paisley in 法廷，裁判所. I? rang up the 監査役 of 無線で通信する 4 ―Helen Boaden. In time-honoured? 会社／団体 style, she 辞退するd to 受託する my call.

Newsnight editor Peter Rippon (left) has 'stepped aside', and questions are 存在 asked about the 関与 of Director-General George Entwistle (権利)

Bewildered and angry, I rang another BBC (n)役員／(a)執行力のある I knew, and asked where 編集（者）の courage and 正直さ had gone. My friend replied: ‘Helen says you can’t go around calling 民主的に elected 政治家，政治屋s “evil”.’

I next received a call from a BBC lawyer in Belfast, who said he was speaking in a 純粋に personal capacity. He thought the 会社／団体’s 切望 to 降伏する to Paisley was despicable, and would like to 行為／法令／行動する for me if I kept fighting.

In the end, however, rather than 直面する the bother and time-wasting, I 調印するd the BBC’s shamefully grovelling 声明. An 陳謝 was duly broadcast. The 会社／団体 paid Paisley £35,000 of licence-payers’ money in 損害賠償金, and almost the same again in costs.

It was a dirty little 商売／仕事, which rankles with me still. So I am not surprised to find Helen Boaden once again in a hot seat, with hard questions 存在 asked about what she knew, or did not know, about Newsnight’s 抑えるd Savile programme.

Such people do not get their 職業s because they are 勇敢な or even competent 新聞記者／雑誌記者s, but instead because they know how to play the 法人組織の／企業の game.

BBC’s 現在の 事件／事情／状勢s and 文書の programme-making are today st arved of 資源s, while 上級の (n)役員／(a)執行力のあるs draw fat salaries for 支えるing a culture whose rottenness now stands exposed.

Shameful grovelling: The BBC 管理／経営 干渉するd with Max Hastings's work on both Ian Paisley (left) and Robert Maxwell (権利)

John Birt, who later became Tony Blair’s familiar, was their 役割 model. You may remember that he became 悪名高い as the 副 director- general who 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d his Armani? 控訴s to 商売／仕事 expenses, and squandered tens of millions on 雇うing? 管理／経営 顧問s. I have no knowledge of what was or was not said の中で the BBC’s 最高の，を越す 管理／経営 about Jimmy Savile.

But every one の中で my own 知識 who has made programmes for the 会社／団体 assumes they 試みる／企てるd a cover-up, because that is what such people do.

< font style="font-size: 1.2em;">It is not 信頼できる for the BBC now to 行為／行う its own 調査s into this episode, even under 恐らく 独立した・無所属 chairmen. If the 政府 thought it necessary to 任命する Lord 司法（官） Leveson to 調査／捜査する phone-切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスing at News International, it must recognise a far stronger moral imperative to （売買）手数料，委託（する）／委員会／権限 a public 調査 into Savile.

The 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 that a hugely 目だつ BBC 星／主役にする was able to commit paedophile offences for １０年間s, in some 事例／患者s 恐らく on 会社／団体 前提s, without hindrance from 上級の (n)役員／(a)執行力のあるs, is shocking enough.

The 主張 that even after Savile’s death, when 証拠 of his 行為／行う was 利用できる, the BBC 抑えるd the story, can only credibly be 調査／捜査するd by 部外者s.

I am a biased 証言，証人／目撃する ― but only because I know from personal experience how the 会社／団体’s 最高の，を越す 厚かましさ／高級将校連 go about their 商売／仕事.

Once an 調査 has taken place, a 粛清する will be necessary. The challenge for the Chairman of the BBC 信用, Lord Patten, will be to see that the next 世代 of bosses are better, braver and more talented people than the 現在の 政権 ― but it will be hard to identify suitable 候補者s in today’s Broadcasting House or TV Centre.

The BBC is a 広大な／多数の／重要な 会・原則 which still does some things very 井戸／弁護士席. But a deadly topweight of 経営者／支配人s and 顧問s has steered it into a quagmire.

The 会社／団体 is 支配するd by men and women who 欠如（する） both moral compass and journalistic 技術s. The Savile スキャンダル has exposed a 深遠な malaise which will take years to cure.