500 Victims: BBC Sex Abuse Scandal Ensnares New York Times Chief

In a shocking tally, up to 500 people have come forward claiming to be victims of former British Broadcasting Corp. TV and radio star Jimmy Savile, British police have reported. The scandal has reached from the 1960s to today but has also reached across the ocean to the newly hired CEO of The New York Times, himself a former BBC executive.

New Times executive Mark Thompson was the most recent top man at the BBC of any long standing, having served for eight years ending his tenure only this past September. Thompson resigned from the Beeb to come to America to take the helm of The New York Times just as the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal was developing.

In his pre-employment interviews, Thompson swore he had no knowledge at all about the decades of sexual abuse cases perpetrated by BBC TV star Jimmy Savile, many of which the BBC aided in covering up and hiding from both the police and the license-paying public.

But the latest news from the investigation into the Savile scandal raises questions about what Thompson knew and when he knew it and that timeline brings suspicion that he knew about the mounting scandal long before he told The New York Times that he did.

So, what will The New York Times do? Will the “paper of record” demand that its own chief prove his claims of ignorance about the very sandal under his nose for his full tenure as the BBC’s top boss? Will The Times demand the truth?

What did Thompson know and when did he know it?

See our previous coverage

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