Times See No Evil CEO Mark Thompson's Veil of Ignorance Continues To Unravel

The NY Times stuck with embattled former BBC chief Mark Thompson based on his assurances that despite thirty-three years at the BBC including eight at the helm he had never heard a whisper about BBC star Jimmy Savile's pedophilia.

Now the Times has documentation that his ignorance was not as complete as he had claimed. The ghastly facts and Thompson's creative defense:

A legal letter sent on behalf of Mark Thompson, the former director general of the BBC, raises questions about his assertions that he learned of accusations of sexual abuse against its longtime host Jimmy Savile only after leaving the corporation’s top job.

In the letter, sent 10 days before Mr. Thompson left the BBC in September, lawyers representing him and another executive threatened to sue The Sunday Times in London over contentions in an article it was preparing that they had been involved in killing a BBC investigation of Mr. Savile.

Interviews show that the letter included a summary of the alleged abuse, including the allegation that some abuse might have occurred at the BBC.

According to people who have reviewed the private letter, it recounted that the proposed article in The Sunday Times magazine would “look at a number of allegations regarding the behavior of the late television and radio presenter, specifically that he took advantage of a series of young women. Some of the alleged assaults took place on BBC premises.”

An aide to the former BBC chief said that although Mr. Thompson had orally authorized the sending of the letter, he had not known the details of its contents. “It’s not clear if he was shown it, but he doesn’t remember reading it,” said the aide, a personal adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give Mr. Thompson’s version of events. Mr. Thompson declined to comment.

So Thompson is going with the classic "I'll sue you if you say whatever it is you are saying, even though I have no idea what it is" defense.  Save it for the laugh track.

Timesman Matthew Purdy, who has the unhappy task of investigating the new Times boss, notes a bit of a problem with Thompson's claim of aggressive ignorance:

The timing and substance of the letter are significant because Mr. Thompson, who began work this week as president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, said in October that “during my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile.”

That was his claim then, but... Thompson backed away from that denial in a subsequent letter reported by the Times (and mocked by yours truly); the evolving evasion was flagged in a story with a Purdy byline:

Mr. Thompson’s version of his role has shifted somewhat over the past 10 days.

In a statement released on Oct. 13, Mr. Thompson issued a blanket denial of any knowledge of the squelched BBC report. “I was not notified or briefed about the ‘Newsnight’ investigation,” he said, adding that “during my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile.”

But on Tuesday, in a letter in response to Mr. Wilson, the Parliament member, Mr. Thompson appeared to adjust his answer slightly, saying, “I was never formally notified about the ‘Newsnight’ investigation and was not briefed about the allegations they were examining and to what extent, if at all, those allegations related to Savile’s work at the BBC.”

So let's note two things. First, Mark Thompson had a long career at the BBC prior to becoming director general; neither denial claims he maintained his full ignorance of Jimmy Savile's conduct prior to his final promotion.

And his modified second denial emphasizes formal briefings and reports, which is very British and very bureaucratic - if there is no memo, it never happened. The second denial cracks the door open to the possibility that Mr. Thompson was told of the Saville problem but not in a formal briefing (a heads-up in the washroom preserves deniability).

Well - the Times now has a CEO who doesn't reliably read his morning briefings and threatens to sue people without knowing why. Is this See No Evil CEO right for a news organization?

Comments

[Jim Ryan]

...has a CEO who doesn't reliably read his morning briefings

This sounds familiar.

[henry]

Lucky for us he is not CEO of a news organization.

[Buckeye]

He will fit right in at NYT.

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

I just reread the transcript Mr. Thompson’s Rose Garden speech and I am convinced he has been straight with us all along.

[centralcal]

Interesting development - Great posted about Petraeus arriving to testify about 25 minutes ago, and now on Twitter is saying the hearing is over already!!!! What the heck?

[centralcal]

Great??? Greta!!!

[henry]

Look at the new WI senate minority leader. The forecast is for 2 more years of tantrums no matter what Walker does.

[NK]

OT-- if you haven't read about the budget follies in the tiny state of Connecticut, the state gov't is $1B in the hole-- $1B in a tiny state of 3.5M people less than half the population of NYC-- $1B in the hole this year. And that is just the current insolvency, on top of that is the bankruptcy caused by pension obligations to state workers. Connecticut will need that Bankruptcy Chapter from Congress fast! Anyways, apparently Dan malloy got really drunk last night and told the media NO TAXES NO TAXES-- the whole $1B comes out of the hides of the leeches sucking on the tax teat. If only-- of course drunken dan will back down to the unions, and the spiral to bankruptcy for the Land of Steady Habits will accelerate.

[NK]

Henry-- count your blessngs that you have sane men and women running the state government in Wisc and the insane dems are in the minority. Compare with Ct

[BR]

Is it TM's birthday today? If so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear host!

[Thomas Collins]

Happy Birthday, TM, if today is your birthday. If not, either Happy Belated Birthday or Happy Anticipatory Birthday!

[BR]

Tell all your Obama-voting fiends to go and see Skyfall for a life changing experience!

[hit and run]

Yes,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TM!!!

And,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. DOT!!!

[Captain Hate]

Does this mean the Times won't be covering the continuing Penn State trials? Or will it be with a caveat that they don't hold themselves to similar standards of holding parties responsible?

[PD]

Hostess, maker of Twinkies, to go out of business; strike cited

That's right. Those unions are going to show the owners they can't be pushed around.

Enjoy the unemployment.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Settle down NK.
CT can easily solve its problems by raising its income taxes to 13%+ and its sales tax to 9%+ just like we here in CA did and, voila, by the simple application of mathematics all of your problems go "poof" and the roe gambol about on grassy hillsides covered in fragrant daisies and asters.
You see in the real world if you raise taxes on middle income earners a recession may ensue because of something called a fiscal cliff and they change their economic habits and decisions to the detriment of the economy, but when you raise taxes on those more easily capable of evading and/or avoiding them you will receive exactly the sums your static computations calculate and there are no economic repercussions, save those gallumphing deer out on the hills.
If we're really lucky the Candyman in the WH will do the same for the whole country.

As Jude Wanniski said it's the way the world works; like magical beans.

[hit and run]

Oh, and I've been rather distracted, so this is two days late...

HAPPY 111TH ANNIVERSARY FRAU!!!

[maryrose]

Happy Birthday TM! Have a great day. You deserve it.

[Jim Eagle]

Happy Birthday TM and Mrs. DoT

Interesting how the Dems are spinning Benghazi after Petraeus testified. The attack on the consulate compound was a bunch of looters while they agree that the one on the annex were real terrorists. BS.

Petraeus says within 24 hours they knew it was an organized terror attack due to the identity of the groups involve. But we are not to go after Susan Rice because blaming Obama for Benghazi is the same as blaming W for 911.

Well, the dems and progs did blame him for 911 to shield Clinton, Gorelick and the other Dem ilk.

What a clusterf**k.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

The sad thing about Hostess is the Teamsters, the largest union at Hostess, had already made concessions and so most of the people lost their jobs not because they were obstinate dumbasses, but because the minority baker's union was.
Geniuses around every corner these days.

[henry]

Happy Birthday TM and Mrs DoT!

[Jim Ryan]

Happy Birthday, Tom.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

And happy birthday wishes to Tom Maguire and Mrs. Ceaucescu.

[Porchlight]

I despise unions.

[maryrose]

Wow,
Now that Benghazi is in the news and the dems have their new and improved talking points albeit Obama is not to blame we can finally tell the American people what we think will exonerate all guilty parties. If they don't like it -well Obama won so screw you.

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

CNN does a report on the wildly one sided vote counts!

http://youtu.be/g2jnFVJ1I-M

[Porchlight]

Happy birthdays to TM and Mrs. DoT! TM, thank you again for this wonderful place.

[maryrose]

Porch:
The union people still have jobs. Sadly those they lied to and led astray join the increasing numbers of unemployed that the Labor Dept lies about every week. And when the job losses are in Ohio and Pennsylvania we can't really blame it on Sandy. This is the dem meme. I honestly feel that this Inaugaration Day is already tainted. $ brave people are dead and Obama did nothing to save them. It's disgraceful for that writer to say; Obama won, let's move on from Benghazi.He obviously has never lost a loved one.

[maryrose]

should be 4 people whose families I will remember in my prayers.

[MarkO]

Happy Birthday to TM and La Preciosa. (and, indeed she is)

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Hey, I see this thread is on the headlines at Memorandum.
Watch out for falling for squirrels.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Delete one "for" in my 10:36, your choice which one.

[Sue]

I like getting rid of the first one.

[centralcal]

Oh dear, before the squirrels dive in, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM M. AND THE LOVELY MRS. DOT. May you both have a wonderful day and year ahead.

[Porchlight]

The left is spinning to protect Rice. Kevin Drum and Dave Weigel are blasting McCain and saying that Rice didn't say what she said on the Sunday shows (that the attacks grew out of a spontaneous protest).

Sean Higgins lays it out here with the relevant passages from the show transcripts.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/actually-yes-susan-rice-did-say-the-benghazi-attacks-were-spontaneous/article/2513521

[Porchlight]

maryrose, I don't pretend to understand any of it anymore. I wish Obama the unpleasantest of second terms. That is the only way I can see voters coming to their senses in 2016.

[Sue]

Happy Birthday Dear Leader. And happy birthday Mrs. DoT.

[henry]

Animals are amazing, the day before gun deer season -- the only day you can't legally shoot varmints -- we get a forecast for a squirrel fest. Who's telling the squirrels?

[Captain Hate]

Kevin Drum and Dave Weigel are blasting McCain and saying that Rice didn't say what she said on the Sunday shows (that the attacks grew out of a spontaneous protest).

I watched FNS when she appeared and she was insistent that it was the video that was responsible. Chris Wallace gave her ample opportunities to back off of that garbage and she stuck to it doggedly. Drum and Weigel are idiots.

[Captain Hate]

HB TM and Mrs DoT

[Jim Ryan]

your choice which one

I know. I fell for a squirrel once, and....

Sorry, I can't talk about it. STILL broken hearted.

[Clarice]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TM!!!

And,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. DOT!!!

I just read that Kasich refused to implement Obamacare.

[Rob Crawford]

Drum and Weigel are idiots.

No, they're not. "Idiot" gives them the benefit of being flawed or ignorant.

They are liars.

[Chubby]

so ... Petraeus said the original CIA talking points were changed and left out stuff. The smoking gun would be to see the original CIA talkiing points to see what was left out. Why was stuff left out? Imv, primarily to influence the results of the election.

[Rick Ballard]

"Is this See No Evil CEO right for a news organization?"

I would think familiarity with the US Bankruptcy Code would carry more weight in selecting the CEO for the NYT. The ability to overlook the bleeding obvious has been common at the Times for forty years. There's nothing extraordinary about Thompson in that respect.

Let's just hope he fails at reorganization and deprives shareholders of all residual value in the BK.

[Janet]

Happy Birthday, Tom! Thanks for JOM. Lots of love to you!!!

[Captain Hate]

Well they're idiots for thinking that anybody with a functioning cortex will buy their version of reality. I'm fully aware that's not their target audience.

And it still shouldn't distract from what the Choomer did or did not do to protect people in Benghazi. This "ongoing investigation" garbage can be resolved solely by him being truthful about what he did.

[James D.]

Rob, can't they be both?

[Chubby]

not original CIA talking points, the *original CIA briefing*

[MAM]

Happy Birthday TOM from JOM. LOL (lot's of love)from MAM

[henry]

Walker says no state exchange for WI.

[NK]

Mr. Maguire-- have a happy and healthy birthday, and many thanks for being the dear leader and kind host here at JOM.

[NK]

Happy Birthday Mrs. DoT!

[marlene]

Happy Birthday,TM! Happy Birthday,Mrs.DOT!

[sbw]

HB, TM, if it is... and thanks for visiting rights!

[Rob Crawford]

Rob, can't they be both?

"Idiot" leaves too much room for their lies to be accidental or excusable.

They are lying on purpose.

[Thomas Collins]

Whoops! Looks as if I missed Frau's anniversary. Belated Happy Anniversary greetings, Frau.

And Happy Birthday to DOT's better half.

[NK]

Ig- thanks for the reasuring words about solving Ct budget follies. The only difference from Calif is that Drunken Dan Malloy in Ct intends to land in Hedge Fund land in 2 years so he has to keep some business cred-- Your Gov Moonbeam has gone completely Plaid. So Druken Dan tells the media last night that he'll cut $1B in spending-- of course he'll do no such thing, but he might have been drunk enought to believe it last night. In the end, the public unions will bust out little Ct just like Calif and Ill.

[Danube of Thought]

Many thanks to all of you from La Preciosa. Hit, how did you know?

[Captain Hate]

Here's the in depth analysis we've been waiting for: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/16/meghan-mccain-on-why-the-republican-party-needs-to-wake-up.html

[fdcol63]

Sadly, gone are the days when the CIA orchestrated assassinations and revolutions to overthrow Marxist/Communist dictators.

[Danube of Thought]

John Nolte:

Republican Congressman Peter King just exited the closed-door hearing with David Petraeus to update the media, and his description of the ex-CIA Chief's testimony contained more than one bombshell.

For starters, King said Petraeus told them that the CIA talking points meant for U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's Sept. 16 round robin of five Sunday network news shows, originally contained the information that there was evidence al-Qaeda elements were involved in the attack. These talking points were then altered through "an inter-agency process."

The whole thing is informative and very frustrating. I'm betting we never learn who changed the talking points.

[Chubby]

Was he on the original mailing list to receive the CIA intellgence? If so, did he do his job and read them? those are questions that cannot be hard to answer. If he read the original briefing and approved the revision, then the buck stops there.

[Chubby]

Drudge has a link at the top of the page to a video of King's statement to the press.

[Rob Crawford]

Sadly, gone are the days when the CIA orchestrated assassinations and revolutions to overthrow Marxist/Communist dictators.

Nowadays they serve one.

[Dave (in MA)]

PD,

I'll bet he really has a hankerin' for some Ding-Dongs right about now.

[Ranger]

Hmmmm... Since these "talking points" were then sent to congressional leaders after they were edited, that implies a deliberate lie to congress.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jim @ 10:48,

Did she sound like June Foray?

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

Happy Birthday TM! Happy Birthday Mrs. DoT!

[Chubby]

I had lost respect for Petraeus, now I am starting to get it back. Maybe he was stricken in conscience not only about his affair, but about his part in the cover up and perhaps even disappointed that the latter lapse had resulted in an election result he wasn't altogether happy about, which would explain the timing of his disclosure. He had to clear the decks about the affair first, before his reparative truthtelling about Behghazi would be taken as credible. By contrast, if he corrected his Benghazi testimony first and his affair was exposed after that, his credibility would have been shot. But by honestly admitting to the affair first, his credibility and honesty wrt his corrective testimony are hugely enhanced.

[hit and run]

DoT:
Hit, how did you know?

It might be that you told us last year when we were wishing TM happy birthday.

Yeah, let's go with that.

[PD]

This "ongoing investigation" garbage can be resolved solely by him being truthful about what he did.

Yeah. Too bad some intrepid reporter doesn't ask, "Mr. President, why do you need an investigation to find out what you knew, when you knew it, and what you did about it? Who knows that better than you?

[PD]

Happy birthday to TM and Mrs. DoT.

[Gus]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!! LOVE GUS

[Danube of Thought]

Happy birthday Tom Maguire.

Nice one, PD.

[Danube of Thought]

This is sure to end well:

Washington, A conservative group in the US has launched a movement to impeach President Barack Obama, just days after he won a second term in the White House. The Conservative Majority Fund, the group known primarily for its birther conspiracy spreading, has launched a robocall campaign to gain support for Obama´s impeachment."Our only recourse now is to move forward with the full impeachment of President Obama. We suspect that Obama is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and that there may be grounds for impeachment as is laid out in the constitution,"

[Old Lurker]

Chubby I think you are too kind and forgiving.

[Old Lurker]

HB Tom and Mrs. DoT.

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

Hostess with the Leastest.

http://www.businessinsider.com/18500-hostess-workers-out-of-jobs-2012-11

[henry]

ZH has a fun post on Hostess. Dick Gephardt and other prominent Dems taken down by unfunded pension obligations, unions hardest hit. Coming soon to a Dem controlled govt near you.

[PD]

EPA Rejects Requests to Ease US Corn-Based Ethanol Requirement
Bloomberg
Federal regulators rejected a request from the governors of eight U.S. states to waive requirements for blending corn-based ethanol into gasoline, a mandate they said was driving up food costs during the worst drought in a half century.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Jim @ 10:48,

Did she sound like June Foray?

Posted by: Dave (in MA) | November 16, 2012 at 11:34 AM --

Better June than William Conrad or Paul Frees.

[Dave (in MA)]

Too bad some intrepid reporter doesn't ask, "Mr. President, why do you need an investigation to find out what you knew, when you knew it, and what you did about it? Who knows that better than you?

Jughead won't be able to figure out what he knew until they review the TelePrompter records.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

Happy Birthday TM and La Preciosa. I hope you both have a great day and many more birthdays.

Doncha know there is a smoking original talking points memo out there somewhere. And there should be a paper trail indicating which agencies participated in the "interagency process". Congressman Gowdy should be put on the case immediately.

[Janet]

This "ongoing investigation" garbage can be resolved solely by him being truthful about what he did.

Obama is almost never asked any hard questions. If he is....they allow him to ramble on about something unrelated. blah, blah, blah,...Never a follow up demanding an answer to the original tough question.

[Chubby]

((Chubby I think you are too kind and forgiving.))

I could be all wrong by imv he's just done the right thing by saying that the CIA's intellgence was changed. That is a great big deal, imo, the closest thing to a smoking gun so far. And I view his redemption in proportion to that.

[NK]

"Interagency process"-- my big Greek ass. Axelrod and Jarret told JEF to tell Rice to lie, and she probably knew it was a bunch of lies-- but went along to get the SoS gig. This whole crew is a bunch of treasonous bastards.

[fdcol63]

I think Petraeus ought to directly testify that the Obama administration offered to keep his affair secret so long as he continued to corroborate their ludicrous "video" explanation of the Benghazi attack.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I would like to know why the Chevy Volt and the PT Cruiser are worthy of Barry's personal salvation but the Ho-Ho and the Twinkie aren't.
Maybe cause his wife's a Ding Dong?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

In case anyone was wondering I considered switching Ding Dong and Ho ho in that 12:05 post but didn't want to be called a racist.

[Jim Miller]

If you need a quick summary on the Savile scandal, there's a good one here. (And there are many more details in the Wikipedia article.)

Among other things, he apparently made a habit of trolling for victims in children's hospitals.

Incidentally his last name rhymes with "ill", not "vile". (I had hoped it was the second.)

[NK]

[email protected] I don't think it played out that way, at all. IMO, the first time someone approached petraeus about the affair-- he quit. he knew he had no credibility to anyone at that point and was vulnerable to political blackmail-- so he quit before he could be blackmailed. That's my guess.

[Janet]

Just for fun...I've sent out care pkgs with lots of the Hostess double-named products before. Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos, Sno Balls,...& then I tuck in Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink.

This is all too sad. How can anyone vote for the Dems?

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

"WHITE HOUSE PETITION SEEKS OBAMA'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE 'People' asking for authorization for Occidental, Harvard, Hawaii to release records
By Bob Unruh @ WND

When the White House set up a system to allow American citizens to petition for grievances on the official website, officials probably didn’t expect to see citizens in all 50 states seeking secession.

Nor did they likely imagine it would be a place that would become a forum for those questioning Barack Obama’s eligibility for office and seeking his college and university records.

But a new petition on the government website does exactly that, asking for Obama records from Hawaii, Occidental and Harvard.

The title of the just-launched petition is, “Require Barack Obama To Allow The Public Examination Of His Birth Certificate Records & His College & University Records.”

Specifically, it states:..."

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/11/white-house-petition-seeks-obama-records.html?m=1

[Danube of Thought on IPad]

"I think Petraeus ought to directly testify that the Obama administration offered to keep his affair secret so long as he continued to corroborate their ludicrous 'video' explanation of the Benghazi attack."

I believe he would give that testimony if it were true. According to King, he testified this morning that nothing he said about the matter was influenced in any way by the affair.

[Old Lurker]

Chubby but - serious question - was there not video of Petraeous testifying that it was the mob reaction to the movie? I swear I think I saw that.

If I do recall that correctly, then his public testimony based on talking points which had been changed amounts to another "I lied to my diary" moment.

[Threadkiller (Get off your couch and leave the GOP!)]

Does that mean that nothing he says now is influenced by the affair or nothing he has said in the past was influenced by the affair?

[Old Lurker]

DoT in that video of King just now he allowed the statement today to be a mild "different than I recall what he said last time" like there is no record of the prior testimony?

[Dave (in MA)]

Ig, The PT Cruiser ended production about 5 months into the Great Leap Forward.

[Rick Ballard]

NK,

I look at it from the "one big rotting quaking root ball" aspect and believe BOzo had the info when Petraeus was appointed. There is no reason to believe Miz "Look at all my credentials" possessed the level of discretion required to keep it secret.

I agree with you about the action taken by Petraeus. I doubt he was under duress, whichever time it was that he actually lied.