BBC Appoints Tony Hall as New Director General
TV

The chief executive of Royal Opera House is tapped to replace George Entwistle, who recently resigned from the top position.

AceShowbiz - BBC has found a new man to fill the top position of Director General. Tony Hall, who is the current chief executive of Royal Opera House, has been appointed to take the duty starting March 2013.

Speaking to journalists at the BBC's central London headquarters, Hall said it took a lot to "drag me away" from the Royal Opera House, but he cared "passionately about the BBC." He added, "I am absolutely committed to our news operation as a world-beater."

BBC Trust chief Lord Patten said, "Tony has a formidable reputation, first of all in almost three decades at the BBC. He's had an equally distinguished record as leader of one of the great cultural organizations in the U.K."

Hall, who is a former Director of News in BBC, is named the new Director General after George Entwistle resigned from the position, just 54 days after he began his service. He exited the U.K. public broadcaster following a misrepoting, in which "Newsnight" incorrectly linked Lord McAlpine, the former adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to a sexual abuse scandal.

The blunder forced BBC to apologize and issue a retraction. McAlpine, who claimed he wasn't called before "Newsnight" broadcast the report, was left fuming by the false reporting. He said, "Of course they should have called me and I would have told them exactly what they learned later on."

Calling the report "complete rubbish," he continued blasting the network, "They could have saved themselves a lot of agonizing and money, actually, if they'd just made that telephone call. It gets into your bones. It gets into, it makes you angry. And that's extremely bad for you to be angry. And it gets into your soul and you just think there's something wrong with the world."

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