The Daily Telegraph reports that outgoing BBC director general Mark Thompson has been named president and chief executive of the New York Times.
According to the report:
Mr Thompson will relocate to the US and will report to the New York Times’ chairman, Arthur Sulzberger.
“Mark is a gifted executive with strong credentials whose leadership at the BBC helped it to extend its trusted brand identity into new digital products and services,” said Mr Sulzberger.
“Our board concluded that Mark’s experience and his accomplishments at the BBC made him the ideal candidate to lead the Times Company at this moment in time when we are highly focused on growing our business through digital and global expansion.”
This is the same Mark Thompson who was forced to concede to a UK parliamentary hearing that the BBC had got it wrong over coverage of the Itamar massacre. Indeed, this is the same director general that has overseen a wealth of anti-Israel bias at the BBC since he became director general in 2004.
The New York Times’ coverage of Israel is already problematic in the eyes of many. Is this latest appointment a sign that the Gray Lady could descend even further to the level of the BBC?
