Jon Stewart Says News Corp. Phone Hacking Pales Compared to BBC Sex Scandal

Jon Stewart blasted the BBC's recent fumbling of two pedophilia investigations on "The Daily Show"

The BBC fumbled its investigation of alleged pedophile children's TV host Jimmy Savile, then it wrongly accused a Conservative politican of child sex crimes.

But in the words of Jon Stewart, "at least someone got accused of pedophila."

"The Daily Show" host took jabs at the broadcaster, which once appeared to be a bastion of ethics in British journalism amid the phone-hacking scandal the engulfed News Corp.'s U.K. tabloids last year. Now, he says that illegal activity, by comparison, "looks almost quaint."

BBC director general George Entwistle resigned after news broke that the broadcaster's current affairs program "Newsnight" accused a Conservative leader of sex abuse in a North Wales children's home. The report, later deemed false, came weeks after that same program revealed that it shelved a similar investigation that would have outed Savile, a BBC host, for routinely coercing teenage girls for sex, sometimes at the BBC's studios.

Instead, Stewart noted, they aired a glowing tribute to Savile — who was knighted and honored by the Catholic Pope — on Christmas after his death.

Stewart pointed to a photo of a white-haired Savile wearing pink-tinted sunglasses and smoking a fat cigar.

"I don't want to judge a book by its cover," Stewart quipped, "but if this follow was a book, I'm pretty sure the cover would be: 'Don't Leave Me Alone With Your Children: The Jimmy Savile Story.'"

Watch the full clip below:

 

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