Former BBC chief Mark Thompson was reportedly involved in a “sidewalk tirade” with a C4 News crew outside his Manhattan flat, according to the New York Post.
Thompson, New York Times CEO, allegedly “screamed” at the crew after being questioned about Jimmy Savile for a documentary, though his spokesman insisted that it was “the interviewer who lost his temper, so much so that the producer had to stop filming”.
The Londoner wouldn’t want to incur the wrath of Thompson. After all, this is the man who bit BBC colleague Anthony Massey in 1988 for no apparent reason. Massey once recalled: “Before I could say a word he suddenly turned, snarled and sank his teeth into my left upper arm (leaving marks through the shirt but not drawing blood). It hurt. I pulled my arm out of his jaws, like a stick out of the jaws of a labrador.”
MPs expecting to grill Thompson on September 9 over BBC executive pay-offs should watch out. Maybe his bite is worse than his bark.
