LONDON — Seeking to quell a growing uproar over its mishandling and possible cover-up of sexual abuse allegations, the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a highly critical examination Monday night of what one insider called the worst crisis in half a century to afflict the BBC, a national institution once viewed as an emblem of ethical probity.
The unusual spectacle of one BBC show broadcasting a hard-edged look at the journalistic integrity of another reflected the sense of crisis across Britain, as journalists, school officials, politicians and others question whether they did enough to stop decades of widely-rumored abuse by Jimmy Savile, a high-profile television personality and disc jockey known also for his philanthropy, who is accused of victimizing some 200 girls.
Previous BBC associates of Mr. Savile who appeared on the "Panorama" investigative program spoke of their suspicions about him — even of his seeming boasting about what he had done — and of their failure to expose him.
Bob Langley, a former reporter who covered a charity run in which Mr Savile participated, said he saw girls of "12 or 13, they could have been 14" emerging from Mr. Savile's trailer at the event. "After they had gone he indicated to me in a nudge, nudge, wink, wink sort of way that he had just had sex with them," Mr. Langley said.
"Supposing I had gone to the police or to the BBC, what would have happened?" Mr. Langley went on. "The answer is nothing would have happened. He would have said it was a joke, can't you take a joke. And that would have been it."
A former disc jockey, Paul Gambaccini, told Panorama: "This horror, for that is what it was, took place while all of society was watching. But because it was off the scale of everybody's belief system, they didn't really come to terms with it."
The events recalled in some ways earlier turmoil at the BBC after the 2003 invasion of Iraq when a BBC reporter accused the government of embellishing intelligence information about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. That crisis cost the corporation's director general and the chairman of the board of governors their jobs in early 2004. But, for some, the latest scandal surpassed those events by far.
"This is the worst crisis that I can remember in my nearly 50 years at the BBC," John Simpson, a veteran BBC foreign correspondent, told the "Panorama" investigative program late Monday during its hourlong scrutiny of events at the often hard-hitting "Newsnight" program. "All we have as an organization is the trust of the people the people that watch us and listen to us and if we don't have that, if we start to lose that, that's very dangerous I think for the BBC."
Prime Minister David Cameron called on the BBC Monday to address the serious questions surrounding its handling of the affair, after the broadcaster announced that Peter Rippon, the editor of the flagship "Newsnight" news program was "stepping aside" after giving an "inaccurate or incomplete" account of why he abandoned an journalistic investigation into Mr. Savile, who died last year at 84.
The political thrust of the "Panorama" program concerned the decision to cancel the "Newsnight" investigation. But much of it also evoked the intermingling of Mr. Savile's flamboyant and in its day, glamorous lifestyle with what has been depicted as his using his privileged access to lure vulnerable young people into situations where he could abuse them.
Television footage from decades ago showed Mr. Savile's white Rolls Royce convertible in which girls from Duncroft school were taken for rides into the countryside. Archive film showed Mr. Savile jogging or cycling to promote charities, followed by a trailer in which abuse was said to have taken place. Other footage showed Mr. Savile cozying up to on-stage audiences of young girls.
While the tally of suspected exploitation has been primarily of girls, a former Boy Scout, his identity disguised, said on the program that he had been abused as young boy in return for a reward badge from one of Mr. Savile's shows.
Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 22, 2012
An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to Mark Thompson's connection to The New York Times Company. He was recently named to become president and chief executive of the company, but he has not yet taken up those posts.
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