Report and retort

The Times seems to have got hold of a copy of the Public Accounts Committee report on BBC severance pay. It quotes committee chair Margaret Hodge as saying "There was evidently a failure at the highest level of the BBC to challenge payments to senior managers and what appears to have been a culture of cronyism that allowed for the liberal use of licence payers' money".

Apparently the report also claims that senior figures at the corporation may have lied when giving evidence to the committee - but, one presumes, they haven't worked out who, or surely they would have taken action?

The paper has a response from former DG Mark Thompson: "Despite some inflammatory language in the report, there is absolute no evidence of any wrongdoing by anyone at the BBC in relation to these severance payments".

• We note the story comes from The Times new Media Editor, Alex Spence, who today gets some stick from Media Monkey in The Guardian. Calm down, readers, calm down.