The Breakfast Meeting: BBC Scandal Deepens, and Obama Explains Trump Feud

Questions about the BBC's handing of sexual abuse accusations against one of its former TV hosts, Jimmy Savile, are multiplying to include the extent of pedophile behavior in other parts of the BBC and to suggestions of networks of abuse at hospitals associated with Mr. Savile's charities, Alan Cowell reports.

• After Parliament heard this week from the head of the BBC, George Entwistle, about how it was responding to the accusations, the focus there shifted to the man who preceded Mr. Entwistle as general director, Mark Thompson, the incoming chief executive and president of The New York Times Company, Matt Purdy and Christine Haughney report.
• Mr. Thompson, who ran the BBC from 2004 to last month, was not in charge during the years when Mr. Savile is now said to have engaged in widespread pedophilia, but he was in charge when an investigation of Mr. Savile by the BBC program “Newsnight” was canceled. Mr. Thompson has said he knew nothing about the “ Newsnight” investigation while it was under way, had no role in canceling it and also had heard none of the suspicions about Mr. Savile. He has agreed to answer questions from Parliament and by the independent investigators examining the events at the BBC.

The online game company Zynga managed to impress investors by beating its own low forecasts for third-quarter revenue, and rose in after-hours trading on Wednesday, David Streitfeld reports. The stock is down 75 percent from its initial public offering price in December. The company may be a victim of an ever-more-fickle public. One analyst commented about a new game Zynga introduced in July, The Ville, that is already lagging: “The decay curve, the half-life, is shortening. It's staggering how fast some of these games have fallen off.”

Shares of IAC/InterActiveCorp, Barry Diller's online media company, fell as much as 14 percent after what appeared to be a misinterpretation of the company's guidanc e for 2013, The Associated Press reported. A statement saying it expected to report an operating loss for its “media and other” segment was mistakenly described by FactSet as an operating loss for the whole company; trading was briefly halted by Nasdaq, and FactSet issued a correction, but shares still ended the day more than 8 percent down.

Appearing on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno on NBC, President Obama commented on the spectacle created by another NBC personality, Donald Trump, who on Wednesday said he would contribute $5 million to the president's favorite charity if Mr. Obama released his college and passport records, Helene Cooper reported. The president told Mr. Leno that the dispute began when he and Mr. Trump were growing up in Kenya: “We had constant run-ins on the soccer field. He wasn't very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America I thought it would be over.”

Noam Cohen edits and writes for the Med ia Decoder blog. Follow @noamcohen on Twitter.