Jon Stewart laid into the BBC on Wednesday night, quipping that the British broadcaster's sex abuse crisis made News Corp.'s phone hacking scandal "look almost quaint."

Last week, the director-general of the BBC George Entwistle stepped down after the program "Newsnight" wrongly accused a politician of sexual abuse. The erroneous report came soon after news broke that same program axed an investigative story outing famed British broadcaster and former BBC host Jimmy Savile as a serial child sex offender. The program aired Christmas tributes to the broadcaster instead.

American broadcasters likened Savile to Dick Clark. "Wait. That guy," Stewart said pointing to a photo of an elderly Savile wearing his bleached blond hair, pink sunglasses, and smoking a cigar. "Creepy looking dude is Britain's Dick Clark?..I don't want to judge a book by its cover, but if this fella was a book, I'm pretty sure the cover would be: 'Don't Leave Me Alone With Your Children, The Jimmy Savile Story.'"

He continued, "Please tell me does not get worse." He then played a clip from a news report describing the BBC inaccurately accusing a politician of sexual abuse at a children's home. "Holy shit," Stewart said. "Although on the bright side, at least someone got accused of pedophilia, right? Not the right guy but ehhh baby steps."

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