Saturday 6 October 2012

The Irony of the BBC's Cover up' of allegations concerning Jimmy Saville is that the BBC has never failed to point the same finger at Christian Institutions

Janet Street Porter has claimed many at the BBC knew of allegations concerning Jimmy Saville
There is a certain Irony at work in the current appalling saga concerning the late Jimmy Saville. It now appears that the Metropolitan Police are going to investigate the BBC over allegations that they may have permitted (through omission of action) or even covered up the alleged criminality of Jimmy Saville.  As many of you will now know Jimmy Saville has been made the subject of allegations including rape and sexual abuse of young girls.  What is particularly disturbing is that according to some sources these matters were either known about and covered up by the BBC during the 1970's; or at the very least a culture existed at Broadcasting house that made such behaviour permissible.  The veteran broadcaster Janet Street-Porter indeed said as much on the BBC1 programme question time last Thursday night .  You can watch that programme in full on BBC iplayer or just look at the clip I have linked to.  The whole subject is deeply shocking and my thoughts are with the victims.  Jimmy Saville was an iconic figure during the 1980's with his show 'Jim'll Fix it' and whilst these matters are still currently allegations his reputation like that of Paul Gadd is in tatters and deservedly so. Indeed it would appear that both Saville and Gadd may have both abused children at the same time - sickening. There is a link to the media report for that here, the allegations are shocking

However there is a certain strong irony concerning this disturbing subject. It would appear that the BBC are now accused of possibly covering up for Saville in his criminality and therefore permitting such behaviour.  Now the BBC have never been shy to dine out on similar allegations concerning for instance the Catholic Church.  Indeed many commentators have accused our state broadcaster of being biased against Christianity.  Indeed the BBC never failed either in it's reportage or in it's dramas to mock and belittle Christianity as well as dining out extensively on the abuse issue.  Yet that is hypocrisy writ large if these current allegations are true, the BBC are rotten. I will say again that my thoughts are with the victims, I just hope that the BBC will now subject itself to the same standard of critical enquiry that it has previously reserved solely for Christians.  This post may be seen as having little to do with libertarianism, but if we can dispense with another morally redundant tax payer funded institution I'm game. 

2 comments:

Rob Harris said...

Ironic indeed, ad its interesting that Liz Kershaw and Sandi Toksvig (!!) were both fondled at the Beeb. It seems to have been a cultural systemic issue of cover-up. They're a randy lot those Libs!

We had a parallel in Ireland last year with presidential hopeful David Norris. He gave support to his paedo ex-lover and stated in an interview that he thought sex with boys was morally acceptable. Norris is quite the liberal hero here, and John Waters and others commented on how quiet the liberal press (e.g. The Irish Times) was, when they had been intensely vocal indeed over clerical sex abuse.

Paul said...

Indeed Rob the general hypocrisy of the chattering classes is striking on such issues. Thanks for dropping by.