Long term readers may have gathered that I am not a fan of the BBC. This is for a number of reasons: (i) the fact that it has confessed its inbuilt bias towards leftist statism, (ii) that it can produce such consistently and universally poor output despite a budget of £5 billion a year from all sources, and (iii) that it chooses to squander such vast amounts of money on mediocrity. The third point arises from the arrogance of celebrity, and that point is made again today
A few days ago the BBC's new director general George Entwistle sent an email urging staff to "come forward" and talk to police if they have any information about alleged sexual abuses by the late presenter Sir Jimmy Savile.
Then over the weekend, Liz Kershaw who arrived at Radio 1 around the time Sir Jimmy was leaving, said: "The rumours were there, the jokes were there. It was an open secret.
"Round Radio 1 everyone joked about Jimmy Savile and young girls. The main jokes were about his adventures on the Radio 1 Roadshow. It was massive then." "It was rather like the X Factor going round the country then. Can you imagine the X Factor judges rounding up the contestants and asking for sexual favours after the show? I don't think so," she added."
But then, in what seems a breathtaking bit of arrogance, the BBC says it promises a "comprehensive examination" of allegations the late Sir Jimmy Savile sexually abused girls while working for the corporation.
Director General George Entwistle said all "outstanding questions" would be addressed - but only after "police had finished everything they have to do".
Sorry, but this is like the West family examining the conduct of Fred and Rose, or the Bridger family investigating their son Mark. Those guilty of sexual predation should be prosecuted as should those guilty of hiding the facts from the authorities. It amazes me that the BBC think that there are facts that it might learn from such an investigation that shouldn't be handed over to the police, and even more astounding that the BBC thinks that there might be areas that it and not the police should investigate.
Still, if the BBC didn't think it was above the law, Savile would have been arrested years ago and there wouldn't be 25,000 staff members in front of and behind the camera, treated as self employed so that the BBC could skimp on their PAYE and leave more pay for their already overpaid managers.
Time to break up the whole sorry mess.
2 comments:
"Time to break up the whole sorry mess."
I agree, the BBC is an anachronism, time to sell it off.
In my post on Sunday "The Fifty Year Itch" I suggested that had Sir Alex won well in 1964 it was on the cards that major reform of the BBC would have followed. Wow, we might even have had several channels and real choice. But Wilson won and so did the BBC.
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