Sign up to the Dispatch Box, the new weekly political e-magzine from digitalpolitico.net
I don’t really want to discuss too deeply the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile. Suffice to say that I consider them shocking and disgusting, and the potential victims worthy of respect and a proper hearing after all this time. The reaction from various parts of the media is interesting though.
Tabloid hacks, bruised and battered by Leveson, smell blood from the BBC, and are circling.
Maguire (Mirror), Wooding (Sun on Sunday, ex NOTW) and Pierece (Daily MAil) have all piled in:
@kevin_maguire says: “Can you imagine if this was a newspaper? If it was to hire a senior columnist who was raping kids on the premises…”
— David Wooding (@DavidWooding) October 15, 2012
Andrew Pierce says he asked “sanctimonious” tabloid critic Hugh Grant if there should be BBC probe. “Not heard a word from people like that”
— David Wooding (@DavidWooding) October 15, 2012
Fleet Street Fox has dug her claws in too:
Tabloids were the first to report the BBC has dropped it, too – back in January. The BBC has had 10 months to know this was coming.
— fleetstreetfox (@fleetstreetfox) October 15, 2012
Interestingly, people are tweeting back supportive replies, recognising some of the good journalism that the tabloid press have published.
Of course every tabloid may have missed out on this particular story, as Fleet Street Fox points out it was Newsnight who had it first. However, a less chastened, and let’s be honest, nervous, British tabloid press may just have had enough to get to the bottom of this. They simply couldn’t pursue this story and take the risk of being wrong in the current climate.
It is not so much the alleged abuse, horrendous as that is, that they may have uncovered. If they were going to do that it would have happened decades ago when tabloids and Savile were in their prime. They may though have unearthed full extent of what appears to be a massive BBC cover up, as the victims felt more able to come forward after Savile’s passing.
This looks like an establishment stitch up, and whatever you think of them, tabloids expose those better than anyone.
When the truth about Jimmy Savile, what he was doing, and who knew about it finally comes to light, and it will come to light, we may all realise that we wish the News of the World was still around to investigate. There may have been some serious bad practice going on and some serious cultural shifts required, but the News of the World and other tabloids also ran some sterling investigations. This situation emphatically proves that Lord Justice Leveson must resist throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Perhaps Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan and Evan Harris want to check they are the right side.
Sign up to the Dispatch Box, the new weekly political e-magzine from digitalpolitico.net
Except there’s evidence that the papers knew what was going on and didn’t publish it because they didn’t want to take Savile on….
Come on – this was a terrible failure on the part of the tabloid press over 40 and more years, as much as a failure by the BBC.
Everybody in the media,the Press included seems to have known that Savile was very dodgy.Anyone who knew something was up is guilty of allowing it to continue. The tabloids are taking revenge on the BBC in the wake of Leveson. The BBC,in turn,could have at least got Savile off our screens and have compounded their culpability by leaving him on our TVs,shelving the brave reporting of the Newsnight investigation andf then running tributes to him. Somebody at the top of the BBC must have been aware of this juxtaposition and not spoken up. Surely this sort of high-level policy/content decision is why there are senior managers in the BBC.
Scrapping the BBC is not the solution.The solution is to eliminate the kind of culture which accepts this kind of behaviour because people are perceived as so important they’re untouchable.
Actually I think your piece illustrates what’s really wrong; the desire to brand people or organisations as either uniformly ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s as if all journalism has turned into sports punditry. BBC is winning, tabloids are losing – no wait – tabloids are winning, BBC is losing. OMG Who’s going to win??!?!!!?!!!??!?
C’mon.