BBC emails spark civil war over Jimmy Savile

[alp227]

Newsnight journalists were worried the programme's editor, Peter Rippon, was feeling under pressure from his bosses to axe an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by the one-time BBC star Jimmy Savile.

As barely hidden internal tensions at the BBC burst into the open, a Newsnight reporter, Liz MacKean, told a BBC Panorama programme due to be broadcast on Monday that she believed Rippon would not support the nearly prepared film. Writing in an email to a friend at the time, on 30 November of last year, MacKean said what she thought was really going on: "PR (Peter Rippon) says if the bosses aren't happy … [he] can't go to the wall on this one."

The programme, which will air at 10.35pm, details how much information the Newsnight team had on Savile – in which one woman, Karin Ward, had been filmed saying she had been abused by the Jim'll Fix It presenter in the 1970s.

A script had been prepared by Newsnight last November, in which three unnamed former pupils at Duncroft Approved School in Staines said they also had been abused by Savile. There was also a report of sexual abuse of a teenager at Stoke Mandeville hospital.

(...)

Had the Newsnight film run, the BBC2 programme would have been the first to reveal that Savile was linked to sexual abuse. Instead, earlier this month, an ITV documentary was first to expose Savile – whose teenage victims, the Met police said earlier this week, may number in excess of 200.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/21/bbc-emails-jimmy-savile

Wow, Britain now has its own Jerry Sandusky, an American sports legend tarnished by late revelations of child abuse. Thanks to these posthumous revelations, people will never remember Top of the Pops or Jim'll Fix It the same ever again.

[Freddie]

1. I've heard him called the "British Dick Clark"

Seen him in old clips of "Top of the Pops". Wow, so sad.

[T_i_B]

2. The editor of Newsnight has now resigned

However, I don't think it will do very much to stop the BBC-bashers going after them over Jimmy Savile. It's a full scale witch hunt, the only problem being that the witch in question died a year ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20024904

[oldironside]

3. Yes, and I find it impossible to believe...

... that this is a big shock to all and sundry at the Beeb. A significant number of people must have known about this when he was still around and decided to keep quiet about it. It's a shame they can't be prosecuted as accessories.

[T_i_B]

4. Equally.....

...I find it difficult to belive that the same tabloids going after the BBC now weren't aware at the time.

Why weren't they exposing him while he was alive and some actual justice could be done? Nothing like blatant hypocrisy from some parts of the British media looking to cash in on this whole car crash.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. They are saying "stepping aside", not "resigned"

which implies, to me, that he (and, presumably the BBC), regard it as a temporary measure while the investigation into Newsnight takes place, and he might return if the investigation says he didn't do too much wrong.