Tony Blackburn OMG

[katemiddletonsothermum]

No one from my teenage radio days has been free from aspersions.

Now then, careful now. No false allegations please. But according to the Mirror, he's been axed by the BBC as he's now linked to an incident in 1971.

The Mirror's Thursday front page

AIBU to think WTF?

a factory in Yorkshire and she says the cat calls and comments and even the grabs should she have gone out on the shop floor were horrendous. The Sexual Discrimination Act was only put through in 1975 so often they were acting completely in line with the law too.

I'm not sure that the SDA was an instrument that outlawed previously legal sexual harrassment, was it?

Remember because I had a bit of a thing for Richard O'Sullivan

So did I

If what has been reported is true, I do feel very sorry for Tony Blackburn.

I read something after Terry Wogan died from a gossip site. Apparently the most scandalous thing they ever heard about Wogan was that local housewives didn't like the way he cut the queue at the butchers for his Christmas turkey!

Bring back Robin's Nest! And I do confess to sneakily watching Man About The House when I can

Glad it's not just me

I'm not sure that the SDA was an instrument that outlawed previously legal sexual harrassment, was it?

Sexual harassment was only coined as a term in the mid-70s. So it wasn't explicitly outlawed and I believe that the SDA was the first law to 'catch' it as it is a form of sexual discrimination. But there weren't previous laws against sexual harassment (other than actual assault or rape laws, which were weaker then) because it simply didn't exist as a concept.

Yes ISWYM.

BillSykesDog
I read something after Terry Wogan died from a gossip site. Apparently the most scandalous thing they ever heard about Wogan was that local housewives didn't like the way he cut the queue at the butchers for his Christmas turkey!

I love Terry Wogan. He was ace!

What sticks out to me is the word seduced in TBs statement. What a strange adjective given the circumstances.

Didn't Tony Blackburn make a live appeal on the Radio 1 Breakfast show for his wife to come back to him the day after she left him for Richard O'Sullivan? They'd co-starred in Robin's Nest and started an affair.

The Mirror says 'seduced' is the wording the official report used.

There is now something of a witch hunt in the media in these matters. We have in my opinion got to the point where association seems to be used as evidence in the media as guilt. The Bbc will no doubt be anxious and have a knee jerk reaction. The quote "The past is a foreign country they do things differently there" is quite apt. I think it is time we moved on and lived in the here and now.

I'm inclined to agree with Ponty and with Bill

I can imagine there are a few men, now in their 60s and 70s who were minor celebrities in that era who are now wiping their brows nervously.

I'm not precisely sure when the tide started turning and seducing young girls stopped being seen as a rite of passage almost and became taboo. 90s, 00s?

I don't know the rights and wrongs of this particular case (does anyone?) and am not going to speculate; but this particular sentence struck a chord with me:
"Mr A7 told me that the girl had come to see him on several occasions and had invented stories for the purpose of getting access to him."

I had a friend at school in the 1980s who was obsessed with Mike Read (DJ) - completely obsessed. She found out where he lived and she went there several times to try and gain access to him. She even raided his bins to see if there was anything keep-worthy in there, even if it had been an old holey sock, she would have kept it! She saw him a couple of times to speak to, but never actually got inside his house. She was also 15/16 at the time.

These days she'd have been escorted away by the police and charged for stalking, I'm sure!

Stuart Hall has said losing his status as a national treasure was very difficult and his victims are "vindictive and malicious."

Seems as well as a script for cheating husbands there is one for paedophiles as well.

There is no benefit from an interview with a convicted paedophile. I would like to know from editors why they publish them. Who is interested in reading what he has to say?

Thanks for giving me another difficult day whoever decided to publish it.

Is this a case of him getting his retaliation in first? What has TB been doing for BBC in recent years to be "sacked".

Going, he's not a convicted paedophile, he's not even been charged with anything.

Stuart Hall is a convicted paedophile.

"Can the BBC sack someone for something that happened 41yrs ago when there Is no evidence? I wonder on what grounds he has been sacked. I would have thought they were on shaky ground at best."

They certainly can. I don't know anything about the allegations but bringing the BBC into disrepute or loss of trust or confidence. (Although could be challenged.)

www.personneltoday.com/hr/legal-opinion-when-can-an-employee-be-dismissed-due-to-a-breach-of-trust-and-confidence/

If the allegation is false, why have the BBC terminated his contract without notice? It's harsh, and surely they could have gently dropped him instead of dragging his reputation through the gutter and ruining his life. IF he's guilty, fair enough but he always seemed like a decent man.

Then again, Rolf Harris cried over poorly badgers and look what that lovable grandpa figure was up to.

IME paedophiles often appear lovely, decent men.

I imagine because they don't want to be accused of 'covering up' liberated

I think the inference is that the Saville report comes out today. The likelihood is that the BBC are not going to come out of it very well. This is some sort of pre-emptive strike to deflect some attention and show they aren't covering anything up.

If Blackburn is accurate in all he says, and can prove any of it, then I think the BBC is in serious trouble.

I think Tony Blackburn may well be telling the truth here that these allegations were never properly investigated at all by the BBC and they are scapegoating him to make their processes at the time look better. This goes to the very heart of the BBC's behaviour in letting stars get away with abuse. I hope Blackburn does sue them with a view to bringing this out. Have they left him on air up to now hoping he'd agree with their version of events?

Ghoul I tend to agree with you. It is interesting that the BBC have told Blackburn he hasn't been sacked for any misconduct. So why sack him? And just before the publication of a report that is going to probably crucify the BBC? If you simply decided that Blackburn's style was old hat, or his ratings were dropping (which I gather they are not), you'd simply not renew his contract next time it comes round.

Twitter is very interesting today on this. When other allegations have surfaced, the split has usually been 50% "I don't believe this" and 50% "he's a nonce/paedo".

It's about 95% supporting Blackburn and criticising the BBC.

Either way, once the report comes out later, and if Blackburn does indeed sue the BBC, we're potentially going to be in very interesting times and it is perfectly possible that the BBC could be very seriously damaged and with charter renewal and licence fee all under scrutiny, it could see very major changes.