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?

That's the plan.

Considering the BBC's expertise in media and the fact that they seem to pay a fortune to loads of people having "strategy" in their job titles, the BBC couldn't have launched this report with a worse media strategy.

"An incendiary report will be coming out tomorrow, what shall we do? I know, let's throw gasoline on it to smother it. Even better, let's make it blindingly obvious that that's what we're doing."

Well that has backfired hasn't it

Anyone else find it highly odd that at a PRESS conference - you know, for journalists who work for TV and press media - the last question just happened, purely by chance, to go to Esther Rantzen. Who worked for the BBC for loads of years. As did her husband. As did her father.

And who hasn't been a journalist for a current TV programme or newspaper for some time. But somehow she's in a press conference and just somehow gets the last question.

And who has said for years she'd heard all these rumours about Savile while she worked at the BBC. Of which she was quite high profile. As was her husband.

But said nothing to anyone at the BBC about all these rumours she heard.

Can't think of the other muscian that went out with a 14 year old but didn't sleep with her until she was 16

Well Elvis springs to mind - although there were plenty of others too who didn't wait until the girl was 16 allegedly - David Bowie, Jimmy Page, Bill Wyman, Iggy Pop...

All pretty grim but for some reason their reputations don't seem to have been affected by it.

You can see the point of those in the BBC who didn't tell. They'd look around and see that the abuses were common knowledge. They'd see that everyone was willing to do nothing. They'd assume that "making a fuss" would have lost them their job at the very least. Cowardly, but understandable.

It sounds like a thoroughly rotten organisation. I'm not convinced it will be properly run now.

Yes DrSeth I did find that particularly odd.

I don't have an opinion on TB.
It is entirely possible he acted wrongly in 1971.
It is entirely possible the BBC is retrospectively arse-covering.
Perhaps both?

I found Dame Janet Smith's statement today very very upsetting.
The utter contempt she showed when she spoke of the victims / survivors and of their current support needs was awful.

Some of the survivors of Savile have said:

'if I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have spoken out'.

That is a real indictment of how CSA is treated in the UK, especially by those in power.

Wheel I thought at times Smith and Hall came over as quite tetchy and patronising. Lawyer for many of the victims has actually come out and said it's a whitewash, so don't think it's going away any time soon.

News of the World was closed down for far less than what has taken place at the BBC which we fund.

I think the BBC have just pushed the self-destruct button. Can't be around for much longer in its current guise. The backlash is huge and their actions are making a mockery of those genuine cases (Jimmy S).

I have been watching all the old TOTPs since they started re-running them. Up to 1981 now. Sigh...

Anyway, watching the older ones, you can see young girls hanging off the DJs and looking adoringly at them. Point one - the DJs were a lot younger then. It's no good looking at some of them now and thinking "old lech" when this was 40+ years ago when they were the equivalent of One Direction in terms of desirability. Furthermore, TOTP if I remember rightly was recorded on a Wednesday afternoon (transmitted Thursday eves) so these girls would have had to have skipped school. Why did the BBC not carry out checks on "under age" girls? And, as someone else has pointed out, a 15-year-old could have left school and been in work back then.

We might as well be ripping down portraits of most of our early monarchs. Edward III married a 15-year-old. (And marriage obviously consummated because she gave birth shortly thereafter.)

DrSeth
I thought Smith sounded very tetchy, esp when the journo's were asking inconvenient questions.

Rhoda
This isn't a question of 'different times / different mores'.
It was only 40 years ago, not 400
(although a 14 yr old pg by a King was also in an abusive situation, imo).

The point is it is still happening today (perhaps not actually today in the BBC) but in our society people in positions of power are abusing children and young people knowing they will get away with it.

The Survivors 'wish they hadn't spoken out'.
Some Survivors claim they are still being threatened to keep quiet.

Other survivors will have sat head in hands today, sobbing whilst they listened to Smith / the BBC and how society behaves around CSA.

Those enduring it will listen to the news today and know they are not valued by those in power in society.

Leave Esther alone it's not like she is a champion of protecting children from abuse, she didn't start a phone line or anything.......

Oh

By her own admission Esther Rantzen had heard the rumours about Savile.

This is such a mess it's best not to say "oh, not lovely Mr/Mrs So-and-so".

In about 1979, Blackburn was dating a sixth former at my school. She might have been 16 or she mugshot have been 18, I can't remember. He would have been 37 though. That's quite sleazy in my book.

"In the mid-1970s Ian Hampton, bass player with the pop group Sparks, also tried to raise the alarm. He had heard rumours that Savile had sex with under-age girls and spotted him leaving the Top Of The Pops studio with a young girl.
"The guitarist alerted a BBC presenter, but was simply told not to be silly, while on another occasion he spoke to producer Robin Nash, but was told not to be ridiculous."

(From the Mirror)

If that was how BBC officials were reacting in the mid-70s, how likely is it that they would have bothered to hold proper enquiries in 1971?

This is very interesting - \link{http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/9623109/Jimmy-Savile-Secret-of-BBCs-first-sex-scandal.html\a Telegraph report from 2012} about Savile

There was a police inquiry in 1971 relating to the diary:

'Top of the Pops... was the subject of a separate but related police inquiry in 1971, led by the same detectives, into claims that a 15-year-old dancer on the programme had been “used” by disc jockeys and other celebrities.
The girl, Clair McAlpine, subsequently committed suicide. She had named Savile in her diary as one of those abusers, according to her family'

Then there was a separate payola inquiry, which was the Brian Neill QC one:

"The payola scandal was just what Savile would not have needed. The BBC inquiry was led by Brian Neill, a brilliant young QC, with interviews conducted by James Crocker an outside solicitor.
The Neill report has never been made public, and it is not known whether Savile was named in its final written version, but a source said: “Savile was one of a number of DJs asked about the payola scandal. Savile came before Crocker but just made fun of him."

My italics.

So where does Brian Neill supposedly interviewing TB about Clair McAlpine fit into that? (Assuming the DT has reported it accurately. Although it does say the same team of police were involved in both the sex & payola inquiries so maybe Brian Neill led both.)

Have the BBC still got the Neill report? Does it mention TB?

he point is it is still happening today (perhaps not actually today in the BBC) but in our society people in positions of power are abusing children and young people knowing they will get away with it.

Just put 'footballers' in the place of 'celebrities'.

Not just footballers Nanny, this goes right through our society, and a lot higher.

Well I think Prince Andrew moves in pretty dodgy circles for a start.

From the limited bits I've read about this, TB is saying that he was interviewed about the payola only, and the BBC are saying it was (also?) about the girl's accusations. So he could have forgotten what went on or the BBC didn't investigate the girl's accusations. I know which scenario I think is more likely!

I read a book years ago about the payola stuff, can't remember the name of it now but it was interesting.

Be very interesting to see how an employment tribunal is going to handle this one. You disagreed with me, so we're sacking you?

He's self employed, isn't he? So there would be no employment tribunal involvement.

I think it's pretty ridiculous to say that the present-day BBC should be abolished because of something that happened 40 years ago. At least it has had the balls to make sure it was independently investigated, which is more than you can say for all the other organisations that were involved with Savile and his like.

There was the scandal about interference into the Newsnight investigation into Savile a couple of years ago. That was a murky business that was never properly explained.

It was only months ago that a very senior BBC executive (Yentob) used his position to interfere in an investigation (the Today programme and Newsnight) into a personal interest of his. The BBC Trust decided not to investigate this behaviour.

There's something wrong with the way power is used in the BBC. It's not just a historical problem.

Be very interesting to see how an employment tribunal is going to handle this one. You disagreed with me, so we're sacking you?

They went into this in some detail on PM this evening. There are several options depending on the basis for his employment (I wasn't paying 100% attention so I haven't got the details in my head)

I think the BBC are pitching it with a 'not co-operating fully with the enquiry' slant but there must be more to it than we know or have heard, because he (TB) didn't come out of the 'enquiry' badly so what reason would he have to say he wasn't questioned?