Incredibly upsetting piece about the BBC and Savile

[SomepeopleareTERFSgetoverit]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/02/jimmy-savile-bbc-journalists-risked-jobs-reveal-truth

As we know, the testimony of the victims was dismissed because they had troubled backgrounds but I had not appreciated how hard Liz MacKean fought for the story and what it cost her as the BBC closed ranks in her face.

(Sorry, this may be in the wrong place but it reminded me of the current cotton ceiling story, the BBC seems to have made better decisions on that one)

Hmm. They have finally woken up to the Cotton Ceiling and as Glinner says , it's only taken them five years. Perhaps they know something we don't? Tony Blackburn was present when Simon Dee told a BBC manager ' Something has to be done about Jimmy - he's too fond of the kids.' We can only hope this stuff is now in their corporate memory at last.

Yes I read that this morning too. They handled it lightly in the article, but it sounds as if Liz MacKean was driven to the edge of a breakdown. Hadn't realised she'd died so young of a stroke, and with all her siblings and her parents outliving her - clicked through to the obituary. BBC certainly didn't redeem itself for the Savile days by the way it treated her - human costs don't seem to register. She was a heroine.

“She’d always struck me as a very ordinary journalist,” a former senior news executive told me. “She wasn’t ambitious or sharp-elbowed. She didn’t fill the screen.” I put it to him that MacKean’s talents for listening to sources were one of the qualities that made her extraordinary. He considered this for a moment and said: “Listening wasn’t a quality we gave much credit to back then.”

What a shero Liz MacKean was. And the dismissiveness in that quote! Journalists should let the stories "fill the screen", not fill it themselves. It reeks of misogyny and lesbophobia.

Yes I noticed that comment about ' filling the screen ' too. Makes you think....how shallow TV journalism is compared to radio.

I was just reading that. Those poor women and the cowards at the bbc. Good on McKean for fighting this amazing story through.
I am livid that the story was not run because of how it looked. I'm sure I'm not the only person interested in perhaps imperfect "stories" with a non-conventional arc, heroes etc - I think the success of so many podcasts suggests there is an audience for complex stories (not that I think this turned out to be especially complex - usual story of women getting horrifically screwed over by everyone who should know better).

Liz Mackean- a definite shero, @drhf.
I didn't know about this, thanks for posting OP
(RIP Liz)
JS protected even after death

Wow, that was a compelling read. A real page turner.

It would appear that Liz MacKean is the woman responsible for exposing Jimmy Savile. And I've never even heard of her.

The BBC are now making a programme about Savile. I shall be interested to see exactly how prominent she is in that programme. Or will they sideline her and fail to report accurately, all over again.

It's called 'The Reckoning.'

Reckoning

1. The action or process of calculating or estimating something.

2. the avenging or punishing of past mistakes or misdeeds.

"the fear of being brought to reckoning"

I didn't know about Liz MacKean either and my brain like all of yours went straight to today's situation. 'Reckoning' - what an apt name. It won't be just us drawing parallels when it airs.

Am I the only one who wishes they’d stop using photos of Saville? I’ve just clicked that link and the picture makes me feel sick.

I’ll go and read the article now.

The BBC, as an institution, disgusts me to the core these days. Somewhat ironic that this article appears in the Guardian; whose cognitive dissonance - running an article about a rival news organisation ignoring/minimising/dismissing news items because the identities of the perpetrator and victim aren't convenient for the agenda of said news organisation - is, as ever, breathtaking. A plague on both their houses.

You would think this and the recent Nolan report would make the guardian put two and two together?

Am I the only one who wishes they’d stop using photos of Saville?

No, it makes me sick too.

for this a photo of the hero Liz MacKean and the other journalist would be more fitting

Should Definitely have photos of Liz and Meirion, not that disgusting creature.

Excellent article though eminently depressing. I was so sad to read Liz died so young - a tragedy.

That is a stunning piece. Well done to the journalist who wrote it abs RIP Liz MacKean.

The BBC should read it and weep with shame.

Liz MacKean deserves a blue plaque

It is a very good depiction of how media works with egos jostling to get their work to the front and lots of calculation to work out whose coat-tails to ride on to get to the top. Plus the blinkered views of bosses and snap decisions that mean good ideas, and important stories are binned

I never knew before that Saville’s victims were all girls - I’ve always read it reported as ‘children’ or ‘kids’.

Hilarias - some of his victims were boys. Not many, but some.

The resonance for me was about how women are disbelieved, sidelined and not considered important. RIP Liz.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

The resonance for me was about how women are disbelieved, sidelined and not considered important. RIP Liz.

Absolutely. And still are.

And has the Guardian published anything at all about the cotton ceiling story? Are they just going to pretend it didn't happen and hope it goes away?

@FindTheTruth

Am I the only one who wishes they’d stop using photos of Saville?

No, it makes me sick too.

for this a photo of the hero Liz MacKean and the other journalist would be more fitting

I wish someone would photoshop a picture of Saville wearing a T-shirt with the Amnesty International slogan “I am who I say I am”, to highlight how sinister it is.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

The resonance for me was about how women are disbelieved, sidelined and not considered important. RIP Liz.

Absolutely. The rather wonderful John McManus has made the same point on Twitter and is getting slaughtered for it. Nothing changes.

Regarding child abuse as a ‘celebrity sex expose’. I just can’t express how furious that makes me.

Nice that Peter Rippon got a cushy BBC job after his handling of this. I’d imagine that’s for keeping his mouth shut about exactly who told him to kill the story and who was putting pressure on them.

Liz Maclean and Meirion Jones did good work and acted with integrity.

It's very upsetting. I did wonder if the Guardian was one of the news outlets that declined the story.