Dame Janet’s highly critical report on the BBC’s handling of Jimmy Savile leaked to me pinpoints very serious issues at the Corporation which are still not resolved.
The official response from Tony Hall, the director general of the BBC, that this was a dark day for the BBC and it is all in the past does not wash.
Nor frankly does Dame Janet Smith’s plea to ignore this “early” draft. All the evidence from people was taken before it was compiled and she has said she has not changed her conclusions. So will she rewrite it now?
Her draft report is not a whitewash. It is a closely argued analysis revealing a culture that allowed considerable sex abuse to flourish at ground floor level without a mechanism to report this to the top. This does not seem to have changed and has conveniently let all the BBC’s top executives off the hook.
It reveals a crass deferential attitude to celebrities – who could do anything they liked because they were ” untouchable” and people looked the other way. This is no different today – given the present cult of celebrity. (more...)
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