...this is starting to resemble the McCarthy witchhunt of the '50s or the Salem witch trials? Not sure why BBC have to apologise to Lord McAlpine as they never named him. Surely that is down to the accuser and the people who put his name on the internet. Thinking how Hunt was biased against the Beeb in favour of Sky it strikes me that politicians with an axe to grind against the BBC are using this whole thing as a weapon. Good distraction to deflect from the current economic issues as well I suspect.
So thats 2 presenters of TOTP from around that time implicated in the abuse. I wonder if any more are going to be unearthed.
John Peel also has a "dubious" background - including marrying an underage girl in America in the 1960s (although legal in that state at the time).
'Thinking how Hunt was biased against the Beeb in favour of Sky it strikes me that politicians with an axe to grind against the BBC are using this whole thing as a weapon. Good distraction to deflect from the current economic issues as well I suspect.' Utter rubbish, although more than likely a view shared by all who are pathologically prejudiced against the 'Tories', whatever that actually means. This issue is entirely of the BBC's own making, and a result of both their own political culture and woeful journalistic standards. It was obvious how keenly the Beeb wanted to help twist the knife that was quite rightly stuck into all the various newspapers and their dismal practices at the height of the Leveson enquiry, and their general schadenfreude at the time, and the boot is now firmly on the other foot and they are understandably bricking it. I've absolutely no doubt the poisonous nest of Guardian-worshipping lefties that populates the BBC news editorial teams (yet thankfully represent the political views of only a small proportion of the population) started slavering the minute they thought they might have an opportunity to both bring down a senior Tory from the eighties, and indeed by repeated association link Thatcher to peadophilia. Indeed so distracted were they by this unbelieveable opportunity that they forgot to check they had their facts right, which in the circumstances is unforgiveable, and should hopefully lead to a significant cull of such nitwits. Witness the shameful way that every time it reported on the matter the BBC made a point of saying a Tory 'from the Thatcher era', just to ram home the smear. Shameful behaviour from an organisation that is supposed to be impartial and represent everyone, and is increasingly looking unfit for purpose.
Yes. Let's sell the ****er off to Rupert. This wil be the same BBC that lied about Orgreave during their coverage of it. The BBC that is inhabited by all the Guardian reading lefties? The same BBC that has held little scrutiny of the Governments NHS plans just to keep out of the firing line? That BBC? The same BBC that is inhabited by all the Guardian reading lefties that has Chris Patten as chair of the BBC Trust?
Dear Noel Get the banker to send me a cheque for £250000 or I'll claim you fingered my bum after Swap Shop. Deal or no deal?
No need to sell it to anyone, least of all a crook like Rupert, it just needs a clear out from top to bottom, and a commitment that any future appointments (including the new DG) are transparently apolitical. Plus I'm quite obviously not talking about the BBC news output and attitudes in the mid-eighties, I'm talking about them now. They've already devoted a huge amount of airtime to the various voices in and around the NHS opposing the Government's plans for reform and lining up to berate the minister in question, as they have with everything this Government has tried to do. If that has gone quiet (for now) it might be due to the fact that endless negotiation and constant amendment on the minutiae of a major policy (as I understand has happened with the NHS bill) is deeply uninteresting. That said I'm not sure why this would automatically be the business of the BBC anyway, given that it is an issue for resolution between the Government and those in the NHS who will be affected by the changes, and if the Beeb weren't so keen to create the battlelines all the time they'd not be half as involved. Perhaps they are devoting so much time and energy into their endless search for bad news stories linked to 'the cuts' or the economy/inflation etc they haven't got the time for the NHS.