Jimmy Savile, Newsnight and the child abuse scandal

[x_butterfly19_x]

BBC investigation: Smearing an innocent man’s name is the real tragedy here

The BBC should prove that 'Newsnight’ was not acting with malice towards Lord McAlpine, argues Boris Johnson.

You know, I am afraid that they still don’t get it. The people at the BBC show no real sign of understanding what they have done wrong, let alone making amends. We

Comments

[the_gabih]

Okay, I really do not like Article A. Yeah, the journalism was shitty, and smearing someone who's innocent is not okay, but the whole 'THE REAL TRAGEDY IS THE WHITE NON-SURVIVOR DUDE' thing? Not cool, and I don't know what the fuck he was trying to say with his 'everyone feels superior to paedophiles' bit, but it came across as shitty.

The second one was pretty decent though.

[alicephilippa]

The first one is really an 'Oh woe is me, one of our Tory brethren has been slandered' type of article. The journalism was shitty and some of that shit has stuck where it shouldn't have. What about the real victims? The abused. They seem to be far less important than the reputation of a Tory Peer.

[x_butterfly19_x]

The best thing about the first article is that it's by Boris Johnson.
By 'best' I mean worst. :/

[the_gabih]

Oh Christ. Why. Why is that man in charge of my home city.

[mephisto5]

Dislike first article: false allegations or no, McAlpine is NOT the main victim here. Mr Messham should not have made an apology- it's clear that if anyone screwed up there it was the police who told him his abuser was McAlpine.

The BBC were irresponsible to name McAlpine, and they should certainly have shown Messham at least a picture to confirm McAlpine's identity before running the story. That said, the tabloids and other media are taking the opportunity to declare open season on the BBC in a manner that stinks of hypocrisy given their own history of false allegations.

I've also got a whole other rant about people who conflate paedophiles (those with a psichiatric diagnosis of paedophilia) with child abusers, but now's not really the time.

[shishmish]

You would never see the likes of James Murdoch et all stepping down for the shit they've been getting up to for so fucking long at The Sun and News of the World. I can't bear to watch ITV and Sky News go on about this, I can't watch it without thinking it is total bias bullshit they're promoting. The Murdoch family (who hate the BBC with a passion) must be dancing like loons over this.

[jslayeruk]

But I thought the BBC didn't name McAlpine - Twitter did.

[the_physicist]

On the BBC’s Daily Politics show yesterday, ex-Tory MP David Mellor smeared him as a “weirdo”. A survivor of abuse who bravely spoke out now faces a smear campaign against him.

This upsets me so much.