|
As the saga unfolds - let us examine. I can see Tony Halls point; Blackburn was fired for lying to Dame Janets panel. But lets be honest; he might have forgotten both meetings (doubtful) or may have been terrified of the consequences of speaking out; after all he believed he had been exonerated of the false allegations. Stupid of Tony to say there were no meetings instead of that he could not remember them.
I think the BBC were wrong to fire him, knowing the consequences that would inevitably result. However they were understandably nervous about seeming to support a proven liar. Dame Janet may well have been right in that the allegations were not sufficiently dealt with at the time - judging by todays moral climate. However in the moral climate of then (the 70s?), such false claims were frequently made against celebrities. Usually it was by pregnant girls whose boyfriends had screwed them but they wanted wealthier and more famous fathers and DNA had not then been invented. So there was a plague of similar false allegations which were normally easily proven false and usually ignored (oh it's another groupie claiming John Lennon is her brats dad).
Did Dame Janet take that into account? I doubt it or people like myself would have been asked to give evidence about the social climate of the time. I think it was wrong of her to carry those rumours (disguised as - did the BBC behave correctly at the time, if morality and attitudes had then been as they are now?).
I wonder whether all the rock and pop stars on the show who had allegations made against them were asked to give evidence?
Or were those employees of the BBC regarded as too wealthy? Or did they never misbehave? Were there no groupies? Dame Janet obviously never read my books. Or examined the hundreds of BBC memos about such stars as the mighty David Bowie - a terrific talent who I knew well, who had sex with many more young people than Blackburn, Savile and the rest of the BBC DJs added together.
Or did she decide it might be wiser not to mention such stars (even as B7 or C7)? Or that their employment contracts made them arms length from the BBC?
The time has come (long ago) when society needs to deal with this problem of historical allegations inspired by changing morality. Have there been no allegations against huge rock stars? Will there now be no allegations against big media figures (like Tony Hall, wealthy Director General of the BBC and worth a few quid to ex girlfriends from the 1970s)?
|
