Tony Blackburn to sue BBC

[ItalianTuneUp]

Tony Blackburn: I've been 'hung out to dry' by BBC

Tony Blackburn has said the BBC "hung me out to dry" over the Jimmy Savile inquiry and he will sue the corporation where he worked for nearly 50 years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35662448

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Fellow TV and radio broadcasters, including Piers Morgan and Eamonn Holmes, have been sending supportive tweets to the DJ throughout the day.

Broadcaster Nina Myskow told Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2: "It should be a black day for the BBC because of the revelations about the whole Savile episode, but in fact that's been buried very cleverly by the BBC as usual by sacking Tony Blackburn."

 

[scumbag]

Do you think he might get Jeremy Clarkson in to do his fighting? (trying to give it a motoring theme)

If he is innocent, he should get out of the press and get on with it. Just like Dave Lee Tra.....ohf wait...that didn't work did it.

And Max, Rolf, Stuart Hall......in fact that all said they were going to fight it.....

Get your named cleared, then tell everyone.....don't threaten.

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

I wonder if whitewashes really exist? Hmmm...

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Anyway, get the popcorn and let's watch it all unfold. If he's innocent then he deserves to come out fighting.

The BBC are certainly not innocent in all of this.

 

[automaniaman]

I wonder if whitewashes really exist? Hmmm...

Yes at the Whitehouse...

 

[paneraiseeker]

The BBC are certainly not innocent in all of this.

You don't say....Have a lot too answer for...

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Exactly!

 

[BIRMA]

I understand his replies to the judge holding the enquiry were not satisfactory.
Makes you wonder why it was rejected.

 

[grober]

Why has Tony Blackburn been sacked by the BBC? Director general Tony Hall says his evidence to Dame Janet Smith inquiry "fell short" of required standards

In the report, Dame Janet Smith cites testimony that Blackburn was interviewed twice by senior BBC manager Bill Cotton and Sir Brian Neill QC – who presided over a 1972 inquiry into Top of the Pops. This concerned complaints from the mother of Claire McAlpine who committed suicide after claiming she was seduced by Blackburn when she was 15 in 1971.

Mrs McAlpine found the claims about Blackburn in a diary which her daughter kept and alleged that a sexual encounter occurred a few weeks before her death.

But when interviewed by Dame Janet for the inquiry, Blackburn denied that these interviews with Cotton and Neill had taken place, prompting the High Court judge to dismiss his evidence.

Hall said. “My view is that given the importance of this investigation and the weight of responsibility of everyone to work fully and frankly with Dame Janet’s review, I felt it was untenable for the BBC to continue its relationship [with Blackburn] because of that.”

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Where there is a discrepancy in statements, isn't it the job of the inquiry to clarify?

 

[StuartK]

I can see the Bbc folding before long

 

[grober]

Where there is a discrepancy in statements, isn't it the job of the inquiry to clarify?

Somewhat ironic that A7 [ unamed in the report] "clarified " his identity by going public.

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Somewhat ironic that A7 [ unamed in the report] "clarified " his identity by going public.

Oh? Care to elaborate?

 

[grober]

As I understand it Tony Blackburn was not named in the enquiry report but was merely referred to as A7

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/25/bbc-tony-blackburn-savile-inquiry-evidence-janet-smith

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

So what do you reckon? Guilty, but went public when he got fired by BBC?

 

[grober]

Not in a position to say. Perhaps his subsequent actions might judged in the light of the nature of his dismisal. If he was given the option of "going quietly" under the radar then going public may not have been the best of choices.

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Dame: establishment figure
BBC: establishment mouthpiece

Establishment cover-up to protect BBC's...cough...good name?

Let's assume that he's innocent, but the BBC see him as a loose cannon...maybe his previous discussions 45 years ago with the BBC managers could be used as evidence that BBC management knew of the sexual assaults etc by Savile?

So...perhaps it was easier to destroy Blackburn and attempt to protect themselves by deflecting attention away from themselves?

By sacking Blackburn, the BBC must have known that this would provoke him to reveal his identity because there would have been questions asked.

Of course, I'm just speculating.

Maybe we'll find out what happened in due course?

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

Not in a position to say. Perhaps his subsequent actions might judged in the light of the nature of his dismisal. If he was given the option of "going quietly" under the radar then going public may not have been the best of choices.

If he was guilty then going quietly would have seemed an attractive option, begging the question of why go public if guilty?

 

[grober]

Simply saying that sometimes if you are in a hole [ possibly a hole not even of your own making] sometimes your best option is to stop digging?