Take the
current hot news topic that is the Welsh care home paedophile
allegations that have followed on from the Jimmy Savile storm.
Up close
there's no real difference between the two.
Powerful
people are being accused of the most heinous and perverse behaviour,
and in general the public are quite rightly horrified.
We do
appear to be seeing two distinctly different approaches in how the
accusations are being dealt with though, and we should all be
thinking carefully about why this is.
When the
news broke about Jimmy Savile the press weren't slow in naming names
and dropping very heavy hints about those who may or may not have
been involved.
The blood
was in the water and it was feeding frenzy time on Fleet street.
Headlines
screamed at us on a daily basis about how stars of the seventies
where quaking in their platform shoes.
Now cast
your mind back a few weeks and ask yourselves if you remember any
great push to dampen down the flames, or even a whispered plea to
halt the hysteria and focus on facts.
Personally
I don't recall any such thing.
Now jump
into the present and it's a whole different story.
Philip
Schofield has been slapped down for handing over a card with some
names on it to the prime minister, even though no names were
mentioned and no one could really see them.
Newsnight
has been dragged through the dirt along with the BBC for 'not' naming
someone.
This has now led to the Director General resigning.
The
reaction from the establishment when considered in this light does
seem to lean towards suppression of information doesn't it?
A push to
move the attention away from the actual abuse claims
To me it also seems to scream that some people in society are fair game while
others are certainly not.
Now to
consider the big picture for a moment.
Who is
really overly concerned about the Schofield incident, and who really
thinks that Newsnight are guilty of more than poor judgement in
thinking that as the establishment would have treated a hint about
one of their own in the same way as they have the heavy hints in the
Savile case?
How can
any of these headline grabbers be considered more serious than the
allegations of child abuse?
Lets
consider some of the other water muddying exercises.
Who
harboured any thoughts that allegations could have turned into a gay
witch hunt?
I didn't.
I have a
clear distinction in my mind between homosexuality and paedophilia.
There's
already been a few mentions about how those investigating the
allegations need to be careful that some are not made falsely to
secure financial compensation.
Isn't
that just a pre-emptive strike in sowing some seeds of mistrust as to
what may be revealed?
It's akin
to saying 'well whether guilty or not we will never really know'.
I think
we should all be very careful to what we subscribe to and as I've
said take a bit of a step back and look at the big picture here.
My view
is that a can of worms is in the balance and those in power are doing
their level best to ensure that it doesn't hit the tipping point
because if it does then there's no way back for them.
