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Predators on Pedestals
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: October 23rd, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/keller-predators-o...
[Jimmy] Saviles case is worth mulling, if only because the institution in which his serial child abuse took place is one of the most respected media organizations in the world: the BBC. Gossip about Saviles fondling of young teenagers was rife, but never rose to a level deemed newsworthy during his life. To appreciate Jimmy Saviles place in English culture, imagine a combination of Dick Clark of American Bandstand and Jerry Lewis, maestro of the muscular dystrophy telethon. Savile was the longest-serving host of the immensely popular BBC music show Top of the Pops, and the star of another long-running show called Jimll Fix It, in which he pulled strings to grant the wishes of supplicants, mostly children. He buffed his reputation by throwing himself into charity work. He seems to have used his philanthropy both to identify vulnerable children for his personal sport and to inoculate himself against suspicion. The good deeds helped earn Savile two knighthoods, one bestowed by the queen, the other by the pope. He was Sir Jimmy, confidant or at least photo-op accessory of royals, prime ministers, even Beatles. He cultivated an aura of flamboyant eccentricity. Being the man-child Pied Piper of the pubescent was his shtick, his job, and cover for a brutal cunning. London police now say they are pursuing more than 300 leads, and that they believe Savile abused girls as young as 13 over the course of four decades in his BBC dressing room, in hospitals where he was a benefactor, in the back of his white Rolls-Royce.
Note: For deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources on sexual abuse, click here.
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