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How Jimmy Savile Survivedthe Tabloids for Thirty YearsLast year saw many dark days indeed down in the UKs gutter. Levesonspolitical fog had descended

over investigative journalism. And, like the London smog used to, it seemed to be set to stick.

And yettwo months after the balding bespectacled lord of the rings for journalists to jump

through had fiddled so discordantly with the furtiveness of investigative journalism I saw the Tabloid

Terror back there shifting listlessly under a murky street lamp outside the last pub in the ghost town

that was once Fleet Street. Amazingly he wasnt even tending a bloody nose.

The Pack was gathering again and thoughts were once more fixed on what The Pack does best -

shining a light in the beds of the lords of the unzipped flies and the ladies who do lunchboxes. The

politicians and the business gods. In fact, anyone who wants to sweep scandal under the carpet in the

hallowed halls of infamy and celebrity.

And none of them realised that it was the spectre of a cigar-smoking dark knight of the realm

which was pulling the Tabloid Terror up by his belt and braces. His catch-phrase from the BBCsJimll

Fix It was echoing around the UK again: Now then, now then, now then

Yes, it was that old pervert,Sir Jimmy Savile, who had really fixed it for the tabloids to survive

the scrutiny of the very ones its slathering pack were put on this earth to hunt.

Now then, now then, now then Yes! It was the clarion cry of Savile, that friend to royalty,

politicians, NHS bosses and charity chiefs, the pied-piper of pops shame, that despicable child

molesting purveyor of mediocrity on the airwaves.

And for 40 years his star shone so bright that the bosses at the BBC had to avert their sanitary

eyes.

Called Off the Story

Way back in 1989, I was commissioned byThe Sun Britains toughest newspaper to expose Savile.

The background was simple enough, a tip-off that the DJ was renting a council flat in a Manchester

back-street tower block well, we all knew that Jim could fix things but how did a multi-millionaire

who swanned around in a Rolls Royce Corniche manage to fix himself up with a bit of tacky social

housing on a litter-strewn council estate?

Savile, of course, was well-known on the rainy citys night club scene and had homes dotted

across town. His his council tenancy just didnt add up.

Then I started picking up tangible rumours of young girls traipsing through sodden nights to hisdoor. It was yet more confirmation of everything journalists across the UK were hearing about him.

Out of the blue, my story was quashed. The diminutive Ken Tucker, Northern news editor at The

Sun, offered no explanation and I was dispatched to track down a well-known comedian rumoured to be

having an affair with a barmaid while his wife lay dying of cancer.

That story disappeared off the radar, too, as did the revelation that the 30-stone Liberal MP

Cyril Smith was a dab-hand at spanking young boys.

A decade later, though, Savile, who raised 40 million for charity, wassecretly banned from

taking any part in the BBCs flagship charity fund-raiser Children in Need by its chairman Sir Roger

Jones.

But nobody told the rest of the world.

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/19/jimmy-savile-crisis-bbc-timelinehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/19/jimmy-savile-crisis-bbc-timelinehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/titles/jimllfixit.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/titles/jimllfixit.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19984684http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19984684http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19984684http://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/uk/the-sun/newspaper.cfmhttp://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/uk/the-sun/newspaper.cfmhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9675861/Sir-Cyril-Smith-sexually-abused-boys-MP-tells-Commons.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9675861/Sir-Cyril-Smith-sexually-abused-boys-MP-tells-Commons.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-bbc-governor-sir-roger-jones-shock-confession-we-wouldnt-let-jimmy-savile-near-children-in-need-8231198.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-bbc-governor-sir-roger-jones-shock-confession-we-wouldnt-let-jimmy-savile-near-children-in-need-8231198.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-bbc-governor-sir-roger-jones-shock-confession-we-wouldnt-let-jimmy-savile-near-children-in-need-8231198.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-bbc-governor-sir-roger-jones-shock-confession-we-wouldnt-let-jimmy-savile-near-children-in-need-8231198.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/19/jimmy-savile-crisis-bbc-timelinehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/19/jimmy-savile-crisis-bbc-timelinehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/titles/jimllfixit.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/titles/jimllfixit.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19984684http://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/uk/the-sun/newspaper.cfmhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9675861/Sir-Cyril-Smith-sexually-abused-boys-MP-tells-Commons.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-bbc-governor-sir-roger-jones-shock-confession-we-wouldnt-let-jimmy-savile-near-children-in-need-8231198.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/former-bbc-governor-sir-roger-jones-shock-confession-we-wouldnt-let-jimmy-savile-near-children-in-need-8231198.htmlhttp://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/

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Enter Lord Leveson

Even last year Saviles antics were known about, but the BBC covertly decided that its own

Newsnight investigation into him would devastate its Christmas schedule. It included a fun eulogy to

Jimmy.

It finally became public in an ITV Exposure documentary on October 3, 2012. Now Scotland Yardis following literally hundreds of lines of inquiry, hundreds of potential victims have come forward.

And yes its us, the good old tabloids, the red-top press, still running with the story despite

facing being officially gagged by the very people its our job to investigate.

Those very people didnt exactly put the top dog on getting its teeth into the tabloids though.

No, the British government allowed Lord Leveson, a 62-year-old bespectacled lawyer whose greatest

claim to fame was his failed prosecution of an elderly British comedy for tax evasion in 1989, to trample

across the Fourth Estate.

Leveson scratched at and whimpered over the practices and ethics of the press. The News

International phone hacking debacle had quite rightly scandalised society.

Society loved Savile. Look what it did for him: it gave him an OBE in 1971, a knighthood in

1988, a Papal knighthood in 1990, the keys to Broadmoor high security hospital, a flat at Stoke

Mandeville hospital, a job as an auxiliary at Leeds hospital, the chieftainship of the famous Scottish

Lochaber Games and the friendship of Prince Charles who had lunch at his Highlands home in Glencoe.

And when he died on November 9, 2011, it was the Royal Marines who carried his coffin into Leeds

Cathedral.

Swashbuckling, Warty Public Defenders

The simple question every Tabloid Terror is asking, but nobody is answering is this: why didntall these people in authority, including the honours scrutiny committee, the Papal intelligence service,

Prince Charles security chiefs and the bosses at the BBC ask now then, now then, now then - is this

man really a child molester?

And that, very simply, is why the Tabloid Terror - with its 30 million UK readers a day - is back

and mutating, ready to be the swashbuckling warty and immoral defender of the public and its right to

speak out and fight back.

Long let the world see red (tops) when those who claim to serve - but really rule from behind a

veil of secrets and lies - accidentally step into the arena of the daily news schedules.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059396/Jimmy-Savile-funeral-Golden-Coffin-taken-farewell-tour-Leeds.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059396/Jimmy-Savile-funeral-Golden-Coffin-taken-farewell-tour-Leeds.html