Sex Scandals Destroy Public Trust In Revered Institutions, Penn State and the BBC

Year ago it was revelations about the Roman Catholic Church.  Then Penn State's football program.  Now the BBC will feel the wrath of a betrayed public.  And not a week goes by that the public school system does not have some embarrassing revelation.

Of all these, perhaps the worst of a series of tragic cases is the BBC.  Certainly religious betrayal is shocking and severe. In sheer numbers of cases found in a worldwide institution, it may outstrip all the other cases combined.  As for the American public school system, the sex scandal cases have come after the public generally lost faith in its effectiveness. And the schools, for what it is worth, generally do not cover up sexual abuse, even though some systems find it nearly impossible to get unions top allow the firing of molesters. Penn State, despite what its devotees may think, is influential only regionally.

The British Broadcasting Company is the worst case scenario, but could lead to a broader and more sensible understanding of government, media, and economic influence.

In the past month Jimmy Saville, a recently deceased fixture on a long running children's show, has been revealed to have committed possibly dozens of acts of sexual assault, child molestation, and rape.  Horribly, his show was called "Jim'll Fix It."  Its premise was that Saville would grant wishes to unfortunate children.  Now, many alleged that he molested them as well.  A week ago, Scotland Yard estimated that he may have victimized at least 60 children from 1959 to the 1990s

Strangely enough, Saville had full access to a maximum security psychiatric hospital for girls.  There, he would organize dances and parties without supervision from staff.

This opened a flood of accusations.  Former BBC actor Wilifred Brambell was accused of sexual assault.  And respected war correspondent John Simpson was ordered by his bosses to not name a third suspect in his autobiography.  Simpson described heinous acts committed by an individual he only identified as "Uncle Dick."

If true, the allegations go back to at least the 1950s, if not the 1920s.  In short, the BBC, affectionately referred to by many in Britain as "Auntie," may have fostered a cover up culture for nearly its entire existence.  This, while it branded itself as the measured voice and conscience of Great Britain to itself and the world.

Outside of the Royal Navy and the monarchy, few other institutions are so quintessentially British as the BBC.

The BBC has no American counterpart.  While CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX are private enterprises, the BBC is a government owned entity.  It operates in radio, television, and online, dominating the media climate of the United Kingdom.  It is the perfect fusion of national image, government power, media influence, and economic muscle.  At the intersection of so much power and money, one often finds people who see themselves as above the law.

Penn State was a similar situation on a smaller scale.  The shining image had to be maintained, despite the collateral damage to individual lives.  They just hoped Sandusky would go away.  He didn't.  Sandusky continued to lead a group built to help boys in trouble.  Little did they know that Sandusky was the trouble.

Who could have predicted that the BBC would have sheltered such scandalous behavior?  Advocates of the free market understand that government owned enterprises remain most vulnerable to scandal, corruption, and coverup.  As government entities, they do not get held to account as easily as private enterprise.  They can call upon friends in government to protect them, to lean on people.

Penn State had a $100 million athletic department and a sainted football coach to protect.  The BBC had put its entire tradition and legacy at risk by failing to punish and help to prosecute these malefactors.

In fact the song sung by some in the BBC sounds suspiciously like that heard around State College last year.  A former BBC chair called the scandal "hysteria."  Despite a promise to get to the bottom of the problem, its programming nixed a documentary illustrating some of the accusations.  Frustrated Member of Parliament Ian Paisley Jr. remarked that even recently a BBC celebrity had committed sexual assault and "got away with it with no more than a shrug of the shoulders and a silly excuse."

In the case of the BBC, too many established interests coincided and predators like Saville exploited the culture.  Combination of government, economic, and media interests generally will create acceptance of corruption. Wrongdoing grows easier because there are no checks and balances.  This is just the most horrific and tragic example of what can happen.