An email is now doing the rounds in which Peter Rippon, the "stood aside" editor of Newsnight, is described as saying Savile's offences were not that serious, happened a long time ago and were perpetrated against girls who were not too young.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ked-email.html
This description of his alleged attitude towards the story comes from Liz Mackean, the reporter who did the interviews for the exposé that was ultimately canned by Newsnight, in emails sent to colleagues at the time ... Emails BBC lawyers have recently tried to prevent the publication of.
If this is an accurate description of Rippon's attitude, then it adds weight to the BBC's insistence that he was not being leaned on from above by bosses who didn't want their Christmas tribute to Savile to be ruined. However, it also would serve to bracket him with the very many of his colleagues, past and present, who created and perpetuated a culture which allowed the routine exploitation of underage girls by perverts on BBC premises, which frankly is a heck of a lot more worrying.