I don't think anyone is denying abuse like that happened/happens. But people wanted to know where the childline rumours came from as they seem extremely far-fetched.
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OMG. But I guess if designed to shock is the goal he succeeded? And in the scheme of things he has looked far worse!!I’ve seen it so you have to…. Ignore the tweet but the video
Not sure I'd be including golden showers in my pop videos but Sam must be a fan LOL
Nice
on some of the guys though 
Nobody doubts that vulnerable children are preyed on. Nobody thinks that is ridiculous. But accusing Esther R in setting up Childline to facilitate child abuse is ridiculous. Because she had heard rumours that Saville was dodgy, what was she meant to do if the establishment were involved, one woman. Wogan wouldn’t have JS near Children in Need, why didn’t he do something? Louis Theroux flat out asked JS if he was a child abuser. Why didn’t he do something rather than make an entertaining programme. I have heard all sorts of rumours about colleagues. I wouldn’t go to HR, I only have rumours, I would be looked at with disbelief.
I wouldn't put anying pass these organisations that are meant to help vulnerable people. I remember Ofcam workers being found out for sexually exploiting Haitians when they were there to provide food and safety.
Ex model, Halima Aden, said that international charities that were meant to help vulnerable children in her homeland of Somalia, would actually exploit them, including herself. Then force them into taking contrived photos were they looked malnourished, but appeared grateful for the assistence.
i think, or the point is, that these things do happen, there are numerous examples of organisations where awful exploitation has gone on - but that doesn’t mean that they (a) happen everywhere or (b) that you can state categorically that it DID happen in a certain organisation with no real evidence.
The article is saying what we have on here for ages. It makes a point of mentioning YMU management, his aggressive PR people and ITV being desperate to protect their big four of A&D and Phil and Holly. I wonder why they have published this story now.
Oh no, I never said it DID happen. I never said that... I just said I wouldn't put it pass any of these so called charities... What I mean to say is that we shouldn't outright refute it because it's far-fetched, because these things have happened. It doesn't mean it's true, but it also doesn't mean that there's no possibility that it could be.
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sorry i wasn’t saying that you said it, just referring back to what the conversation strand was, apologies! i realise i used “you” when i meant a more general “you”.
i think we’re agreeing with each other that these things do happen and are possible, but equally i don’t think these allegations can be quoted as absolute fact as the original post (some pages ago now) did.
I've heard the rumours about Childline and Crimewatch over the years, and it does seem very far fetched.
It still blows my mind that the eminently sensible Rav Wilding (presenter of CW) had a romance with Chantelle Houghton, her of BB fame and former wife of that bloke from The Ordinary Boys.
It still blows my mind that the eminently sensible Rav Wilding (presenter of CW) had a romance with Chantelle Houghton, her of BB fame and former wife of that bloke from The Ordinary Boys.
He does some of the songs on a CBeebies show called Katie’s amazing machines (or it could be grace’s because they changed presenter). I love it just for that
Yeah, the abuses described are 100% believable, but the idea that Childline was set up to facilitate that doesn't really pass the smell test.
Sams starting to get on my nerves, whoever told them it was a brilliant idea surely was taking the piss?
I miss the days when Sam Smith was a harmless and relatively boring soul singer. Not sure what to make of this latest version, is it meant to be sexy? To be fair, Sam is not the only one guilty of this, there are a lot of singers who try to be sexy but just come off as sleazy and they seem to have copied everything they do and wear from porn. Whatever happened to the idea of sexy being an attitude rather than just getting as naked as you can and being suggestive?
Exactly this. No one is denying that organised abuse occurs to a horrifying degree, but the unsubstantiated insistence that Childline and Crimewatch were operating as some form of shielding organisation doesn’t hold water.
As I mentioned earlier, if nothing else it’s a ludicrously inefficient and unwieldy way to accrue specified aspects of intelligence.
Just chipping in on Childline and its origins. I remember what sparked it. I was an avid viewer of 'That's Life!', back in the day. In one of the more serious pieces, a mother wrote in with her daughter's story. Her daughter was systematically bullied and ended up taking her own life (either that, or I'm not sure if it was anorexia that killed her). The mother was desperate to address bullying and raise awareness, as she hadn't known just how bad the bullying had been. Red flags at school had been ignored and her daughter wasn't telling people. IIRC, it was diaries that her daughter (Catherine?) had kept that uncovered the extent of it but I could be wrong about that. It was a long time ago and pre-internet/ social media. The programme covered the story over several episodes. It was a very moving story and Rantzen and co. set up Childline as a means for children facing abuse of any kind to have an anonymous outlet to begin telling their stories. The intentions were good and honest. I really don't believe it was set up as a 'cover' of any kind. Having watched well-researched documentaries on Jimmy Savile and the like, it is easy to see how clever he was. He hoodwinked senior politicians, police and royalty. Vulnerable children didn't stand a chance, I'm not saying Rantzen couldn't have done much more to confront the matter when it came into her circle of awareness. However, systematic abusers can be very, very clever at what they do. Corruption can enter even the best of intentions but I seriously believe that the mindset behind Childline was to do good.
Pop stars & musicians trying to shock and push boundaries is nothing new. I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and Madonna was the queen of it them with her cone bras and her coffee table Sex book. Sam is just another in a long line! I guess things have moved on so much through that it’s getting harder and harder to shock people so the more niche activities are about the only thing that’ll get a reaction!
Sigh, there's a lot of assumption going on, just because questions are being asked (don't think I was rude or defensive, which I see as a red flag about someone's character when pressed). Anyone with any knowledge of human relationships or human nature knows that abusers / bullies / predators pick their victims and sadly the most vulnerable people are the most likely to come to harm. I don't live in any sort of la-la land where I think the world is unicorn and rainbows, far from it.
Reminds me of how rumours fly around in workplaces and some people are disliked without a whole lot of evidence to go on? Or you have to pose for a picture with a peer (when you too are pretty well-thought of and responsible) or someone senior but you're doing it with gritted teeth because they're such an awful person? I bet a lot of that went on at the BBC - and my dad knew people at (albeit miles away) BBC Scotland and said gossip was rife for years, but some of it was treated as "too preposterous to be true" - others had the mindset of wondering whether it was exaggerated by the retelling. I guess you'd have to be a BBC insider to know the truth, but it's not the first workplace to ignore people of power acting abominably.
Of course bullying people and sexual abuse are two very different things, but work culture can require a bit of tunnel vision just to survive in your job, sadly. Good on those who spoke out about Savile.
Louis got a lot of flak for being "friendly" (up to a point) with Savile after his death and Louis says he regrets that naive mindset he had - he did genuinely think he was "odd / eccentric" but nowhere near as horrific as he turned out to be. No doubt there are horrible internet rumours about Louis, just because he believed someone was eccentric but not that bad (it's a nice trait to give a maligned character a chance, even if misguided, in this case).
Reminds me of how rumours fly around in workplaces and some people are disliked without a whole lot of evidence to go on? Or you have to pose for a picture with a peer (when you too are pretty well-thought of and responsible) or someone senior but you're doing it with gritted teeth because they're such an awful person? I bet a lot of that went on at the BBC - and my dad knew people at (albeit miles away) BBC Scotland and said gossip was rife for years, but some of it was treated as "too preposterous to be true" - others had the mindset of wondering whether it was exaggerated by the retelling. I guess you'd have to be a BBC insider to know the truth, but it's not the first workplace to ignore people of power acting abominably.
Of course bullying people and sexual abuse are two very different things, but work culture can require a bit of tunnel vision just to survive in your job, sadly. Good on those who spoke out about Savile.
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My take on the Childline allegations is that Childline was set up legitimately and still is a valued service. I understand the allegations to be that if a child/children calls in about a children’s home or a youth group or something similar and no one believes them, and they’ve had several calls about the group, that this COULD be passed on to pe3do groups as children who could be abused and not believed if they ever told.
I’d have scoffed at it a few years ago but now I think it could be true. Just takes some rouge “volunteer” to pass info on
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I was really
I’d have scoffed at it a few years ago but now I think it could be true. Just takes some rouge “volunteer” to pass info on
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I was really
I was really surprised that the comments are all gunning for the Daily Mail for saying this. I assumed a lot of people knew about the alleged cocaine abuse. I put a comment on there but it wasn’t published. Surprise surprise! The PR machine has done it’s job well, it would seem.
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