A NEW BROOM AT THE BBC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 228, 5 November 1943, Page 5

A NEW BROOM AT THE BBC

Noted Journalist Appointed As Editor-In-Chief

FEW weeks ago, when reA newal of the BBC’s Government Charter came under discussion in England, listeners spoke up and said they thought it was time something should be done about the administration of the BBC. And according to Time, the BBC "countered with what amounted to a top-drawer shake-up." English radio listeners (there are more than nine million set-owners), pay 10/- a year in licence fees. For their money they get the product that the New Statesman and Nation has called "the usual British compromise between incompatibles." Constitutionally attached to the office of the Minister of Information by a clause described by critics as "so elastic that the Minister can always disclaim control of it,’ the BBC is not directly controlled by the Government, except in times of emergency. Theoretically, it is not a private monopoly either, but a public corporation chartered by Parliament. It can, therefore, avoid direct pressure by the public, and at the same time keep itself free from the commercialisation of private monopolies. And Time’s opinion is that "the result of this compromise between white and black is occasionally brilliant, usually a monotonous grey." The Ministry of Information (Brendan Bracken), recently brought the question up in the House of Commons, and invited "a complete examination of the whole set-up of the BBC" before a renewal of its Charter. The House adjourned without committing itself, but the Economist took up Bracken’s remarks:

"The great vice of the BBC is timidity," said The Economist. "The BBC is a monopoly, but it is in the opposite position to the traditional monopolist. It cannot defy the public; just because it is fair game for every-

body, it cannot afford to offend anyOne, 4. "If the test of a broadcasting system is the excellence of its programme, the prescription should be not more public control, but less. .. . To continue with the present system would be to condemn broadcasting to the fate that would have attended the Press if, from its birth, it had been nationalised, or the stage if there had never been more than two or three state theatres, or art if the only commissions were those to be obtained from public bodies. There will be no excellence without competition. . . . The virtues of American broadcasting are not due to its advertising sponsorship . . . so much as to the fact of competition. ... ." New Job-New Man This criticism had the support of a good many listeners, who nevertheless had given up hope of seeing anything drastic done until after the war. To their surprise, a new office was createdthat of Editor-in-Chief of the BBC, and one of England’s best journalists was appointed to fill it. William John Haley, who was given the job, is a joint managing director of the Manchester Guardian and Evening News, and a director of Reuters News Agency. Readers from Wales to the Cumberland district (says Time), have "squirmed under the erudite, fervently democratic editorialising of Haley, but they have continued to read him. He fought the Munich appeasement harder than any other journalist in England. His stubborn stand ultimately resulted in a vastly increased circulation. He has been loudly in favour of giving the public all the war news ‘however unpalatable,’ which does not aid the enemy."