"What the Public Wants"

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 45, 23 May 1930, Page 25

"What the Public Wants"

Attitude of B.B.C. BE commented recently upon the public statement of Sir John Reith, governing director of the British Broadcasting Corporation, that it was his considered view that to "give the publie what it wants" would in the ultimate lead to a degeneration of public taste. The policy of the British Broadcasting Corporation, therefore, was to endeavour to improve the public taste by a considered programme of desirable works, rather than pander exactly to the popular clamour. In his famous "Children’s Newspaper," the wellknown journalist, Arthur Mee, writes on this point as follows :- "We like Sir John Reith, and we like his B.B.C. We think we are going to like both of them even better, for Sir John has made a great discovery. He has discovered the mistake of giving the public what it wants. It will be a great day when the editors of newspapers with mighty circulations are as wise as Sir John Reith. To give the public what it wants is to keep the public satisfied with what it is. If we understand Sir John rightly, he is in favour of giving the public what it ought to want. If Sir John

will follow it he may satisfy his noblest dreams, for a head of the B.B.C. who would give the public what it ought to want would make himself perhaps the most powerful man in the world. ‘Whether we like it or not, the B.B.C. has become the most powerful single instrument in the nation. Civilisation has waited a thousand years for such a power as this, and to-day Sir John Reith has it in his hand. There are things the public wants simply because it knows no better. There are millions who want silly things, There are those who would have us believe that the majestic poetry of Wordsworth or Keats, or of our own living William Watson, is nothing, and that the twaddle of Steins and Sitwells is the stuff to give us. "There are publishers who publish unclean books, and publics that will buy them, There are men with the muck rake everywhere. There are jaz zers in music, quacks in art, and freaks and shams on every hand. They fill the papers and think themselves great people, and the public lends them its eyes and ears. "We look forward with delight to the policy of the B.B.C. giving the public what is good for the public. It will help to make life sweeter. It will spread knowledge and the love of beautiful things. It will not scorn to be amusing and to entertain us; but it will draw the line where the line should be drawn, remembering that liberty is not licence, and that an Dnglish home is still a fair and pleasant place."