The B.B.C. and the Press
THE objections raised by various newspaper pro- prietors and publishers of magazines to the publishing enterprises of the British Broadcasting. Cor- poration involve some important principles. It would be well before the matter goes further that the public should make up its mind on what is at issue. The Press Before we come to principles we may summarize the bare facts. The B.B.C. has proposed to publish a new journal called The Listener, and although nearly every statement which has been made about its character has been contradicted, it seems that the plah is, or was, to produce a literary journal dealing with every topic likely to be of interest to wireless listeners. That might be merely another way of saying that it will deal with pretty well every topic under the sun. The objectors saw at once that they might be exposed to a new and devastating sort of competition. The B.B.C., being a quasi-State institution, pays no Income Tax and, more- over, receives a grant from the Government. It can popularize its publications, free of expense to itself, by broadcasting an unlimited number of announcements. It is obvious that the descent of an officially subsidized department into the arena of the newspaper and publish- ing trades would establish a precedent of far-reaching significance. And it would seem to be quite opposed to the principle which Mr. Baldwin proclaimed in his speech last Saturday at Worcester, that it was the settled inten- tion of the Government to interfere with the conduct of trade as little as possible.
Here, however, some qualification is necessary. Only extreme champions of the newspaper and publishing interests object, so far as we know, to the B.B.C. publish- ing information which is a natural adjunct to the efficient performance of its undertakings. The question is whether the plan of The Listener goes outside the proper functions and wantonly enters into general competition with traders. When the first announcements about the nature of The Listener were made, it certainly seemed that the intention was to publish a weekly paper con- taining general articles, many of which could not be really cognate to the work of the B.B.C. It was upon this that the Newspaper Proprietors' Association, the News- paper Society, the Periodical Trade Press and the Weekly Newspaper Proprietors' Association took alarm and asked the Postmaster-General to receive a deputation. The Postmaster-General refused. He was asked more pressingly, and again he refused. Since then an appeal has been made to the Prime Minister. The excuse of the Postmaster-General was that the B.B.C. had a full right to do what it proposed. That is undoubtedly true. The charter of the Corporation entitles the B.B.C. " to compile, prepare, print, publish, issue, circulate and distribute, whether gratis or otherwise, such papers, periodicals, books, circulars and any other literary matter as may seem conducive to any of the objects of the Corporation." The B.B.C. is safe—legally safe, if not morally—in -arguing that, having an educative function, it takes all the world for its province, and that everything which extends knowledge is " conducive to its objects."
The letter of the law, however, by no means exhausts the subject. We know what the policy of the Govern- ment is,• and we have a right to expect that the practice of the B.B.C. should square with it. A--monopoly is frequently desirable, and sometimes indispensable, but in a democratic country it is essential that monopolies should be watched with a jealous anxiety. This question of monopolies is going to assume great importance., within the next few years. _We are on. the threshold of a general rationalizing of trade.; and rationalization will give us monopolies, or at least aggregations almost indistinguish7 able from monopolies, which, will be for the good of employers, wage-earners and consumers, if they are managed in a spirit of responsibility and public service. But if they are managed in the wrong spirit they will be a curse to the consumer, and probably also to the wage- earner. It is extremely important that the B.B.C. monopoly should set a high example of reasonableness and responsibility.
No one has complained hitherto of the publications of the B.B.C., though they have been numerous. It is obviously necessary for the B.B.C. to publish announce- ments of its forthcoming programmes, and, in our opinion, no exception can be taken to information, advice, and articles designed to help the listener to take a more intelligent interest in the daily programme. When we first heard of The Listener, it did not occur to us that the name implied competition with the weekly news- papers and the reviews and magazines. If the paper was intended so to compete, the name was very badly chosen, for it suggests nothing more than what we have already described—aids to intelligent listening. On behalf of the B.B.C. it has been officially stated that The Listener is to be only a convenient place for gathering together much of the educational writing which during the past few years has been scattered in pamphlets and- booklets. If that is all we are at a loss to understand why the Postmaster-General could not have dissipated the natural alarm, and have explained to a deputation what the intention of the B.B.C. really was.
A few of the extreme champions of private trade seem to us to have rather inopportunely exaggerated their grievance. As we said at the beginning, the con- sumer is a party to the controversy. If any private traders try to deny to the B.B.C. the right to publish what is strictly germane to its work, the public will be against the private traders. No cause can be won with- out public sympathy. The number of listeners are innu- merable, and they have their rights. And even from the purely self-interested point of view of those who conduct weekly papers it is wholly undesirable to check the spread of 'education and the improvement of taste. In the long run the weekly paper will gain, not Jose, by the process.
The B.B.C. has notoriously performed a great service in bringing backward minds all over the country to a dawning recognition of what is good, and what is bad, in the spoken word, and what is inspiring .and what is Unendurable in music. Even the listener with little or no musical taste cannot long abide the emptiness of the turn-turn-turn melody, or the terribly familiar and expected cadence. After a time he finds that he can hardly' cross the room quick enough to switch off the worst kind of popular music. Again, those who are patiently trying to improve their minds and accumulate knowledge like to return to lectures which have helped them. If the B.B.C. reproduces in The Listener many of the more successful lectures, there could-surely be no legitimate objection. The word " conducive," however, must be interpreted in a manner worthy of reasonable and fair-Minded- men.. It would be unreasonable and irresponsible-for the -B.B.C.. to publish a literary paper which had detached itself sufficiently from its origin, like the dragon-fly coming out of its shroud, to be indis; tinguishable from existing literary newspapers and magazines.
There is one way in which the B.B.C. could take all the sting out of its proposed enterprise, and that is by refrain- ing from competing with the existing papers for the custom of advertisers. The position of the B.B.C. if it printed advertisements- which were not conducive to its special work, might become grossly unfair. The B.B.C. can push its wares, to any extent, and the circulation of any of its papers is fiscessarft_very large.
How can we 'dare to emphasise the difference between the right and the wrong use of a monopoly in this case when our emphasis tellS plainly in our own favour ? The answer is very simplei and we hope will be thought satisfactory. It is at all events, so far as we can judge, sincere. The Press of this country has done an inestim- able service in the attainment and the preservation of liberty. It is a free agent. Its opinions may be right or wrong, but they are its own. It has succeeded because it is free. Out of the controversies provided by an independent Press the right ultimately emerges. As Milton said, " Who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter ? " The B.B.C. is not a free agent. At the time of the General Strike the publi© .recognized that a service of such a wide reach and grasp must, Tor the safety, of the community, be controlled by the" Government. The B.B.C. is, therefore, rightly a monopoly, but it must pay the price of monopoly— and that price is a forfeit of the right to be esteemed impartial on public issues. It will be a bad day for England if the Government ever makes it difficult for the Press to discharge its great functions by using an official monopoly to injure fair conditions of trading.
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