PERSONAL COLUMN

The open secret

DOUGLAS FABER

In recent general election campaigns, Trans- port House has frequently accused the BBC of having a pro-Conservative bias. At the same time, from the rank and file of the right have come discontented rumblings about 'our lefty friends at the BBC'. It has

been suggested by one television producer that the answer to this apparent contradic-

tion lies in the division of the various depart- ments : the news section being pro-Conserva- tive whilst those engaged on current affairs and social documentaries tend to be more socialist-inclined. Traditionally, the BBC has been thought of as part of the Establishment. But are the present indications of interne- cine warfare any more than evidence of inter- departmental squabbles? Are there more serious implications for the future role of the communications media in politics? Per- haps we may approach the answers to those questions from a study of a group known as the Free Communications Group.

Though not very strong in numerical 'terms, about 1,000 members, the FCG has managed to recruit workers in television, newspapers, publishing, films and theatre. Their influence as an organisation is out of all proportion to their numerical strength and they have access to much confidential information. They published the text of the famous London Weekend Television bid while it was still being debated by the Inde- pendent Television Authority, and followed up that scoop with the full text of the Har- lech submission. It was the FCO who pub- lished the manifestoes of continental journal- ists looking for greater control of their news- papers and provoked the present wave of demands for worker-participation in. the British press. Most significant of all, claims one of their members, they provoked 'the imprimatur of all successful activity : a backlash'. Already, they claim, politicians like Julian Critchley are 'publicly ruminat- ing about the menace of MO ideas: greater control of programmes by the people who make them : the "second government" of communicators'. The rca, in turn, claim that `there is certainly a conspiracy in communi- cations : the conspiracy of a dominant class to keep the airwaves—and the newspaper columns—clean, decent and suitably sub- servient to its own interests'. The coverage of the 1970 general election is quoted as a manifestation of that subservience. Under- pinned with a grant of £6.000 and the pro- vision of offices and secretarial help in central London by the Rowntree Founda- tion, it is the avowed intent of the rca `to end this state of affairs: to liberate the means of communication'. In those circumstances it might be useful to ask ourselves how wide- spread is the FCG view, how do its members define their role, how pervasive is their influ- ence, what impact is it having upon estab- lished rules and conventions, and, finally, what implications does it hold for the future role of the media in British politics?

The first thing to bear in mind is that the members of the FCG are, by and large, com- mitted socialists, and that they are activists in political as well as communication spheres. They are often 'opinion leaders' and mem- bers of 'reference groups'. In consequence, their views are held or supported by a much wider group than the actual membership implies. Julian Critchley sees the ECG, with

its wide and sometimes key influence, 'going about its tasks of sedition and social disin- tegration'. The membership, on the other hand, sees itself in quite a different light; seeking to achieve what is in the public inter- est. They are, they claim, seeking greater

worker-participation, although they some- times use the term worker-control also, as a means of probing, investigating and expos- ing the machinery of politics and of govern- ment. Towards this end, thirty-five Bac workers, representing six ACTT union shops, met at the Shaftesbury Hotel in London on 6 July 1970, to 'debate on how union mem- bers could exert control over programme content and standards, and introduce a form of democratic workers' control through elec- tion of Heads of Department'. Their aim was to 'ensure that people who are respon- sible for making programmes should be given the facilities they consider necessary to carry out their responsibilities properly'. A conjunction of their two aims, if success- fully achieved, would result in worker- control over programme content, which pre- sumably includes the selection of topics for transmission, standards of production and the allocation of productive resources. Whilst even that degree of workers' control would have little effect upon the party political broadcasts which are scripted in Transport House and Central Office, it could well have a very significant effect upon the presenta- tion of news, comment and documentaries.

The attitudes of FCG members towards the existing rules and conventions of impartial- ity and the sanctions policy-makers can employ became evident at various points in their discussions. On the question of 'the' sacred cow of impartiality', one member remarked: 9f I was to say "Belsen was bad", I suspect the BBC would say "Well, yes, but do point out that over-population is a problem".' Directors, producers and produc- tion assistants complained of the insufficient time allowed for research, and the feeling of insecurity created by the increasing use of the short-term contract, 'furthering', as one of them put it. 'the tendency towards con- sensus television'. Since that meeting there has been what one person present described as 'a lot of long, disturbing but exciting dis- cussion in the BBC'.

In the .newspaper field, one rca spokes- man. Ron Knowles, claimed that 'a nascent radicalism is stalking the editorial floors of Fleet Street, so long in thrall to old-estab- lished ideas and faded philosophies . . chapel power is being expressed in terms of participation and consultation at high levels as journalists demand an increasingly greater influence on the papers for which they work'. 'A consideration of recent house agreements shows that advances have been made at the Guardian, the Times and the Daily Mirror. More and more journalists, it seems, are challenging what a Mirror industrial corres- pondent, Bryn Jones, has called 'the divine right to manage'. A BBC industrial corres- pondent recently commented that he had been told by a group of striking workers that they were 'satiated with material things and looking for something more'. That some-

thing more, it seems, is worker-participation and control, and the tendency is evident in the communications media as elsewhere. One recent example of workers flexing their muscles was when a national daily news- paper proposed 'to publish a cartoon lam- pooning the striking power-station workers, and was forced by its own staff to publish a prominent statement beside the cartoon dis- associating them from the newspaper's policy. The implications for the future editorial policy of newspapers, especially in

respect of political matters, are self-evident and the FCG have themselves warned their

members that 'the national newspaper emin- ences will not long tolerate such attacks on their power bases without some sort of collective response'.

The interesting thing that emerges from all this is that the ECG are most frequently con- cerned with achieving control as a means of governing the political content of the media output with a view to moving it further to the left. In that context, the Butler and Stokes study, The National Press and Parti- san Change, proved two important things: (a) readers' perceptions of partisanship in the press are not high, and (b) where readers have not inherited firm political views, their opinions may be much affected by exposure to propaganda. The question also arises whether social documentary programmes, by their implicit and sometimes explicit criticisms of the existing government, might not be used to change political opinion over a period of time. Certainly, it would be an interesting thing to discover since, if there is a high degree of correlation between the fre- quency and hostility of such programmes and changes in voting behaviour, it could account for some of the longer-term trends in political fortunes. However, even if it were proved that they do not, under existing conditions, have much effect, one could justi- fiably claim that this is due to the observ- ance of the rule of impartiality and that a / less impartial output could have different effects.

It is clear, then. that a small but influ- ential group of communicators see them- selves in a crusading role. They are con- vinced of their obligation to 'liberate' the means of communication, and their political commitment is clear from the left-wing bias of their present output and the general tone of their magazine, The Open Secret. In any other industry they would be regarded as part of a general trend, but in communications they may have a wider and more serious effect. In any physical coup dela!, press offices and radio and television stations would have a high priority on the list of points to be controlled. The importance of controlling the comunications media rests on their ability to disseminate information over a wide area quickly and in the form chosen by the communicators. From this one may reasonably suppose that in an intellectual coup, the 'revolutionaries' would seek con- trol of the media as at best, a means of influencing the population by the propaga- tion of their own views, and at worst, as a means of preventing any 'counter-revolution- ary' views gaining wide acceptance. Since an intellectual coup is, by definition, less extreme than a physical one the method of control is likely to be less extreme. Persua- sion may be substituted for force and the more subtle techniques of the media may be substituted for more blatant ones, but the end-result would be the same: control of the media by a small group of politically- motivated men.