POLITICS BY RADIO

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 18, 16 October 1933, Page 8

POLITICS BY RADIO

After much .argument on the question, it has been decided to allow British political leaders to broadcast speeches to the public by radio. The idea.'at present is experimental. A list of speakers, has been selected, a time-limit for each has been fixed, and the period of the experiment determined. It will be interesting to see how it works out. The first of the speeches, delivered by Mr. Baldwin, is reported to-day, and in content and style differs in no way from the usual platform deliverance of a ■' public man and reported by the newspapers in the ordinary way. The reader is given the gist of the matter, and that is usually as much as the average man in these hustling days has time to peruse. The innovation, however, may serve the useful purpose of demonstrating to the public that in the matter of newspaper reports of their speeches the politicians have had little if anything to complain about. Some of them complain very much on this score, and would have the public believe that they are being systematically gagged by the Press for partisan reasons. The British public will now have an opportunity of hearing on the radio whole speeches verbatim, and, unless we are greatly mistaken, it will soon tire of the novelty. Although it may be possible to give a political orator the uninterrupted freedom of the air for five, ten, or fifteen minutes, there is, fortunately, no means of compelling every individual who has a wireless set to listen to him. The radio listener has a choice of entertainment, and, within certain limits, according to the resources of his apparatus, he can please himself whether he listens in to Mr. Septimus Blowhard, M.P., on the currency problem (relayed from Poplar), a Beethoven Symphony broadcast from Berlin, or a comic song from New York. If all else fails he can switch off altogether and either read a book or go to bed. Some people have no idea what a political speech at full length sounds like. It is possible, however, that those selected for the first 8.8. C. political programme will be able to hold the attention of their > - audiences, for they are all prominent men, and good speakers. Many politicians, thanks to reporters and sub-editors, appear to better advantage in print than on the platform or in Parliament. The Press does not report the calibre of the speaker’s voice, or his “ers,” and “urns,” and “ahs.” But these mannerisms cannot be sub-edited as they pass to the microphone. In the end some political aspirants for a hearing on the air may wish they had left more to the imagination of the public, and risked less on reality.-