BRITISH BROADCASTING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 105, 15 April 1933, Page 5

BRITISH BROADCASTING

ENTERTAINMENT FIRST, REPLY TO CHARGE OF BIAS. LONDON, March 2. Sir John Reith, Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation, replied to critics recently at a luncheon of the Thirty-Two Club, a Socialist organisation formed last year. The corporation, he said, was an exceedingly interesting and important experiment in public management, and his hope was that in due time—not on the analogy of the ten years it took to settle what would be done with Waterloo Bridge—“one will find railroads, coal and steel nationalised up to the 8.8.C’. system, and the Post Office and one or two other Government departments denationalised down.” In the matter of political bias, said Sir John, the corporation would not submit to the charge of anything deliberate, neither in that, sphere nor in any other sphere. ‘ 1 Whatever you as Labour members, ex-members, and candidates may think with respect to bias,” he added, “your views are comparatively mild compared with the views of the right wing of the Conservative Party. You can take that from me as a statement of absolute fact. It would be endorsed by Lord Bridgeman.” In another part of his speech, Sir John confessed that entertainment was the main function of the corporation. “The English race, or British race,” he continued, “is extraordinarily difficult to entertain. We all know the English take their pleasures sadly. Is there real pleasure in greyhound racing? And look at another form of pleasure. Go into a fashionable hotel and watch people dancing. Look at two couples. They have a vacuous, artificial grin, or perhaps a furrowed brow and concentrated mien associated with even an agonising operation. Is that pleasure! I am all for dancing, except that I can hardly ever find anyone of respectable height to danco with.” (Sir John stands 6ft. 6in. in his shoes).