ATTACK ON PRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22694, 5 April 1937, Page 10

ATTACK ON PRESS

A RADIO OUTBURST EDWARD'S ABDICATION MR. SCRIMGEOUK'S TIRADE SINISTER ROLE ALLEGED A considerable portion of the talk of Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour in his "Man in the Street" session .over the air from the "Friendly Road" station last night was devoted to an attack on the press-

He said that a very serious attempt- had been made to block the success of the ideal of commercial broadcasting and of the "Friendly Road" and he found that the opposition came from the newspapers. The ideas that he had been spreading through the "Friendly Road" had been labelled by journalists as " socialism and communism " —they never called it Christianity. He could not understand the opposition until he learned the real position of newspapers even in this tiny little country of New Zealand.

" I learned, for instance," said Mr. Scrimgeour, "that newspapers for years had dominated every public man. i whether he was a politician or a member of a public body. They held the whip and they could damn him at any time they wanted to. Unless he got on a soap box he had no medium of reply. Public opinion was moulded by the J press—not that they would say anything i wrong. They were too astute for that. ! The Real Reason The real reason for the newspapers j opposition to commercial broadcasting j was that it provided a channel through ! which things could be made known to the people that they did not want to be made known. It was not that they were afraid of losing advertising revenue, because it had heen found in other lands that commercial broadcasting did not take away anything from the newspapers; hut they were concerned because there was another channel through which enlightenment could come to the people on. certain vital things. When they started commercial broadcasting, continued Mr. Scrimgeour,, the Newspaper Proprietors' Association had a meeting, and they decided not to accept any advertisements drawing attention to radio programmes by firms unless they were paid at double rates. But radio had succeeded in spite of all the opposition. " I do want to tell you," Mr. Scrimgeour said, "that there is a war to the death between certain newspapers and commercial radio, and commercial radio is going to win. I may tell you that if they continue the war we shall hare a shot at giving a proper news service and one that will give you the truth, and not an opinion backed by interests, not the truth coloured by—well, we will let that go." Private Sorrows Published Mr. Scrimgeour proceeded to complain of papers publishing details of private sorrows and degradation, and read a number of headings from a weekly newspaper, which he named, as illustrations of what he meant. If he could not claim the support of every decent-minded citizen in the country against that kind of thing he would go on his own. There had been a bill before Parliament to prohibit the publication of divorce court news, but it had been shelved time and again by the tremendous influence of the papers. Each time the Hon. Peter Fraser brought it up he found that the influence that made money out of stuff like that was always too great for him. The Hon. Rex Mason brought it up, but it was shelved simply because these people were too astute, and clever. Mr. Scrimgeour expressed his agreement with a quotation attributed to "John Swinton," whom he referred to as the editor of the New York Times. In this it was stated that there was no such thing as a free and independent press in America, that the business of the journalist was to destroy the truth and to pervert and villify, to sell himself and his country for his employers. Apologies Fiom Journalists

"I personally," remarked Mr. Scrimgeour, "have received apologies from dozens of journalists for the stuff they have had to write." He further quoted an observation by Bernard Shaw about the "scandalous venom" served up by newspapers. "The case of the late King was one of the worst .things I ever came across," said Mr. Scrimgeour. "The power of the press to besmirc 1 , a man's name and drag his honour in the dirt and get away with it is a little beyond me. It is this kind of thing that makes dictators necessary. Edward, the man who had come to be regarded as the most illustrious of them all, who romped with little children and kissed blind people, who walked through the whole of tie nations of the world and won the admiration of all. There was only one way by which he could have been made to get out. When they can't get you one way they will get you by publicity—something which may in other circumstances be all right. What Press Will Do "I have been warned dozens of times by friends." Mr. Scrimgeour broke off to say, " 'Don't let them trip von. Scrim. If they can they will sell a woman to you. f They do those kind of things, I know. When the King asked why he was not getting certain papers sent to him he had to be deposed; and it was done by those in league with a press only too ready to tell a story to his discredit. Democracy and that kind of thing do not go together. "I am going to set out to do a little bit of the job that needs doing," said Mr. Scrimgeour in conclusion. "I am going to ask you to support me as a Christian in a campaign to stop the publication of filth, the publication of other people's sorrow and degradation in the papers of New Zealand. I am going to work tooth and nail to support any paper that will banish these things from its pages and tel! the truth to the people, and because I believe that to be a Christian duty, and this is not a political subject; it is given to you without apologies, from me as a Christian minister, if you like. If you don't like, then from one of yourselves. Good night." Mr. Scrinigeour's talk was immediately followed by the singing as usual from IZB of the sacred solo "The Stranger of Galilee."