The House and the B.B.C.
The debate on the B.B.C. in the House of Commons last week left that maligned, indispensable and, on the whole, reasonably satisfactory institution very much what it was before. Right speakers charged it with being too Left, and Left speakers with being too totalitarian. Some thought Parliament was reported inade- quately, and some that it was reported with party-bias. On both these points Sir Ian Fraser, one of the Governors of the B.B.C.,
was able to produce statistics which effectively confuted either contention. Some of the demands put forward were such as should be resisted to the death. It was said that there had been no attempt on the part of the B.B.C. to rouse the national conscience in the matter of the distressed areas, or to prepare the people four years ago, for " the possibility, indeed the probability, of war, Either activity, particularly the former, would have been an inde- fensible trespass beyond the B.B.C.'s proper sphere. Its business is to give objective information in its news bulletins, and a certain amount of objective instruction of a wider character. But once let it permit itself the pursuit of ulterior purposes, however laudable some of them may seem, the first step on a disastrous road will have been taken. It can and should provide the public with food for thought ; it must in no circumstances try to tell people what to think The B.B.C. is directly controlled by a representative and competent Board, and the Minister of Information, who possesses wide powers of ultimate control, is to be congratulated on his resolve to use them as little, not as much, as possible. The B.B.C. could no doubt be better than it is. It could certainly be a great deal worse.
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