Mr Chataway's little effort
Any breaking-up of the .BBC's monstrous empire cannot be wholly bad. Any chipping- off must leave the great monolith weaker than it was. The BBC broods over our lives like the great cathedrals of the past looked down upon villeins. In little more than a generation this consequence of Reith, elec- tricity and crystal sets has become covered With ancient-seeming lichen, so that it looks, and often behaves as if it were immoveable, indestructible and immortal. The Bac is the
nearest thing to a national church that we have had since Cranmer.
Christopher Chataway's little effort to chip something off the old block is good in its ex- tremely modest way. Sixty broadcasting sta- tions do not make a Reformation; but any destruction of a monopoly in radio is better than none, just as any destruction of the television monolopy has proved to be better than none.
It is, however a great pity that the de- struction of the Bnc's radio monopoly is to be done in such a petty and half-hearted way. There is still time for one quite essen- tial reform: and that is to ensure that Inde- pendent Television News becomes Indepen- dent Broadcasting News, so as to parallel the enlargement of the Independent Television Authority into the Independent Broadcasting Authority. It is strong competition that the BBC should be given, even if it and its lobby want the opposition to be weak.
Previous page
