PRESS AND TV
You reckon?
BILL GRUNDY
Once upon a time there was a very worried man. His name was David Frost and his cause for concern was the fear that the publicity accompanying the appearance of the memoirs of Miss Christine Keeler in the News of the World would affect the social work Mr John Profumo has been doing since the events of 1963. So the worried Mr Frost invited the wicked Mr Murdoch to appear on a television programme with him last Friday, thus ensuring more publicity for the memoirs and presumably aggravating the effect it will have on Mr Profumo's work. For though the NoW goes into 5 million homes, another way of looking at things is to say that there are 15 million homes it doesn't go into, most of which will have r%'.
There were many fascinating things about the programme. For example, presumably to ensure that Mr Frost's attitude would be seen to be moral and selfless, having nothing to do with drawing an audience for the pro- gramme, he interviewed his old friend Cardinal Heenan. During the interview, the Cardinal appeared to say that while Miss Keeler's memoirs may be all very well as a book, it is wrong that they should appear in the NoW, since that paper goes into the homes of millions of ordinary people, who don't normally buy or read books. This view seems remarkably similar to a famous one expressed by the prosecuting QC in the Lady Chatterley trial. When Mr Frost gently hinted as much to the Cardinal, His Eminence executed a splendidly dexterous piece of leger-de-langue, otherwise known as 'the quickness of the tongue deceives the ear', and so made a good recovery from a difficult position.
As well as the Cardinal's verbal agility, there was much else to gasp at in the pro- gramme. One was the sight of Mr Alexander Lyon, MP, saying that he would like to see an 'independent' person appointed to decide —presumably beforehand—whether or not editors could print stories such as this one.
Now as anybody who read this column last week will know, I think that Mr Mur- doch is utterly wrong to re-hash this weary old tale. In this I am presumably at one with Mr Frost, his audience, His Eminence, and even Mr Alexander Lyon. But I defend absolutely Mr Murdoch's right to publish the memoirs if he so chooses and if he keeps within the law of the land. I'd have been happier if he hadn't, but almost anything is preferable to Mr Lyon's dotty suggestion. Self-censorship would have warmed my heart. Mr Lyon's kind would freeze it. But there is another sort of censorship in the affair, which hasn't yet been much com- mented on (except, understandably, in the News of the World). The Independent Television Authority banned a NoW adver- tisement for the series, as they are perfectly entitled to under the Television Acts. They then banned a second draft, even though didn't mention Miss Keeler or her memoirs. It asked, 'Why is everybody reading the News of the World?'. The ITA held this, in .the present excited atmosphere, to be suggestive, in that it could only refer to the memoirs This is surely extraordinary, since, in the present excited atmosphere, anything could be held to be suggestive. But the 1TA have banned the ads, as, I 'peat, they are perfectly entitled to. Their rwers stem from Clause 3, Section 1, Sub- tion A of the Act, which talks about ences against good taste and decency, and ending public feeling. I do not know how ten the authority bans ads under 3.1.A. t I do know that an awful lot seem to get rough which. to my simple mind, sails etty near the wind. For example, have you the one where a girl is about to commit latio with a Cadbury's Milk Flake? The xual symbolism would be obvious to a ind man. Yet the ad hasn't been banned. looks as though it is ox to use sex to sell oxalate, but not to sell sex.
On the other hand, Mr Murdoch insists at the series is not sex, but contemporary -tory. Well, that's as may be, and they're mutually exclusive anyway. Let's ume, though, that the first ad for the series sexy. It was banned. Which again seems mean something very odd—that while you use sex for selling chocolate, or petrol, soap, or whatever, you cannot use it for fling contemporary history. Or if that is ching it a bit high, for selling wspapers.
The question why these particular ads were ned brings us back to the Frost- urdoch interview programme. Mr Mur- h suggested that much of the criticism ng heaped on him is the result of action the Establishment, anxious to protect one its members. Mr Frost replied (I speak in memory) 'Come on. The Establishment esn't work like that.' Well, he should know ce he has the Establishment regularly und for breakfast. Mr Murdoch, however, unconvinced. He looked wonderingly at r Frost and uttered two devastating words. simply said 'You reckon?'
Well, I reckon that Mr Murdoch is part t and part wrong. He seems incapable of using that people who've never met Mr ofumo in their lives still think that blishing the memoirs is a mistake. But on other hand, when I asked the ITA why v chose to impose the advertising ban on News of the World, their explanation rted, 'Well, taking into account Cardinal enan's remarks, those of Lord Devlin, and e of the distinguished people who wrote the Times, it was thought ...'
's all very confusing. But one thing is • r. Newspapers live, particularly these • s, by content and circulation. To ban ads use they offend against standards that t seem to have been imposed on others; to ban ads because certain distinguished people don't like what's being advertised; that seems to be getting very near to putting a restriction on part of press freedom. But perhaps I am pitching it a bit high again. You reckon?
I have just learned that the Daily Sketch is to have a new editor. He is David English, at present associate editor of the Daily Express. Mr English has been a corres- pondent for the Express in New York and Washington, and was until recently foreign editor of the paper. The date of his new appointment has yet to be arranged.
Mr Howard French, the present editor, is expected to move upwards in the Harms- worth hierarchy. For some time he has been saying that editing a daily paper is no job for a man nearing retirement: if only he could find a likely young man. . . . In Mr English he appears to have done so. So English replaces French.
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