B.B.C. NEWS AND COMMENT
Sin,—" Janus" censure of the B.B.C.'s adulteration of their " News" with their political " Views " is both timely and well merited. This flagrant abuse of the Corporation's monopoly, however, is not confined to their advertised programmes, which are heard mainly by those able to assess at their true worth their responsibility, bias and self-adulation which permeate so large a part of the broadcast output. Greater potential harm is afforded by the foreign broadcasts to listeners who may be excused for mistaking the B.B.C. for that " Voice of Britain " which it so bombastically and unwarrantably proclaims itself. In these ghastly productions speakers are, with regular frequency, " introduced " to the microphone under their political label—in the singular—for only one " cotour " is admitted.
Though the Ministry of Information rightly has no control (beyond censorship in wartime) of the Home Service, it is generally understood that it does control—and to that extent inspires—the European broad- casts' to foreigners, who may not yet have acquired that "contempt for the B.B.C." ascribed in your correspondence columns to "their shocking unreliability and crazy over-optimism "—to which I would venture to add a third reason: their exclusively " " influences which they are at such pains to " put over," even to the extent of interference in the domestic affairs of other "democracies." I am, Sir, your obedient servant, A. GRANVILLE SOAMES.
us Au COL am R./ tha lar1 on red def in ( Gu will an Not was anc as ; Carlton Club, 69 St. James's Street, S.W. z. •
Previous page
