A B.B.C. INQUEST : THE NEWS
By JOHN' FLEET THE Talks, as Mr. Crossman rightly remarked, are under fire from every quarter. _Politics and economies, one may aaa; are for the B.B.C. an unremitting danger and worry, and broadcast religion is certain to 'bring' trouble, more or less serious. But the plainest fact of all is this : that for every radio authority and agency in the world the 'news of the day makes the crucial ' problem of broadcasting. News touches us all. It is of 'consequence to everybody. True, ' there 'are still many 'people, and not a few connected with 'public affairs,' who want to ignore the wireless news. But their numbers are 'diminishing fast. Ten years • hence they will be extinct. That is the first point—a 'demand and need that are 'universal: The people must have their radio news. They will become more exacting about 'it ; and they will not be much interested in the relations between broadcast news and the Press, although those relations, obviously, are highly important. In the Western world for 800 years the newspaper has been the sole' agency for the circulation of news. No other medium has counted. The empire of the newspaper has been complete and unqualified. It is now challenged for the first time, and consequently, between radio and the Press, between 'Broadcasting House and the great news services, there is a 'conflict of interests which will 'need to- be resolved when the time for' new agreements 'comes round. Meanwhile, there is no cause of conflict, there is not the smallest 'reason for jealousy, between broadcasting and journalism. Every intelligent journalist recognizes that broadcast news must be an expanding serViee, and he does not believe that it can injure his occupation 'or make the newspaper less essential. The wirelesS news is being widely, and I 'think bitterly, attaaked. But the attack 'comes from the outside public ; for while it would be justified in holding that no othet public service has to 'suffer so much hostility, the B.B.C. would not complain that the Press is unfair to the wireless news. There is, indeed, some little significance in the fact that the newspapers; speaking generally, merely leave it alone. It is the listeners who grithible, and during the past 12 months, while the news department • of Broadcasting House has been experimenting largely, complaints have reached a formidable volume. 'They'' ' are con- centrated, I believe, upon the principal period, the ,Second News' lately 'stabilized at 9.30. Since the B.B.C. does not issue reports relating to its various activities and the public response to them (the appointMent of Sir Stephen Tallents, perhaps, may lead to Some change of procedure in this respect), we can do no more than make a guess at the character 'of those grievances' that are most commonly and emphatically regiStered. Among them, certainly, are these : that the arrangement and proportion are poor ; that foreign news or diplomatic conjecture is frequently admitted—the kind of stiff that might well be left for the morning papers ; that trivialities 'are thrown in among important items,. so that- the -summary of home events is impaired; that listeners anxious 'not to miss any of the news :are obliged, because of the '.faulty arrangement, to sit through details of sporting events and so forth which they would prefer to skip ; and—most serious of all, that an immense amount of resentment is caused by the insertion amid ;the news 'of 'descriptive or expository talks: Such points as these are all. deserving of discussion for which I have no space.
• I will venture therefore to make a few statements which, .1 am convinced, nearly all journalists would accept • as 'axiomatic; feeling that they had with them a decisive body of public opinion : - • . • J. Given, say; 20 minutes for the main period, the aim should be to present - a straight news bulletin; with 'only the bare minimum of explanation. It is safe •to assume that even a public which has 'learnt to demand • sensation or flightiness from its newspapers wants its wireless • news to . be compact, concrete, 'and authori- tative. ; • 2. There is no time or need for diversion,• although one would always make an exception of any conspicuous small event, picturesque or marvellous. I should argue 'that the inclusion of " Things said today " is a mistake.
3. Sporting news, weather reports-, official notices, ' should be kept apart from the general news, according to. an unvarying rule. There is a larger percentage •of listeners than is' commonly allowed for who are bored or annoyed • by certain routine features.
• 4. Comment and talks of every' kind should be:barred from the news. The Spectator has contended for this consistently for years: It' has been demonstrably right in so doing. . I should judge that the B.B.C.'s eon- • tinuanee of the practice is to be explained • by a natural reluctance to abandon a method to which a great deal of thought had been given, and a hope that the persistence of the staff would in the end be rewarded by a general acceptance on the part of listeners, an acceptance won by the perfecting of the technique. But I do not believe there' is any hope' of such an outcome. 'The journalists • I have canvassed 'have been unanimously against the spatcheocked exposition, nor have I found one listener 'svho approves of it. The right way, surely, is to announce that the talk will f011ow the news. And this has inciden- tally the result—very pleasant, if the announcer is doing his 'work well—of keeping the bulletin on a uniform voice note. The relegation of the news or topical talks to their appropriate place would, I suggest, be au advantage for one specific reason, not connected with questions of arrangement or sub-editing. It would do away with the occasional anonymous talk, and so be a definite assistance to the B.B.C. in its effort to maintain a high standard of accuracy and authority. The name of the expositor could in every case be a guarantee of knowledge, while the separateness of the talk would naturally tell as a demonstration that the B.B.C. is being careful to hold the scales even. Upon that subject, of course, and the measure in which fair-play is upheld in the talks, there must always be controversy. But in the news proper, I should say, it need not seriously arise— except, perhaps, in the event of social conflict or public disorder in Britain.
.I have asserted that the unadorned news bulletin is the right form for the regular evening half-hour. There are those who do not agree, but contend that the B.B.C. will have to develop a technique of dramatization on the model of " The March of Time," the most thorough American example. of the kind. The answer is, first, that " The March of Time " is elaborately American, and is produced by a news-magazine with large profits to expend on advertising ; and secondly, that such small attempts at dramatizing the news as have so fat been made here can emphatically be cited as evidence against the idea. They have been worse even than the narrative- dialogue form which the B.B.C. oddly continues to use, usually in connexion with features and events that do not afford opportunity for dramatic treatment. No, let us have the straight news. And that, as every journalist knows, demands for its effective presentation quite as much brains and skill as the dramatizers could enlist.
I began with a reference to the old complete empire of the newspaper, now for the first time being challenged. The coming of wireless news brings out a new and startling contrast. The British Press has been a com- petitive enterprise. The B.B.C. news service is a monopoly of the strictest. In the co-existence of these two factors in a free people's public life a free people has something to think about.
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