London Forum – Responsibility Of The Press – November 20, 1950 – BBC World Service – Gordon Skene Sound Collection
Long before the days of Social Media, Citizen Journalists, Blogs and chat rooms we had a society of people collectively known at The Fourth Estate. They were revered, respected and admired. They exposed corruption, and in some cases paid the price for it. Brought the attention of the world to egregious wrongs and proclaimed with breathless excitement the resilience of the human spirit. You could, for the most part, believe what you read.
But there has always been that segment of the Estate which bends, twists and corrupts the facts. It is part of our democracy – can’t get around it.
But in 1950, the era of the Cold War, the Red Scare, the threatened Communist subversion, the Loyalty Oath. And nowhere was it more subject to scrutiny than the Press.
This program, part of the series London Forum, brings together four journalists – two for American newspapers and two for British newspapers, comprising the English language Press to answer the question “Is the Press preserving its responsibility to provide factual and unbiased information to its readers?” The subject was mainly concerning the Print media, since newspapers, even as late as 1950 were considered the major source of news and information throughout the world.
The fear was that subversive activity could creep into The Fourth Estate by way of slanting news to fit an ideology – that responsibility to the audience, the people who relied on news and factual information could be swayed into believing something not necessarily true because a seemingly trustworthy source was reporting it.
Our Press and our media is considerably different today than it was in 1950. In 1950 there was an obligation to shoulder the responsibility of reporting the news without spin or speculation. The news organizations were firmly in place and not a diversified afterthought. That solid news reporting was the goal, not creating sensation or click bait.
But in 1950 the playing field was smaller, the choices less and the responsibility more pronounced. Here is that episode of London Forum as it was broadcast on November 20,1950 via the BBC World Service shortwave.
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