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Editorial Policy-Making
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
Extract
‘WHEN WE HAVE SAID THAT THE EDITOR IS IN FULL CONTROL OF editorial policy, we have really said everything, and all the answers are only slight variations on that theme. Naturally, he has his assistant editors; naturally there is full discussion; naturally the circulation departments are usually informed in advance of big editorial developments; but the Editor is in charge of policy.’
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- Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1969
References
1 The literature on the formation of voting intentions needs no enumeration here. For a summary of the effects of the press see e. g. Joseph Kkpper., The Effects of Mass Communication, Glencoe, Ill., Free Press, 1960.
2 Cmnd. 7700, p. 101.
3 Ibid., p. 106.
4 In France too during the events of May the French police are said to have made a point of breaking TV arc lights as soon as they could, as a way of making sure demonstrators would move elsewhere.
5 20 May 1969. See Ronald Butt.: The Times, 22 May 1969.
6 Aneurin Bevan’s argument for televising Parliament was the same.
7 IPI Report, December 1968.
8 It must be all the more frustrating, therefore, that the Prime Minister has stated publicly that the press have failed to explain this Bill properly; also that no French Canadian papers hare apparently yet reciprocated by opening extra offices in Ottawa.
9 Reprint of special issue of Neue Zürcber Zeitung dated 6 April 1968, 100 Jabre Aktiengesellscbaft für die Neue Zürcber Zeitung, p. 11.
10 Cf. Willy Bretscher, editor of the paper for some thirty-five years, who attributed the avoidance of tendentiousness in its reporting partly to the fact that the staff ‘fulfil their task as citizens of a small neutral nation which has no irons of its own in the fire of international politics, which pursues no specific policies which could come into conflict with the aims of other nations but whose national interests are linked to the highest interests of all other peoples, with the interest of mankind in the preservation of the peace, in the moral and material reconstruction of the world, in the protection of freedom and human rights.’ Quoted in Merrill, John C., Great Newspapers of the World, 1968, p. 220.Google Scholar
11 Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, The Japanese Press 69, p. 25.
12 The Fourth Branch of Government, Vintage Books, 1959, p. 154.
13 What you have in a one-paper town, the American journalist A. J. Liebling once remarked, ‘is a privately owned public utility that is constitutionally exempt from public regulation.’.
14 See, e. g. Moonman, Eric, The Press: a case for commitment, Fabian Tract 391; 1969.Google Scholar
15 See Mayne, Richard, ‘At the Paris Kiosk,’Encounter, 06 1968, pp. 81–2.Google Scholar
16 The Guardian, 9 April, 1963. cf Salinger, Pierre, With Kennedy, Avon edn. 1967, p. 162.Google Scholar
17 See Voyenne, Bernard, La Presse dans la Société Contemporaine, 2nd edn., Armand Colin, pp. 50–7.Google Scholar
18 This process can be easily traced by comparing the chapters on the press in the successive studies of general elections since 1945, sponsored by Nuffield College and written by R. B. McCallum, H. G. Nicholas, David Butler, and David Butler with Richard Rose and Anthony King.
19 See Voyenne, Bernard, La Presse dans la Société Contemporaine, Armand Colin, 1966, p. 52.Google Scholar
20 See Yngve Pers, Anders, The Swedish Press, Swedish Institute, Stockholm, 1966, p. 14.Google Scholar
21 IPI questionnaire.
22 In response to a later inquiry the editor added:‘… the advisers and sources that we tap come from all parties though I suppose in our case (partly because it’s the government in power) we tend to talk to more Liberals’.
23 The Story of The Guardian, p. 6.
24 Quoted in Merrill, John C., The Elite Press, Pitman Publishing Co., 1968, p. 218.Google Scholar
25 100 Jahre Aktiengesellschaft für die Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1780–1868–1968. Reprint of Special issue dated 6 April 1968, p. 15.
26 Loc. cit..
27 Supplement on West Germany, The Times, 14 June 1969.
28 John C. Merrill, op. cit., p. 192.
29 Memorandum to the Author from Herr I. Birnbaum, July 1969.
30 See section on journalistic attitudes, pp. 514–15.
31 See above, p. 433.
32 He is also editor-in-chief of a Brisbane evening paper, The Telegraph (156,000), and of the Sunday Mail (343,800).
33 See, e. g., Wrench, J. E., Geoffrey Dawson and our times, Hutchinson, 1955.Google Scholar
34 For a straightforward account, seen from the Administration’s angle, see Pierre Salinger., op. ctit., esp. Ch. 20.
35 For more detailed discussions see Colin Seymour-Ure, The Press, Politics and the Public, Methuen, 1968, Ch. 4; and Williams, D., Not in the Public Interest, Hutchinson, 1965.Google Scholar
36 See Salinger, op. cit., p. 208.
37 The Times, 19 Match 1965.
38 While collecting material for this project, the author likes to think he caught his own small glimpse of the authority of The Times. The foreign editor of a leading European paper (the man whose description of the ‘evolution’ of policy was quoted in the introduction) thrust out a copy of The Times, jabbing his finger significantly at a paragraph in the first leader. The heading was ‘Act Five Scene Two’. It was about the seriousness of the British economic position and the apparent crisis of disunity in the cabinet. One sentence was neatly underlined: ‘Britain faces the gravest economic crisis since 1951 with the weakest and most divided government since 1951.’ (The Times, 14 May 1969).
39 Op. cit., p. 158.
40 Ibid., p. 162.
41 For the significance of advertising in the British press generally, see Seymour-Ure, Colin, The Press, Politics and The Public, Methuen, 1968, pp. 95–113.Google Scholar
42 Bernard Voyenne., op. cit., pp. 311–12.
43 N. Z. Z. op. cit., p. 89.
44 Cmnd. 7700 para. 527.
45 Cmnd. 1811, p. 86, para. 273.
46 Cmnd. 1811, p. 86, para. 273.
47 The Japanese Press 69, p. 33.
48 See Seymour-Ure, op. cit., p. 99.
49 He left the impression that this does not happen often.
50 The Times, with a courtesy made possible by ample space, has lately printed these ‘editorials’ both in English and, where appropriate, the language of the country involved in the supplement.
51 N. Z. Z. op. cit., p. 91.
52 Lot. cit..
53 See Seymour-Ure, op. cit., pp. 33 ff.
54 ‘61 newspaper, news agency and broadcasting companies undertook a total of 624 surveys in fiscal 1967. Most numerous were marketing surveys, followed by radio and television surveys.’The Japanese Press 69, p. 79.
55 But perhaps it should be pointed out that market research has shown that upper-middle class French readers certainly want more economic coverage in their newspapers. Early in 1968 Figaro started a special economic and financial section on Saturdays: two days later Le Monde introduced one on Mondays.
56 See Chatelain, Abel, Le Monde et ses lecteurs, Armand Colin, 1962, pp. 166–7.Google Scholar
57 Merrill, op. cit., p. 188; Chatelain, op. cit., p. 162.
58 If the Games did come to Zurich, however, the paper felt it would have to support the decision.
59 This last started under the Astor regime.
60 Broadcast, Spring 1969.
61 For this reason, no doubt, the paper re-vamped its make-up in February 1969.
62 Reply to IPI Questionnaire. When The Guardian recently cut its coverage of women’s hockey, readers probably did not notice: that was the reason it was cut.
63 Average time i to 1.5 hours. At Ottawa informal discussions were in some cases possible on several occasions over a period of about four days.
64 IPI questionnaire.
65 Richard Scott. and David Ayerst., IPI Report, April 1969.
66 In one example quoted, one member of staff was rung up in the Isle of Wight for his view.
67 N. Z. Z. op. cit. p. 4.
68 The quotations and summary of the paper’s views are based on a Memorandum from I. Birnbaum, deputy editor.
69 5 July 1969. At that moment Thomson owned 181 newspapers but was uncertain about the number of broadcasting stations as he was in the middle of selling one.
70 Report. H. C. 273, 1966, pp. 39–40.
71 BBC broadcast, early 1969.
72 Pers, op. cit. p. 22.
73 The most important was that A. M. Rosenthal has been made managing editor with supervision of all editorial staff except the editorial page and Sunday edition staffs. Formerly an assistant managing editor and foreign correspondent with the paper, Rosenthal, aged 47, can be expected to stay in the job for up to twenty years.
74 See Torbjörn Vallindef, Press Och Politik, Stockholm, 1968, pp. 96–101.
75 See Butler, D. E. and King, Anthony, The British General Election of 1966, Macmillan, pp. 165–7.Google Scholar
76 For the Daily Mirror under King’s regime, see Seymour-Ure, op. cit. pp. 116–18.
77 When making this kind of judgement the restricted sources of the study ought to be emphasized: specially as the publisher was the source on the Globe and Mail and the editor on the Star..
78 McLachlan, Donald, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. VI, No. 2, pp. 159–66.Google Scholar Reprinted in Richard Rose (ed.), Studies in British Politics, Macmillan, pp. 161–9.
79 Northcliffe, for example, was never as happy with The Times when he owned it as with the Daily Mail..
80 Minutes of Evidence, Q 2312, 2517.
81 The Fourth Branch of Government, Vintage Books edition, p. 177.
82 For summaries of research findings about the influence of mass media, see Klapper, Joseph, The Effects of Mass Communication, Glencoe, Ill., Free Press, 1960 Google Scholar and Seymour-Ure, op. cit. On television, the latest British study is Jay Blumler. and McQuail, D., Television in Politics, London, 1968.Google Scholar