Mea Maxima Culpa: John Reith and the Advent of Television

John Reith and the BBC 1922-1939: Building an Empire of the Air?

“…But from his position at the head of the BBC, Reith was intent, with his deeply ingrained Presbyterian "distrust of the frivolous" 31 , to ensure that a properly informed public, should also be a properly educated public. If listeners were to be cured of the morally questionable urge to revert to their jazz gramophones, the BBC had to provide matter capable of elevating them into a less pestilential sphere: this required that entertainment should be strictly marshalled and fall into step behind information and education.…”