Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

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SAVES % OF YOUR DOLLAR 72 Radio's Cruel Part in Spain's Civil War {Continued from page 21) to be captured, while the armies marching against them are many miles away. One American who lived in Granada during part of the revolution heard a radio report from Seville one night that the Alhambra had been destroyed — when all the time it slumbered peacefully in the moonlight, not a hundred feet away from where the American and his family were sitting! Not that Spanish radio is alone in its crimes against truth. Spanish newspapers —those that have survived sudden changes in government — are guilty of distorting the news too, although not to as great an extent as the radio. In fact, through the radio it has sometimes been possible to check the truth of newspaper reports. For instance, suppose that a Rebel-controlled paper claims the city of X has surrendered to the Rebel forces. By tuning in the X station on the radio, and listening to its announcer shouting loyalist propaganda, listeners know X is still in the hands of the Government. Each side in the war is well aware that radio's reports of what is happening cannot be depended on. The civilian population, although it clusters about the radios installed in cafes and listens avidly, must depend upon private information, or upon instinct, to learn the truth. Nor is dissemination of false news reports the worst. Stations controlled by the rival political factions all have their own orators who go on the air with fanatical exhortations to kill, kill, kill. The government, through Union Radio Madrid, EAJ 2, and Union Radio Barcelona, EAJ 1, puts President Manual Azana, the Prime Minister, Socialist leaders, and Communist deputies on the air to plead for its cause. Radio is even used to fight radio. The Government, in taking over the Madrid station, EAJ 2, changed its wave length to that of Radio Seville, a Rebel-controlled station, and then went on the air with an endless program of jazz and rhumbas — endless, that is, except for periodic interruptions of news and oratory. The purpose was to interfere with Radio Seville and produce a noisy jumble of music, humming, and crackling, at least so far as Madrid listeners were affected. THE radio mainstay of the Rebels and the most widely heard personality on the air, is General Queipo de Llano, commander of the Seville garrison. Fiery, eloquent, and ruthless, he is an expert at inspiring hatred. "The word pity must be eliminated from our vocabulary," is one of his favorite statements. In attacking the Loyalist cause he regularly uses vitriolic and abusive words and phrases whose English equivalents would get him thrown off the air immediately in this country. Nominally a military commander, his radio duties keep him so busy that he seldom has time to do any commanding. "But he accomplishes more for his cause on the air than he could ever accomplish leading an army," Kaltenborn remarked in telling me of de Llano. Even possession of a radio can be dangerous to the citizen of a city held by one or the other opposing faction. Public places, such as cafes, by keeping their sets tuned to a station controlled by the party in power, avoid trouble and even gain the approval of the officials, as well as good trade from the news-hungry public. But the private citizen, unless he has , his set tucked away in some soundproof room, does not dare listen to an "enemy" station. Those who are caught doing so are shortly afterwards transferred to jails. Many people have dismantled their sets to escape complications — since after all it would not be difficult for the party in power to accuse Senor A , whose loyalty was in question anyway, of listening to the wrong news reports. "What effect can this fantastic situation have on the revolution, and the people?" I asked Kaltenborn. "Can radio really help either side to win?" KALTENBORN did not answer at once, and when he did, his voice was grave. "I no longer believe," he said, "that mechanical inventions are necessarily a benefit to mankind. After seeing the uses to which they can be put by men, it's a question in my mind whether the world would not be better off without them. Rebels and Loyalists both are exploiting every potentiality of the radio for spreading propaganda. But in the end, radio can't help either side to win. It can do no more than add to the confusion. "No amount of radio propaganda can change a man's beliefs. He believes what he wants to believe. But the radio can change his allegiance. Speakers like de Llano, by threatening their enemies with horrible physical tortures, can plav upon the fear of the non-combatant public in such a way as to gain converts to their cause. The average Spaniard, even before the Revolution, did not have a radio of his own. Without one, he must listen to the broadcasts that are heard in the streets. When he hears the description of the burning-alive of Government sympathizers, he is apt to give lip-service to the Rebel cause, even though in his heart he is still loyal to the Government — simply because he is afraid of what might happen to him if he didn't. "By heaping hatred upon hatred, the radio may be prolonging the revolution. With their oratory, the professional rabble-rousers may be keeping the war spirit alive when it would begin to die out if left to itself. I don't know about that. But I do know this — that the war in Spain shows what a powerful and destructive force radio can be when it is used indiscriminately." By the time this article is published, the Spanish civil war may have been ended, settled in one way or the other. Whatever the outcome, it will not change this fact: the world has had a glimpse of radio at war. And it is a glimpse that is worth pondering. Next month — another exciting story of a broadcaster in war-torn Spain. Watch for the thrilling account of how Floyd Gibbons, the world's best known reporter, has met hair raising adventures in trying to get front-line news. Radio has a new and exciting personality. Ethel Barrymore, long the Empress of the Footlights, is on the air. Watch for her amazing story, a saga of the famous Barrymores, in the January issue of RADIO MIRROR.