by Damozel | Please just watch this YouTube video---where Paxman asks Michael Howard (way back when he was Home Secretary)---the same question 12 times in succession. Now imagine turning him loose on Bush, Cheney, Hillary, or Obama. He's like a walking, talking cathartic for the British political system. And he's allegedly coming to the US on February 29th (the post says the 28th, but I see Newsnight scheduled here). It seems almost too good to be true.
Best of Paxman:
Here are some reports:
Jeremy Paxman, British television's toughest public affairs interviewer, was one interrogator too many for Henry Kissinger.
Hosting the BBC Radio Four show "Start the Week," Paxman infuriated the former U.S. Secretary of State in 1999 by asking if he felt ashamed to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
The confrontational gambit, accompanied by a facial expression verging on the contemptuous, is Paxman's stock-in-trade.
So is the U.S. ready for the ferocious Paxman, who will front a new show for BBC America beginning in the fall? [This didn't happen yet; why? D.]]
The BBC news anchor is reported to have once said of his interviewing technique: "I am always asking myself 'Why is this lying bastard lying to me?' "
Pols have left the studio in despair at being caught on the rough end of Paxman's tongue.
At least one walked out midway through an encounter. And Paxman famously once asked then-government minister Michael Howard the same question 14 times in an attempt to elicit a straight answer... BBC America topper Garth Ancier is confident the U.S. public will warm to the anchor. "Jeremy Paxman is the sort of person that Americans will just eat up," he told the Financial Times.
Not everyone agrees.
"I think Jeremy's discourteousness might throw Americans," says Stewart Purvis, ex-CEO of Independent Television News who is now professor of television at London's City U.
"They are used to tough, firm interviewers,"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Sorry.
"but the Americans are a deeply polite people," he says. "Jeremy's persistence and his facial expressions, which are a running commentary on his feelings towards his interviewee, will come as something of a surprise to U.S. audiences."" (Variety; emphasis added)
Yes! A delightful surprise: a journalist who doesn't pander to politicians, respect their evasions or personal agendas, or settle for anything less than a straight answer. They don't get to reframe questions. I don't agree that he is rude; but he is persistent and he doesn't let his guests control the interview. He isn't polite and humble and 'thank you for gracing us with your presence'; he's there to do battle. Isn't this what journalism needs these days?
So far, he has been a bit gentler with Americans. But not too gentle.
His interview with John Bolton:
His interview with Ann Coulter:
But will it be new, fresh, American interviews or recycled Newsnight? I don't know., Even recycled would rock my world, but Paxman interviewing American pols here in the US would move the earth off its axis.
I know they won't let him loose on Bush, but how about Cheney. Cheney can totally take him (right, Mr. Vice President)? How about Karl Rove? Mike Huckabee? Yes, and Hillary and Barack obama? Oh please oh please oh please oh please. He'll mop up the floor with the American news pundits and interviewers
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