Is Paxman/Boris the new Frost/Nixon?
It was highly entertaining to see Jeremy Paxman interview Boris Johnson last night on Newsnight. Boris was most definitely not "on message" but I guess trying to make him toe the party line is a bit like trying to herd cats! However Jeremy's attempts to Paxo him did not really work out as you might expect...
Boris answered Paxman's questions about the Lisbon treaty and David Cameron's Bullingdon days in his own inimitable style, giving as good
as he got and taking the interview off on some fascinating tangents. He even at one point delivered a direct to camera statement after Paxman insisted following Boris' assertion that Paxman was seeking to "intermediate" too much!
It is well worth checking out and will surely become a classic of the genre. It is currently on the iPlayer here from about 16 minutes in or you can watch the embedded Youtube of it below:
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5 comments:
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The notion that Paxman is a good interviewer, or something more than good, is widespread but I do not think this is true. That he is widely considered to be is illustrative of how useless the infotainment industry has become in a country where to count the number of true journalists requires perhaps no more than the number of fingers on one hand.
I have never been very impressed with Paxman. Frost in his prime was much better.
I thought this was a poor performance by Jeremy Paxman. Maybe as an Old Etonian who went on to Oxford, I am over-sensitive but I do find this whole Eton/Oxford/Bullingdon angle over-worked, tiresome and demeaning.
In one sense, this is a complete waste of time. In another sense, one has to ask "What the hell is such a pillock doing running London?"
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