Humphrys v Paxo

Guy Aitchison (Bristol, OK): An entertaining exchange between Humphrys and Paxman on the Today programme this morning. Paxman was defending the arguments he'd made in a lecture on the media at Edinburgh festival (published in the Guardian here). His basic point seems to be that TV needs to recover a sense of higher purpose beyond narrow commerical goals and to re-assume its rightful role as a medium for impartial and intelligent democratic debate. The interview itself makes for an interesting role reversal. Paxo was particularly peeved at Humphry's determination to focus on his criticisms of the BBC when the thrust of his argument had been much broader. It's also worth reading the speech. Paxo has some convincing things to say about the problems with today's programming and he makes some amusing dismissive remarks on Blair's 'feral beasts' attack: "Nor need we concern ourselves with complaints about trivialisation of cabinet government from a man whose cabinet meetings could last less time than an edition of Ready Steady Cook." Ouch.