Boris interviews Paxman

Surely a classic in political journalism on newsnight

Close down Newsnight and save Journalism

The Telegraph's Iain Martin has a simple solution to saving costs at the BBC...........Shut Down Newsnight!!!!!!!

According to Iain,

This would not only save money, it would improve journalism.

It was last night's addition that finally forced Iain over the edge.

The first 20 minutes were spent on wittering about something which hadn't happened yet, the vote in the Senate, and then a pointless interview with the French finance minister on the financial crisis. The programme's reporting of this important subject is going round and round in ever decreasing circles.
Finally a report on David Cameron's speech arrived, and it suggested that Newsnight had missed the point. Michael Crick, the political editor, then popped up and it seemed that he hadn't got a clue what the point was either. It was a seven out ten speech, he said gravely, and Brown was a 7.5 out of ten last week. What does that mean?

Last Post for Peter Barron

Peter Barron off to the brave new world of Goggle writes his last posting on the BBC editors blog

The digital revolution means I've been the first Newsnight editor to look after a programme which can be accessed at any time of the day or night anywhere in the world. You can engage us in conversation and we can - and should - explain our inner thinking.
So I'd like to take this chance to thank publicly the brilliant, creative and committed team who put together Newsnight five nights a week. To thank the six million or so viewers who stick with Newsnight week in week out despite the proliferation of competing demands for their eyeballs

.

How to interview or how not to interview.

The Newsnight website is celebrating Jeremy Paxman's award as the best presentator at the Television Society Awards by putting some of his best interviews from the past year on its site.

Well worth a watch for all budding journalists

Inconsistencies in Newsnight

Over at Three Line whip Iain Martin has some harsh words to say about Newsnight

There are moments when it seems that the best thing to do with Newsnight would be simply to close it down. Its impulses and inclinations are so statist and predictably soggy liberal (a criticism its staff would be baffled by, proving the point that they rarely if ever meet any of the many of us with a world-view different from theirs).

What has particully upset Iain is the contrast in reporting standards.He points to the coverage of the Speilburg/China story which was covered

properly last night in a manner which made the license fee worth paying.

Contrasting with

its discussion on Andy Burnham's Stalinist directive on five hours of compulsory culture for junior comrades

where

It would not occur to most Newsnight staffers that there could possibly be philosophical objections to such a plan. So, two perfectly nice guests were invited on to argue about the implementation of this madness and their definition of the word culture. That there are more deep rooted concerns which might make one suspicious of such a scheme did not come into it.

Newsnight wants some help

Newsnight is experimenting with what can be described as viewer interaction.

Writing on the editors blog Peter Barron explains

This week on Newsnight we've launched a new experiment in which, instead of simply sending our morning prospects list to our producers, we send it to anyone who wants it (you can subscribe here) and post it on the website (you can find today's here).
The idea is that you can let us know what you'd like to see us tackle or the questions you'd like asked at 10.30pm. The response has been large and overwhelmingly positive, but there have been one or two quibbles

Those quibbles being why should the viewer do all the work when they pay the license fee no doubt.
Anyway I have just signed up for the feed so lets see how it works

Sunday Media commentators

Peter Preston asks If the net is killing newspapers, why are they doing so well?

"global newspaper sales up 2.3 per cent last year (and
9.48 per cent in the past five years), ad revenues up 3.7 per cent and 15.7 per
cent over the same two spans. If this is doom and gloom, give me another
helping..."

The Independent gives Roy Greenslade a roasting

How kind of Roy Greenslade to give The Independent on
Sunday relaunch such attention on his blog at 'The Guardian'. When the old
dinosaur, on hols in Tuscany, finally got hold of a copy, his eagerly awaited
review was somewhat short on compliments. Those helpful types at 'The Guardian'
website also managed to forward many of his fans to our own site. Greenslade's
blog suggested that what this newspaper needed was "a dodgy proprietor and a
game, perhaps bingo, which he knows no one can win, so that he can con people
into buying the paper. But what kind of journalist would go along with that sort
of thing?" Well, his colleagues remember Roy best, when editing the 'Mirror'
(briefly), for presiding over a spot-the ball-competition that was fixed so no
one could win.

In the same paper David Randall reports on the BBC's aploogy to Alex Salmond following Thursday's newsnight.


James Cameron writes in the Observer as the "Gloves come off as Mirror and Cameron declare war".In the light of deteriorating relations between the two parties,

"The secret talks were requested by Cameron some time
ago, and took place in his office in Portcullis House on Wednesday, with no
aides or advisers present. He used it to complain about the Mirror's coverage,
comparing it to that endured by former Labour leader Neil Kinnock at the hands
of the Sun, claiming: 'You're treating me worse than the Sun treated Kinnock in
the 1980s."

And continues

Wallace, himself a former spin doctor, told Cameron
such criticism was par for the course for politicians, pointing out that as the
only card-carrying Labour paper, the Daily Mirror was duty bound to heap
opprobrium on the leader of the Conservative party on a near-daily basis.
He
referred to the Mirror's front-page on the morning of the last general election
- which depicted Cameron's predecessor, Michael Howard, as a vampire with a
stake through his heart - as an example of what was to come, noting that it was
'a proper piece of abuse'.
'I was quite shocked,' Wallace later told a
colleague. 'This is a man who wants to be Prime Minister, and he was whining
away like a little schoolboy'

Finally the paper's media diary tells us that

Peter Mandelson was invited on to the Today programme
last Friday to talk about the Royal Festival Hall - the brainchild of his
grandfather, Herbert Morrison - but the nation's favourite spin doctor couldn't
resist using his airtime to take a sly dig at newspaper editors. When the
Festival Hall first opened in 1951, some senior scribes got stuck in a lift,
John Humphrys reminded him, and a similar incident occurred nearly 50 years
later, when editors attending the opening of the Millennium Dome were stuck at
Stratford station. 'Editors were made of stronger stuff then,' Mandy sneered.
'They weren't nearly as craven or self-indulgent as they are now.'
Ouch!