Filed under: Media | Tags: bbc radio 5 live, guest, interview, newsnight, paxman, radio, rude
Many find Jeremy Paxman’s abrasive interview technique to be blatant rudeness. And yes, it may be classed as ‘rude’, but why is it so successful? As I drone on about regularly, the secret of good manners is putting people at ease. Paxman is constantly cutting into his guests’ responses, and thus making them ill at ease. In my opinion, because they’re thrown off balance by his interjections, the sometimes prepared responses that their advisers or PR bods have painstakingly compiled are thrown into thrown into the wind. Sometimes the best interviewees go into a Paxman interrogation with no script and worry very little about prepared responses. (Of course, if the politicians and the like go into the interview with nothing to hide or cover up they fare better also!)
This is something I recently experienced on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Stephen Nolan programme. I’ve done the show several times but the first occasion really had me on edge as Stephen was/is a journalist like no other I’ve ever encountered. Everything I said was interrupted and Stephen played devil’s advocate to each of my answers. Now that I’ve done his show several times I know what to expect – indeed, I would be worried and not at ease if I walked into his studio now and he was obsequiously polite and agreed to my every word! Wishful thinking, though.
Anyway – what is your opinion on Paxman? Please participate in the poll:
For those who are interested: I am pleased and very excited to announce that I am now a tutor for leading international protocol and etiquette consultants, The English Manner. More information can be found on their website (which is in the process of being updated – check back in January for lots of new features, including a blog that I’ll be doing…just like this one…but probably better!).
