Page 103 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

confused with ‘subjective bias’ (although many politicians who are
victims of the style may prefer to think otherwise) but as an extension
and development of the media’s ‘watchdog’ role. One might also
view it as a conscious effort to more effectively represent ‘the people’
who watch these bulletins in their millions, against the political elite.
The less popular broadcast news slots (Radio 4’s Today, BBC2’s
Newsnight, Channel 4 News) have also developed the art of
confrontation, partly because it makes for good viewing and listening,
but also in recognition of the fact that not to confront a politician,
not to play the role of ‘devil’s advocate’, is now perceived as deferential
and old-fashioned. The late Brian Redhead on Radio 4, Jon Snow
and Zeinab Bidawi on Channel 4, and most famously of all in this
respect, BBC2 Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, have all adopted
this approach to the politicians who agree to enter their studios.
Jeremy Paxman’s style itself became satirised, alongside the political
caricatures, in Spitting Image. Paxman’s approach is one of
permanent, knowing scepticism of all that a politician says, an attitude
which is communicated both to the audience and the interviewee in
a variety of facial and linguistic gestures. While he and the other
presenters who adopt a similar approach are unable to say out loud
what they think of the responses received to their questions, audiences
are hardly likely to miss the sarcasm and contempt which frequently
emerges from the phrasing of a question or the tone of a voice. We
may view these presenters, returning to Nimmo and Combs’s
categorisation, as ‘bardic’ pundits, not only in their advocacy of the
popular against the elite, but in the dry humour which often
accompanies the interview.
In broadcast news programmes the political interview is one
element in a mix of reportage, commentary, and analyses. Some
journalists, however, have elevated it to the status of a programme
genre in itself. Robin Day’s election interviews with party leaders,
Brian Walden’s and David Frost’s Sunday interviews, Jonathan
Dimbleby’s lengthy interviews on the BBC’s On the Record, and
John Humphrys’s Today interviews have been important
agendasetting moments in the political cycle. The politicians’
motives and interests in subjecting themselves to interview have
been discussed already. Here, we note again the combative,
sometimes accusatory style of the Humphrys or Paxman interviews,
and the now commonplace assumption that such an approach is
both legitimate and necessary. These interview-celebrities, who with
rare exceptions are very much the ‘stars’ of their shows, confront
the politician with ‘what the public wants to know’. Some, like

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