Delegates on our media training courses often fear a Jeremy Paxman style interview.
The former Newsnight presenter’s reputation for challenging interviews and fearsome questions remains intact despite his retirement.
More often than not in our media training sessions we don’t need to put delegates through that sort of experience. It’s simply not realistic or relevant for most spokespeople.
But what is Mr Paxman like when he is the one answering the questions?
Well, Radio 5 listeners had the chance to find out during a fascinating interview.
Mr Paxman appeared on the station to be interviewed by Emma Barnett and promote his new podcast.
And it proved to be memorable radio – not because of what he said, but the way he approached the interview.
For someone who has made his name asking questions, there seemed to be a lot of resistance and hostility towards answering them.
The interview was filled with short answers and grumpy responses. And Mr Paxman didn’t appear to like being challenged about the interview approach he takes on his podcast.
Here is a key exchange:
Barnett: “What is interesting about you talking to people you want to talk to is have you have picked all these people yourself?
Paxman: “Yes.”
Barnett: “And what does that mean in terms of you talking them on? I’ve listened to most episodes and in some of them you aren’t as challenging as people are normally used to.”
Paxman: “Well, yes, what’s your point?”
Barnett: “Do you think it makes for a better or worse interview or experience to listen to?”
Paxman: “I think every interview should be a challenge of the position, but you don’t have to disagree with everyone.”
As Ms Barnett carried on with this line of questioning on his new approach to interviews, Mr Paxman said “I don’t know what you are talking about” in response to one question and later accused the journalist of trying to give him a “moral lecture”.
You got the feeling Ms Barnett was having to work quite hard to get any decent content for her listeners.
It was only really when the conversation moved on to lockdown that he began to elaborate on his answers, offer views and share anecdotes.
“How am I passing my time?” he said. “I’m writing a book about the English civil war and I am doing University Challenge, which we have just spent a weekend recording, which is a real nightmare in these circumstances in the middle of a plague. Everyone has to walk around with masks on all the time and we take them off when we are recording.
“And the set has had to be changed so there is no threat of cross-contamination – lots of Perspex screens everywhere.”
Asked about it being an “odd” time for students, he said: “I feel it is very unfortunate young people are paying the price for this in order to protect old people. That’s essentially what has happened.”
But he finished the interview as he started, grumpily, again accusing the presenter of “moralising tones.”
It was a memorable bit of radio and captured the attention of the listeners, trending for a time on Twitter.
This is brilliant radio @bbc5live
— Dan Bennett (@DanBennett78) December 1, 2020
BBC legend Jeremy Paxman & @Emmabarnett - I'd say please cheer up however this is Paxman! It was slightly awkward when he answered a couple of questions so grumpily ! Emma did amazing job. Laughing continuing her line of questioning brilliantly!
can hard recommend the Jeremy Paxman interview on yesterday's brilliant @Emmabarnett show (at 2hr 39m in) - the hostility and resistance to being questioned by someone who's made his living questioning others is quite, um, something.https://t.co/p3FxQp1AYp
— Becky Howard (@_beckyhoward) December 2, 2020
As recommended by @NickyAACampbell, I’ve just listened back to @Emmabarnett’s interview with Jeremy Paxman from yesterday. It was...quite something… 2 hrs 38 mins in… https://t.co/OKEWqquHMk @bbc5live
— Jacqui Oatley (@JacquiOatley) December 2, 2020
Perhaps we should not be surprised by Mr Paxman’s approach to the interview as the former BBC inquisitor has a reputation for being grumpy in his interviews. Times journalist Janice Turner once compared an interview with him to a “bizarre stress dream.”
But from a media training perspective, there is much in this interview that other spokespeople shouldn’t follow.
Avoid short answers
A golden media training rule is short answers must be avoided.
Not only does responding to questions in an interview with brief answers sound defensive, but it also invites the journalist to ask more questions and cover more ground.
One of the things that stood out for me about this interview was how many questions Ms Barnett asked and how far the conversation moved from the intended subject.
Retain your composure
You’ve probably heard of the saying “Don’t pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by the barrel.” It applies to broadcast interviews as well as print ones.
On our media training courses, we stress the importance of spokespeople retaining their composure and not showing any dislike or unease at the questions they are facing.
Any loss of composure can make interviews memorable for the wrong reasons. Additionally, the audience is more likely to remain on your side if you keep calm and collected.
Control
As we’ve already mentioned, much of this interview was spent discussing things other than the subject Mr Paxman was appearing on the programme to promote.
And there seemed little effort to try and steer the conversation back to that subject.
Spokespeople should always expect to face questions about wider issues in their interviews, but they should also look to take some control of the conversation and get it back to what they want to discuss.
Otherwise, they run the risk of not getting their message across to the audience.
The bridging technique is key to this, but there are other things like signposting which can help.
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That all-important interview control will also come from telling stories, anecdotes and examples that support what you want to get across.
It was only when the interview moved away from the podcast that Mr Paxman seemed happy to develop his answers and include these components.
Examples, stories and anecdotes are crucial to capturing the audience’s attention, but they need to support the subject you want to focus on.
Overall, this was an odd interview from someone who still intrigues many of our delegates.
In case you’re still worrying, you won’t face an interview quite as hostile as some of the infamous ones Mr Paxman carried out, on our media training courses.
But we will show you how to handle challenging uncomfortable questions and difficult interviews – we just won’t be using Mr Paxman’s responses as an example.
About to face the media? Get your media interview homework off to the best start by downloading your copy of our free media interview preparation eBook.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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