Jeremy Paxman - world class interviewer

He is the one reason to watch Newsnight on BBC2 when he is the presenter.

Can I only wish that TVNZ or TV3 could have someone who could interview politicians like he can:

Try this (BBC not allowing embedding of this) of Michael Howard. Go for 2.40 onwards. The evasion is blatant, and Paxman does not relent.

Or Paxman confronting Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness over his denial of involvement in the IRA


Resisting the dumbing down of news here:





Confronting the vile fan of brutal dictators George Galloway:



A collection of him not getting straight answers from politicians and persisting:



And finally a portion from "Have I Got News for you" showing Paxman presenting the weather grudgingly and brilliantly:



Imagine anyone on NZ TV today who would dare be half this adventurous and confrontational.

NZ taxpayers effectively help pay for Tonga's lavish coronation

It's not new of course. French taxpayers paid for the blood thirsty megalomaniac Bokassa to have a self styled coronation as "Emperor" of the "Central African Empire". This is nowhere near as bad, but you may ask why, according to the Dominion Post, the Tongan government needs NZ$11.5 million a year in taxpayer aid from New Zealand when it can afford to spend NZ$4 million on a coronation of King George Tupou V. Don't forget Tonga is hardly a free country with liberal democracy with an open free media. Although the report says no aid money will be used, this is semantics - because if there was less aid money presumably the coronation would be cut back.

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Even the BBC has the exclusive broadcasting rights - nice to see my TV license fee being used to pay for what is effectively a dictatorship.

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International aid should be non-governmental, it should be voluntary. If you want to aid Tonga, then let reputable aid agencies develop projects and help it, and other poorer countries.

BBC kills private broadcaster

OneWord the spoken word private radio station in the UK has closed, largely it seems, because the BBC - using the funds extorted by force from TV owners - launched BBC 7, a digital spoken word network, commercial free.

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OneWord was available on DAB and on Sky and Digital Freeview, and broadcast audiobooks, drama, comedy, discussion programmes and the like. It attracted an audience of around 300,000 nationwide, but couldn't attract advertisers, but the BBC could attract more and didn't have to care about who it could ask to fund it - it doesn't ask, it demands.

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The heavy hand of the state funded dominant broadcaster strikes again.