A Question of Control: Journalists and Politicians in Political Broadcast Interviews

Famous, even notorious, also beyond British waters, is the 1997 television interview in which the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman hounded down then Home Secretary Michael Howard of the Conservative government like a hyena after its prey. Howard was questioned about a meeting between himself and the Director General of the Prison Service in which he was said to have forced the latter to sack the Governor of Parkhurst prison. ‘Did you threaten to overrule him?’, Paxman asked, and when the minister gave an evasive answer he repeated the question. Again Howard ducked the issue. Paxman, clearly determined that the minister should not get away with this, stood his ground and asked again, albeit in a slightly louder voice: ‘Did you threaten to overrule him?’ In total, Paxman asked the same question 14 times, and each time it was followed by a qualified or evasive answer.