No pies for Paxman at the Exam Schools
ANN WIDDECOMBE LIVED in fear that her famous attack on Michael Howard might actually have come from a porno novel. Teddy Hall was banned from University Challenge because their team once trashed the studio. Newsnight Scotland's interruptions into his show are a nuisance.
Ferocious journo Jeremy Paxman was much more talkative than most of his usual victims, when the spotlight was turned on him in front of a huge crowd at the Exam Schools on Friday afternoon.
He used the Philip Geddes Memorial Lecture to attack the politics of spin, and urged budding young journalists to "bite the hand that feeds you, and do the job. Just find out what people do not want to have found out."
But he also launched a blistering attack on student politics. "Real politicians are just like student politicians" he said. "The less power they have, the more vicious they get to protect it."
The top newsman called on journalists to rally against the media-savvy Government's sophisticated propaganda machine. He suggested that the Press 'regroup' for the attack and must first stop moaning about Tony Blair's press aide, Alaisdair Campbell.
He made a plea for more resources for journalists and asked newspaper proprietors to encourage top investigative journalism by swapping sales for quality. "For journalists to function properly they have to be given freedom and resources. Finding things out takes time and money."
The TV question-master began his BBC reporting career on Nationwide, the fore-runner of the Six O'Clock News. Last year he swapped the TV screen for the monitor of his word processor with the publication of his book, The English.
Paxman's lecture commemorated the death from an IRA bomb of journalist and former Teddy Hall student, Phillip Geddes. It also doubled as the awards ceremony for the Geddes Prize - which one of the trustees dubbed "Oxford's journalism award." Prizes of up to £1000 are awarded by a team of dons and top journalists.
This year Alison Cook scooped the big prize. She plans to follow the rehabilitation of child soldiers in Uganda. The career of budding Sports Journalist and Oxford Student contributor Amanda Davies also received a cash boost from the Geddes panel.
4th May 2000