Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman to quit

Friday, May 2, 2014

The presenter of BBC's Newsnight show, Jeremy Paxman, said on Wednesday he is to leave after 25 years. The BBC said Paxman had postponed his departure, after deciding upon it last summer, because Newsnight was going through "a difficult period".

Paxman became a notorious political interviewer after tearing a great number of political leaders apart: In an interview with Michael Howard regarding the 1995 dismissal of the director of the prison service, Derek Lewis, when Howard didn't directly answer a question, Paxman asked again — eleven more times. In an interview with Tony Blair, he asked Blair whether he prayed with US president George W. Bush. More recently, when Conservative MP and junior minister Chloe Smith appeared on the show to defend a change in fuel duty policy, Paxman showed she was apparently too too junior to have any knowledge of the decision making process.

Paxman is not leaving his twenty-year role as presenter of University Challenge.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Jeremy Paxman to quit BBC Two's Newsnight" — BBC News Online, April 30, 2014
"Paxman's most memorable Newsnight encounters" — BBC News Online, April 30, 2014
Mark Smith and James Randerson. "Jeremy Paxman's top 10 Newsnight moments - in clips" — The Guardian, April 30, 2014
Hannah Ellis-Petersen. "Jeremy Paxman to quit Newsnight after 25 years" — The Guardian, April 30, 2014

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.