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| James Purnell, on the right - or not |
Samira Ahmed's Newswatch also covered the Newnsight debate with the BBC's head of strategy James Purnell and the Daily Mail's Stephen Glover. A viewer complained:
Never was the gravitas of Jeremy Paxman more missed than on last night's debate. The behaviour of James Purnell, in never allowing Stephen Glover to get a single point in, without shouting him down, was an utter disgrace, and Evan Davis did nothing to control the discussion whatsoever.
This was definitely the much-discussed "aggressive" new face of the BBC on display. James Purnell was clearly intent on interrupting and rubbishing every point Mr Glover made, come what may, Stephen Glover took it in good humour, though he must have found it frustrating.
Newsnight has posted the whole thing on YouTube. What tickled me about them doing so is this -which you'll see if you watch it on YouTube (rather than here at ITBB):
Yes, the BBC that wants to hear from us, the public, doesn't want to hear from us on this YouTube video.
(A candidate for "You couldn't make it up!" status?)
