The Media Interview

A common tactic by interviewers is to find a quote from the past which contradicts what the person now says. Catching out someone making a u-turn is generally perceived as a “gotcha” moment, but I thought it was interesting that famed British TV interviewer Jeremy Paxman – known for some gotcha moments of his own – challenged that perception in a recent interview by Decca Aitkenhead for The Guardian:

He is more willing to examine the charge that his approach doesn’t always find things out. Asked if programmes that ruthlessly prosecute gaffes may share some of the blame for “pointless sloganising”, he reflects: “Yes, there’s something in that. Of course it’s great fun to go back and see what a politician has said in the past, and say, now, ‘Do you remember these words?’ Charles Clarke was very funny: I once read out something and said, ‘Do you recognise these words?’ And he said, ‘No I don’t, but they’re rather well-argued and cogently put. I think it’s probably me, isn’t it?’” Paxman lets out a great hoot of laughter. “But you know, you confront them with something they or the party leadership have said in the past as if it’s some mortal sin to change your mind. And the really impressive ones say, ‘Yes, I used to think that, but since then I’ve learned X, Y and Z, or I’ve thought about it a little more, and I’ve changed my mind, I was wrong then.’ This inability to say that you have thought about a subject and changed your mind seems to me just pointless. And the media saying, ‘Ooh, you’ve done a U-turn,’ is just pathetic.”

From the chief prosecutor of U-turns, this seems a bit rich… [my emphasis]