Galloway vs Paxman

[Kris]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/blog/4519553.stm
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"fashioned by the blade of a world that doesn't care,
feeling so removed, drifting thru stealing air then...
pause and think about it, try to move and shift the pain, but it's there you feel it kicking and you scream and feel alive."

[Guest]

I was at the first anti-war march in Hyde Park, where the lovely George came on the stage to give Iraq a cursory mention and then start a chant of ‘victory to the interfada’. There were all these people giving out magazines with artistic impressions of suicide bomber’s soul leaving their body, during his speech. I supported most of what was said that day, but George left me feeling a bit queasy.

[gillworm]

I was at the Stop the war demo when he spoke to, he's an overbearing egomaniac, it was lovely watching the interview. And you have to wonder what happens in these constituencies where they have essentially one-issue candidates become MPS, what will they do about the issues that they haven't thought about?

[Peace Cat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4538735.stm

Just to show its not all going George's way (it was me who posted the guest comments above, but I haven't got a vendetta against the man) here is the story about the US senate getting on his case about oil money. It may not be an issue about how he represents Bethnal Green at all if someone acts on this, although these are apparently old allegations.

[Tommy Tynans Lovechild]

i was in californ IA when george took 'em on, having breakfast i were and it was ace. he was fantastic. then read some smug gits article in the independent saying he was just a working class bully n shite like that. he was ace, they are trying to stitch him up again, the "evidence" came from a bloke who'd already been convicted of forgery etc and the document offered as eveidence has a list of peoples names all in the same font n that except for gg's who - get this!!! - has his name slanted across the bottom of the document in a totally different font to the rest of it etc etc.

s
h
i
t
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go george go george!

[Tommy Tynans Lovechild]

ps paxmans a shitester - give us john pilger any day!!!

[Guest]

Pilgers hearts in the right place, and hes brave and passionate and all that, but he's a little too, I dunno, sometimes he goes a bit, well, I guess sometimes he reminds me a little of David Icke.

Id like to add a disclaimer here that his writing has also influenced me a great deal and once lead me to Palestine in a failed attempt to become a frontline journalist so I dont wanna dis him too much but he does, like Michael Moore, tend to paint things in terms of good and evil ALL the time, there are few shades of grey in hs work - which I guess is where the stupid David Icke comparison came from.

Paxman on the other hand is kind of scary, but Im glad he's around, cause he's real entertaining, pretty smart, and he lead to the Day Today (best programme ever made)

[Setareh Juventina]

Does the journalist not seem insane to anyone else? What kind of a question is that? 'Are you proud of having got rid of one of few black women in parliament'...if the interview object responds badly that's his right really.
So what? He should not have tried to become an MP to keep someone in simply because of their skin color?

Love & Peace
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Man is the only animal clever enough to build The Empire State Building and stupid enough to jump from it.

[Tommy Tynans Lovechild]

Pilger

Can understand the comments and there are times when his New Statesman columuns are just a little bit one sided... though (like Moore) when so much of the press so readily misrepresents in favour of governments or (generally) right wing politics then i think there's little choice for the likes of Pilger and Moore to be anything but passionate and one sided.

Paxman

Didn't think the question was that outrageous and there was merit in asking why he pursued that seat above other more known pro-war politicians seats. But the person he ousted was pro-war and always stuck me as a political careerist rather than a political activist (if that follows) so I'm not sympathetic to her losing her seat.

[Setareh Juventina]

Okay, it sounds like the story is more complex and my knowledge of British parliamentary elections not that extensive. Still, if I had asked a question like that in my time as a journalist student I'm sure my teachers would've attempted murder on me.

I still think it's a very strange way of putting a question.

Love & Peace
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Man is the only animal clever enough to build The Empire State Building and stupid enough to jump from it.

[Tommy Tynans Lovechild]

Whilst I think it was worth challenging George about his choice of seat (and some of the other issues raised in postings above!!), the question wasn't the greatest. I think Paxman wanted to rile him as much as possible so went for one that would do just that - challenge any left wing person about how they'd feel in taking the seat off one of the very very few black female mp's and you'd do just that.

As for our political system, it sucks. Only 2 parties ever stand a chance of winning and whilst our 3rd main one (Liberal) can - on occasion - hold some kind of balance of power its really hard to get a chance of winning when your number of seats in parliament doesn't represent your actual nationwide vote. We really need PR (proportinal representation) but it ain't gonna happen. If yer labour or tory and you know you can rule the country despite getting little more than 1 in 5 of the electorate to vote for you, your hardly gonna change it! Shame.

[Setareh Juventina]

I guess for me what made the question more horrible was the way he put it, instead of saying 'how does it feel running for that seat and have one of the...' he goes with the childish option of 'Do you feel proud...'.

Love & Peace
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Man is the only animal clever enough to build The Empire State Building and stupid enough to jump from it.

[mixedcasesspaces]

I agree, Paxman went a bit too far and didn't make himself look good. He wasn't really interviewing Galloway, he was just trying to raise a point of his own. He did phrase things in a deliberately bullying way.

Not that I like Galloway incidentally, and I usually like Paxman.
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[Setareh Juventina]