The Guardian view on life beyond Jeremy Paxman

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/18/guardian-view-life-beyond-jeremy-paxman

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"Did you threaten to overrule him?" "You were told some time today clearly; was it before lunch or after lunch?" "You don't pray together for example?" Jeremy Paxman has spent decades fashioning questions into blades. In the process, he has become one of the most recognisable faces on the box; built a presenting career worth £1m a year, and struck fear into the hearts of generations of the junior ministers who make up Newsnight's regular post-theatre menu of grilled meats (sorry, guests). Tonight, Mr Paxman reads his final autocue on the programme he fronted for 25 years. Aptly, he will leave behind some questions of his own – this time, about how the media treats politics.

Mr Paxman has been instrumental in establishing the combative political interview as a box-office event – a nightly fireworks display. With his departure, there are perhaps one or two others who still practise the art: most obviously, John Humphrys on the Today programme, and Channel 4's Jon Snow. That there are so few others is partly down to the change in media. When Mr Paxman did his first presenting shift on Newsnight, in 1989, there were no rolling-news channels, no Twitter, no Facebook and TV-am was just six years old. If a cabinet minister wanted a hearing, they were practically obliged to go on late-night BBC2. Now a party leader might well opt for a morning soft sofa and some light tweeting.

This fierce competition goes further than giving politicos more slots to fill; it also raises audience expectations. If Twitter breaks news, traditional bulletins now add the context previously the province of current-affairs discussion programmes – and the likes of Newsnight have to burrow even deeper, until they resemble mini-Panoramas or Dispatches. Similar forces can be seen at work on newspapers.

Does all this make redundant the set-piece political ping-pong match? Well, as Paxo himself likes to say: up to a point, Lord Copper. The form isn't dead yet – even if we'll miss one of its greatest exponents. We wish Mr Paxman well.

But political TV's future depends upon its ability to provide more context. Rather than recruit another silverback gorilla, Newsnight and other news outlets would be better off experimenting with other means of political discussion – allowing ministers greater time to ventilate questions (including ones to which they don't know the answers), bringing on interesting researchers to reinvigorate routine political debates and going beyond Westminster to see how politics and economics plays out in different localities. This means the high-command of New Broadcasting House taking gambles: if backbenchers are to be asked to discuss ideas, they'd better have some. But the prize is a great one: moving away from politics as an elite contest and making it much more democratic.