Quite right. I don't assume that Paxman has any of the opinions he appears to espouse, he's trying to get at the truth of the matter in a way that people unfamiliar with the topic can understand.
It's part of an interviewers job to ask the questions that the random person on the street would like answered. Sometimes an aggressive style is the best way to force the interviewee to get to the heart of the matter and make their best arguments (which is part of why lots of Colberts interviews are actually very good).
Perhaps it's cultural. I've noticed before that when Stephen Sackur interviews people from some cultures (including the USA) on HardTalk, and he asks them a difficult question, or confronts them with the opinions of their critics, they assume that he is personally attacking them. Interviewers are there to get the interviewees to talk and answer the questions that the viewers will have. It doesn't matter what their personal opinions are, and you shouldn't expect to be able to infer them based on the questions they ask.
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Quite right. I don't assume that Paxman has any of the opinions he appears to espouse, he's trying to get at the truth of the matter in a way that people unfamiliar with the topic can understand.
It's part of an interviewers job to ask the questions that the random person on the street would like answered. Sometimes an aggressive style is the best way to force the interviewee to get to the heart of the matter and make their best arguments (which is part of why lots of Colberts interviews are actually very good).
Perhaps it's cultural. I've noticed before that when Stephen Sackur interviews people from some cultures (including the USA) on HardTalk, and he asks them a difficult question, or confronts them with the opinions of their critics, they assume that he is personally attacking them. Interviewers are there to get the interviewees to talk and answer the questions that the viewers will have. It doesn't matter what their personal opinions are, and you shouldn't expect to be able to infer them based on the questions they ask.