Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has disputed claims that the television industry is dominated by men, saying that White middle-class men instead face discrimination, particularly at the BBC.
LONDON: Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has disputed claims that the television industry is dominated by men, saying that White middle-class men instead face discrimination, particularly at the BBC.
"Do I think it's a man's world in television? That is the most ridiculous question I have been asked all week," 58-year-old Paxman said in a pre-recorded interview screened at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
"The worst thing you can be in this industry is a middle-class white male. If any middle-class white male I come across says he wants to enter television I say 'give up all hope'. They've no chance."
He cited the examples of Jana Bennett, the director of BBC Television and Jay Hunt, the Controller of BBC One, as women who had reached at the top in television.
Broadcaster Mariella Frostrup dismissed Paxman's comments saying, "He lists women because he couldn't possibly name all the men in positions of power in TV because he would be there all bloody day.
He talks about middle-class white men being a beleaguered species on BBC. Well, excuse me, but Jonathan Ross, Jeremy on Newsnight ... Look at the Today programme, Have I Got News for You, Newsnight. It seems to me that TV is a fantastic place for middle-class white males."
Katherine Rake, director of the Fawcett Society, who was in the audience, said, "Unfortunately, he's very out of touch with reality, with what's going on in TV. There is a failure to represent women in terms of news and political content."
Jay Hunt said that male TV viewers often felt "disenfranchised".
"Sixty per cent of television viewing of BBC One and most channels is done by women and it was hard for broadcasters to find large male audiences except for sports programmes," she said.
"I do think there's quite a profound sense among male viewers that they have been disenfranchised by television. There's a Jeremy Paxman-esque malaise among male viewers who feel they haven't got anywhere else to go," Hunt added.
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