BBC presenter Reeta Chakrabarti has hit out at Jeremy Paxman after the latter claimed that “any fool” could present a news bulletin.
Paxman has made a series of criticisms of the BBC and television news since stepping down from Newsnight almost seven years ago, stating that “newsreading is an occupation for an articulated suit”.
Chakrabarti presenter of the BBC news bulletins has disagreed with this assessment. In her interview with the Radio Times, she said, “It’s his opinion, but I wonder why he says it when he spent quite a few years himself reading an Autocue. And if I’m presenting the One O’Clock News, I’ve written a lot of what I’m reading out. Those aren’t someone else’s words.
“I’m a journalist, I know what the stories are, I discuss them with the editor and the correspondent, and I pride myself on being able to write with simplicity and clarity. Maybe ‘any fool’ can do this, but I think it’s a skill.”
Her statement arrives after Paxman, said earlier this year, “I can’t see any point in reading the news at all. Reading aloud, do you remember reading aloud at school? That’s what it is. I don’t think it has any grandeur or skill or anything to it. Any fool can do it.”
