The prospects of a beautiful friendship between Paxman and Birt were never great, for the two men stand at opposite ends of the journalistic spectrum. Birt is famous for his detestation of journalists who 'pick at the scabs' of society. Like Walter Lippman, he sees the function of journalism as explaining to the average citizen the complexities of social and political issues. Modern society is very complicated, Lippman argued. Its problems are not amenable to simplistic analysis or righteous posturing.
Decisions have to be made by experts.
The role of journalism is that of 'engineering the consent' of the governed to whatever those in authority have, in their wisdom, decided to do. Having read H.L. Mencken's opinion that the correct relationship of a journalist to a politician was that of a dog to a lamppost', he once said, 'there was really only one career open to me'. He has been cocking a leg at the political establishment ever since. His languid posture and angular features are interpreted by some as a whole-body sneer. I am always asking myself', he once said, 'why is this lying bastard lying to me'.