Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Balls of concrete: Paxo talking pants

Today at The Enemies of Reason we salute someone who has fought against discrimination and prejudice, broken through the glass ceiling, and now stands as a champion for decency against unfairness and closed shops.

It must have been hard to get into a good university after being schooled at Malvern College and Charterhouse, but somehow he made it through to St Catharine's College, Cambridge. And from there, remarkably, to the BBC, who have always, it is well known, shown themselves to be hostile and hateful towards anyone from a private school/Oxbridge background. How did Jeremy Paxman do it? Who knows. One can but marvel.

It must have been brave for Paxman to have spoken to the Edinburgh TV Festival, that well-known hotbed of radical feminism - indeed, one can fully sympathise with the great man's distress at sneaking behind enemy lines and bravely deciding to record an interview rather than be there.

Speaking on a filmed interview, which was aired at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Paxman said: 'The worst thing you can be in this industry now is to be a middle-class white male.

The worst thing? The worst thing? Now, if I can steal a phrase from the maestro himself, come off it: the worst thing? Seriously? So if I were to walk into the BBC tomorrow, I would find that rung true?

Well, if I look at this list of BBC Trustees, I do see more women than men, and - horror of horrors - a couple of brown faces; well done to those brave white, middle-class men who have made it through - God alone knows how you did it. And look at how director-general Mark Thompson himself valiantly fought against his private school/Oxbridge background to make it to the very top; oh it brings a tear to the eye. The courage of it!

Paxo isn't alone. There are many who share this point of view, no matter what walk of life they come from, reasoning that 'diversity' and 'political correctness' have given them a hard time, and their relative failures in life are not because of their own shortcomings but because of some hidden agenda from the 'liberal elite' who are out to promote the mythical 'one-armed black lesbian' instead of the better qualified straight white male, merely to tick a few boxes. It's a convenient thing to think, I suppose, but sooner or later we all have to look at our own mediocrity and realise that sometimes, things just don't go our way because we aren't that good, and we're never going to be that good. There's only so long you can mutter away about there being a big conspiracy to stop you looking at the harsh reality of what life has served up for you and how you just might not be as good at the job.

But then, these people are failures, with a chip on their shoulders; these people have what they regard as being righteous anger against a system that has failed them, as they see it. Paxo, on the other hand, is right at the top of his game. If you're a TV journalist and presenter, it's pretty good to have your own topical news show AND your own TV quiz show. For someone who's 'the worst possible thing' in television, television has treated him pretty well, hasn't it? I mean, I can't think of a single black TV presenter who has that. Or a female presenter? Or a working-class presenter? The closest 'diversity' example I can think of, though Jeremy P didn't mention this himself, is Graham Norton, an out gay man, who has a late-night TV chat show and a primetime light entertainment programme. But even then, Norton is white, middle class and male - which surely should have ruled him out of those opportunities, given Paxo's logic?

Anyway, seeing as it's late, I'm tired, fed up, bunged up with a stinking cold and feeling sick and miserable (it must be the diversity Nazis' fault), I'll leave the last word to someone else, from 1999 by Chris Rock that seem particularly relevant when I think of Paxo. Just never forget how good it is to be white:

Racism everywhere.
Who's the maddest people? White people. Not y'all. Y'all all right. You paid money to see me, we cool. The feud is over.
No, you watch the TV, watch 60 Minutes. You see white people pissed off, man. Man, the white man thinks he's losing the country.
You watch the news: ''We're losing everything. We're fucking losing.
''Affirmative action, and illegal aliens...
''and we're fucking losing the country.''
Losing? Shut the fuck up. White people ain't losing shit.
lf y'all losing, who's winning?
lt ain't us. lt ain't us.
Have you driven around this motherfucker?
lt ain't us.
Shit, there ain't a white man in this room that would change places with me. None of you would change places with me.
And l'm rich!
That's how good it is to be white.
There's a white, one-legged busboy in here right now... that won't change places with my black ass. He's going, ''No, man, l don't wanna switch. l wanna ride this white thing out. ''See where it takes me.'' That's right, 'cause when you white, the sky's the limit. When you black, the limit's the sky!

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