Martin Bashir
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Martin Bashir (born January 19 1963, London) is a English journalist and media personality.
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Early life
Bashir was born in South London to Pakistani Christian parents and grew up in Wandsworth. He was educated at King Alfred's College of Higher Education, Winchester (since 2004 the University of Winchester), studying English & History from 1982-1985, and at King's College London. He still keeps a house in Winchester.
Career
He started work as a journalist in 1986. He worked for the BBC until 1999 on programmes including Songs of Praise, Public Eye and Panorama and then he joined ITV, working on special documentary programmes and features for Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Bashir came to wide prominence in 1995 when he interviewed (for the BBC's Panorama programme) Diana, Princess of Wales about her failed marriage to the Prince of Wales. Since then he has conducted interviews with, among others, Louise Woodward, the five suspects in the Stephen Lawrence case, Michael Barrymore, Jeffrey Archer, Major Charles Ingram, and Joanne Lees.....
Other work
Bashir is currently employed by ABC and co-presents their current affairs show 20/20. He also took over from Ted Koppel in 2005 following the famous news anchors final broadcast for Nightline, and had a small role as himself in the comedy film Mike Bassett: England Manager.
Controversies
Michael Jackson interview
In 2003, Bashir conducted a series of interviews with pop singer Michael Jackson, as part of a documentary for ITV. Following the broadcast, which was viewed by 14,000,000 people, several media personalities accused Bashir of yellow journalism, claiming that he deliberately doctored the recordings in order to paint Jackson in an unflattering light, as well as emphasising the entertainer's recent trial for alleged child molestation. In response, Jackson and his personal cameraman released a rebuttal interview, which showed Bashir complimenting Jackson on his abilities as a father and grace under pressure, thus contradicting the journalist's previous statements.
As a result of this controversy, he came fifth in the notorious Channel 4 poll 100 Worst Britons, just behind Margaret Thatcher and Jade Goody.
Journalism dinner
In July 2008, Martin Bashir provoked a storm of protest following lewd and lascivious remarks he made whilst hosting a dinner for the Asian American Journalists' Association. The controversy first arose when he described his female colleagues as "Asian babes", made suggestive comments on their choice of dress and joked about how he was "glad the podium covers me from the waist down".
Religion
Bashir has described himself as a staunch Christian.
