Newsnight’s arts coverage has descended into a string of fawning advertorials

Newsnight‘s decision to interview misogynist comedian Daniel ‘Dapper Laughs’ O’Reilly has been slammed as a cynical ratings grab, a descent even from the depths plumbed by devoting 15 minutes to Russell Brand’s latest booky-wook. The criticism is misplaced, however. In both interviews, the respective hosts, Emily Maitlis and Evan Davis, dissected their subjects’ work and challenged their arguments. It’s in Newsnight‘s coverage of high culture, not popular culture, where the rot has set in, with a proliferation of glossy advertorials that have no journalistic purpose.

In the past six weeks, Newsnight has presented us with the following: an interview with Howard Hodgkin to coincide with his exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery, Mayfair; an interview with Michael Caine ahead of the release of his new movie Interstellar; curator Neil MacGregor giving us a ‘virtual tour’ of the British Museum’s Germany exhibition; film director Mike Leigh, who has a film out on Turner, in conversation with Nicholas Serota of the Tate galleries, which is also exhibiting Turner; and there were the six back-to-back interviews with the shortlisted authors of the Booker Prize.