By Last week, Professor Jordan Peterson was interviewed by Channel 4’s Cathy Newman and, if you are reading this article then, chances are, that is all the introduction to this sordid affair that you will need. Clocking nearly 3 million views in less than a week as well as 113,000 Likes (compared to 2,000 Dislikes) and just under 55,000 comments, the interview has gone viral.
The big problem here, from Channel 4’s perspective, is how easily and deftly Peterson cuts down Newman’s aggressive and infantile ‘interviewing techniques’ – he shows her to be a complete fool.It is truly invigorating watching Newman try to reconcile (and contort) the Truth presented to her by Peterson with the Narrative she has festering in her mind, only to fail drastically. Peterson recognised this immediately, after years of experience he can smell ideological possession a country mile away.
This is not good publicity for Channel 4 and Ms Newman. Fan edits of the interview mock her, memes such as those below do much more of the same, the comments section of the interview on YouTube question her intellectual credibility and her ability to function as a newsreader and Douglas Murray penned an excellent article deriding the so-called ‘interview’.