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Martin Bashir
Born	19 January 1963 (1963-01-19) (age 46) South London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Journalist, Anchor

Martin Bashir (born 19 January 1963) is a Pakistani-British journalist and media personality.

[edit] Early life

Bashir was born in Wandsworth, South London to Christian^[1] parents of Pakistani origin and grew up in Wandsworth. He was educated at the state comprehensive Wandsworth School for Boys and King Alfred's College of Higher Education, Winchester (since 2004 the University of Winchester), studying English and History from 1982-1985, and at King's College London.

[edit] 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.

Bashir is currently employed by ABC and co-presents their current affairs show Nightline. Along with Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran, he took over Nightline from Ted Koppel in 2005 following the famous news anchor's final broadcast.

Bashir had a role as himself in the comedy film Mike Bassett: England Manager.

[edit] Michael Jackson interviews

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 million in the UK and 38 million in the US, 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 allegations of child molestation made against Jackson. The New York Times called Bashir's journalism style "callous self-interest masked as sympathy."^[2]

In response, Jackson and his personal cameraman released a rebuttal interview, which showed Bashir complimenting Jackson for the "spiritual" quality of the Neverland Ranch, thus contradicting the journalist's previous statements that it was a "dangerous place" for children. Bashir also describes Jackson as a wonderful father and says that Jackson's relationship with his children "almost makes him weep".^[3] As a result of this controversy, Bashir was voted fifth in the Channel 4 poll 100 Worst Britons, just behind Margaret Thatcher and Jade Goody. As a result of this documentary Bashir was offered a job with the US network ABC.^[4][5][6]

Dieter Wiesner, the pop star's manager from 1996 to 2003, stated about the influence of Bashir's documentary on Michael Jackson:

It broke him. It killed him. He took a long time to die, but it started that night. Previously the drugs were a crutch, but after that they became a necessity.^[7]

After Michael Jackson's death in June 2009, in an interview with The Sun newspaper, Bashir stated in his defence,

When I made the documentary, there was a small part that contained a controversy concerning his relationship with young people. But the truth is that he was never convicted of any crime, and I never saw any wrongdoing myself.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Martin Bashir at the Internet Movie Database
• ABC News Bio