Edinburgh’s MacTaggart Lecture: Prince Andrew Interviewer Emily Maitlis Warns Of Populism’s Power Over Mainstream Media Since Donald Trump & Brexit, And Unveils Blueprint For Change

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British broadcaster Emily Maitlis has warned that populism has overcome the power of the mainstream media to hold politicians to account in the wake of Donald Trump’s popularity and Brexit, and unveiled a blueprint for wrestling back control in her MacTaggart lecture Wednesday.Delivering this year’s annual Edinburgh TV Festival address as she takes a “deep breath” following her recent BBC exit, the former Newsnight presenter, globally recognized as the journalist behind the notorious Prince Andrew interview, said “one set of rules had been replaced with another” when Trump won the U.S.

presidency in 2016.She used a string of examples from the past five years, including the infamous Robert De Niro rant against Trump, to explain the way in which the media has allowed populists to dominate.

It was part of her thoughtful speech entitled “Boiling Frog: Why We Have To Stop Normalising The Absurd.”The mainstream media has suffered from “both side-ism,” which “talks to the way it reaches a superficial balance whilst obscuring a deeper truth,” she said, in what could be seen as a coded criticism of BBC impartiality — something she has fallen foul of in the past.Maitlis left the BBC earlier this year and her new podcast The News Agents, which she presents with former BBC North America Editor Jon Sopel, will launch on Global next week.“To those of you wondering why this still feels like the Brexit and Trump days, I’ll say this: they are,” she stressed as she delivered the annual Edinburgh address.“Those two seismic shifts have not been and gone.

They’ve come and stayed. Eighteen months after an attempted coup on the Capitol – and on the democratic functioning of America – the architect behind the lie that brought the rioters is