Tim Blair

Tim Blair is a conservative Australian journalist, blogger and columnist in The Bulletin.

History

Blair was a senior editor of Time magazine and subsequently a columnist with the Daily Telegraph (a Sydney newspaper which is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation stable). He left the Telegraph in July 2000 in what was described at the time as a "spectacular walk-out".

For several years he was a regular columnist with Murdoch's The Australian and occasionally with the Fairfax-owned business paper, the Australian Financial Review.

In 2001, he and Imre Salusinszky hosted a shortlived weekly one-hour radio program, The Continuing Crisis, that was intended to respond to conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard's plea for a right wing answer to the Late Night Live program of Philip Adams on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Radio National. (The ABC is the government funded public broadcaster, the equivalent of the BBC).

The program - an initiative of the then Managing Director Jonathan Shier - ran from June to September 2001, when it was scrapped due to low ratings. Salusinszky subsequently complained that "we were given a tiny office, containing one desk and one phone". (Their office space was no worse than is provided to other specialist programs).

Blair supports the Iraq war, is dismissive of environmentalism, critical of the publicly funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation and supportive of the Australian governments hardline approach to asylum seekers arriving by boat. He has also suggested that a religous charity supporting projects at odds with government policies - such as preparing for humanitarian relief work ahead of the Iraq war or supporting Pacific Islanders at risk from climate change - should be stripped of government funding.

While Blair adopts the role of being a media watchdog criticising what he perceives as 'left wing' media outlets and journalists, he has been challenged over errors he has made. [1]

External links

• Amanda Meade, The Diary, The Australian, August 17, 2000.
• Imre Salusinszky, "Twisted fate for right wing Phillip Adams", The Australian, June 6, 2002.
• Tim Blair, Aunty tangled up in ideology, The Australian, August 11, 2003.
• Tim Blair, Balancing the blooper count with what's Left, The Australian, January 2, 2003
• Tim Blair, Enemy lines no hindrance to giving, The Australian, December 19, 2002
• Tim Blair, There's no clear way ahead when green fades into red, The Australian, September 5, 2002
• Tim Blair, McHaters all: get real and burger off, The Australian, January 17, 2002.
• David Marr, "Blair is toppled", Mediawatch, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, May 5, 2003.