- Miranda Devine
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Miranda Devine is an Australian columnist and writer noted for her conservative stance on a range of social and political issues. Her column, formerly printed twice weekly in Fairfax Media newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, now appears in the News Limited Daily Telegraph with frequent posts on the Telegraph blogs.
Life and career
While in Tokyo, Devine and her two younger sisters attended an American International School and learned to speak Japanese fluently.[1] A devout Roman Catholic, Devine completed her high school education at Loreto Kirribilli, a Catholic girls' private school in Sydney. After school, she completed a mathematics degree at Macquarie University. On receipt of her degree, Devine joined the CSIRO in their textile physics division. She would however only spend a year there, finding the work unrewarding.
In 2001, after Allan had left for New York, Devine turned down the Telegraph's offer of more money and took up an offer to write for its main rival The Sydney Morning Herald. Devine is a personal friend of fellow conservative columnist Tim Blair, who said of her: "She's got good antennae. She can read people which is why she accurately predicts election results".[1]
When interviewed for an April 2007 article in The Australian about hate mail received by female columnists, Devine commented: "You are contesting ideas and you have to do it in a polarising way. When you write a column, you can't sit on the fence".[2]
Devine is a member of the editorial advisory board of the conservative Quadrant magazine.[3]
On 6 August 2010, The Daily Telegraph announced that Devine would be returning as a columnist for both The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.[4]
In their book, Silencing Dissent (Allen & Unwin), Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison accuse Miranda Devine of belonging to a "syndicate of right-wing commentators who receive favour from the Howard Government."[5]
In 2007, Devine travelled to Iraq with Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson and two other conservative columnists. Her resulting positive report[6] was criticised by Media Watch.[7]
In 2011 Devine created controversy when she used the news of Australian Minister Penny Wong's decision to parent a child with her female partner as the basis of a column, in which she argued that recent riots in England were the result of a "fatherless society" – that is, a society that increasingly accepts children growing up in gay and single mother households.[8][9]
References
- ^ a b Diana Bagnall (24 November 2004). "Who is Miranda Devine?". The Bulletin.
- ^ Sally Jackson (12 April 2007). "You've got hate mail: It's her job to have opinions, but does saying what they really think make female columnists particularly vulnerable?". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21539839-7582,00.html.
- ^ Quadrant — Editorial Advisory Board, Quadrant magazine website
- ^ "Columnist Miranda Devine returns". The Daily Telegraph. 6 August 2010. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/columnist-miranda-devine-returns/story-e6freuy9-1225902253996.
- ^ "How a right-wing, pro-Howard cabal is stifling debate", an excerpt from Silencing Dissent, printed in The Australian on 31 January 2007
- ^ "Those boots make a difference", Miranda Devine, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 September 2007
- ^ "Good Morning Iraq" Media Watch, 10 September 2007
- ^ Devine, Miranda (14th August 2011). "The Problems of a Fatherless Society". The Daily Telegraph. http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/its_a_myth_conception/. Retrieved 14th August 2011.
- ^ {{cite news | last = Deveny | first = Catherine | author link = Catherine Deveny | date = 17 August 2011 | title = Why equal rights activists need Miranda Devine more than rallies | work = The Drum | publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation | url = http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2842140.html | accessdate = 24 August 2011 }]
External links
Categories:- Australian journalists
- Living people
- People from New York
- 1960s births
- Australian Roman Catholics
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