Janet Albrechtsen

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Janet Albrechtsen (born 1966) is an Australian opinion columnist, social commentator and conservative pundit with the News Limited-owned newspaper, The Australian. She is also a Board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's state-owned national broadcaster.

Albrechtsen was born in Adelaide and graduated in law from Adelaide University, then moved to Sydney and worked as a commercial lawyer. She has a doctorate in law from the University of Sydney Law School and has taught as an academic. Since turning to commentary, she has worked for the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age and the conservative literary and political journal Quadrant.

Albrechtsen's political views are strongly conservative. Her articles demonstrate a consistent and close alignment with the philosophical positions of the Howard government and the Bush administration, and she is often sharply critical of those who question these governments' policies, such as the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. She frequently comments on legal issues, arguing against what she views as unacceptable tendencies towards judicial activism in decisions of both the High Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia. Her commentaries also repeatedly criticise the advocates of certain broad theories or groups, such as feminism, Muslim culture, gay and lesbian rights, postmodernism, multiculturalism, trade unions, the Australian Labor Party, left-wing historians and anti-Americanism.

As a result, Albrechtsen has attracted vigorous criticism of her own, particularly from various elements of the political left, who charge that she often fails to adequately address or acknowlede the diverse range of theories, movements or philosophies within each of the groups she attacks. Some have also accused her of sloppy journalism or outright misrepresentation and plagiarism. In 2002 the ABC's Media Watch programme demonstrated that she had misquoted a French psychiatrist, Jean-Jacques Rassial, and claimed that she had deliberately done this to make it look as though violence and gang rape were institutionalised elements of the culture of Muslim youths.^[1] Albrechtsen did not deny the misquote, but responded by accusing her critics, particularly Media Watch, of inherent left-wing bias, and of deliberately leading a witch-hunt against contrary views.

Former Labor Party leader Mark Latham once described Albrechtsen as a "skanky ho who would die in a ditch for the Liberal Party".^[2] ("Skanky ho" is an American slang term meaning "smelly prostitute," or more commonly in today's usage, "slutty whore." Latham later claimed he did not know the exact meaning of the term when he used it.) Albrechtsen denied Latham's charge.

In February 2005 Albrechtsen was appointed by the Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan to the board of the ABC. The appointment was criticised by, among others, former Media Watch host David Marr, who questioned whether she was qualified for such a position in light of her prior breach of journalistic conduct.^[3]

Albrechtsen had been a regular and vocal critic of the ABC prior to her appointment to its Board. Once appointed she undertook not to make further comments on the ABC in her newspaper columns.

[edit] References

^ Janet Albrechtsen's View. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (9 September 2002). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
^ The Latham Diaries, p. 202.
^ Caldwell, Alison (24 February 2005). ABC critic appointed to board of directors. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.