Tim Blair

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Tim Blair is a journalist, commentator and blogger working in Sydney, Australia. His columns and blog are generally written in a humorous style, from a conservative viewpoint. He was born in Werribee, Victoria.

In 2004, the Sydney Morning Herald said that "Blair, 39, is top dog among the new Australian digerati. He is an experienced, conservative political commentator who some days draws more than 20,000 readers to his website. He even earns about $800 a month from advertising."[1] In 2006, timblair.net polled second only to the newspaper blog All Men Are Liars in the 2006 Weblog Awards category of "Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog."[2]

In addition to running his blog, he is the opinion editor for the Sydney Daily Telegraph,[3] and writes a weekly column there. Before that, he was news editor for The Bulletin, for which he also wrote a column.

He is a former senior editor of Time, Truth and Sports Illustrated,[4] and has also written for Fox News.[5] He has also appeared on 4BC and Radio National.

On January 14, 2008, Blair announced on his blog that he has abdominal cancer and will be undergoing surgery.[6]

Contents

[edit] Politics

Blair is particularly critical of Islamofascism and those he regards as climate change alarmists and hypocrites. He also regularly critiques the work of bloggers such as Margo Kingston and writers Terry Lane, Mark Lawson, Tracee Hutchison of the Age and Robert Fisk. Politician Al Gore and cartoonist Michael Leunig are also regular targets, as are claims that George W. Bush held up a plastic turkey during his Thanksgiving 2003 visit to Baghdad.[7] The turkey was in fact genuine.[8].

In contrast, Blair frequently quotes writers such as Mark Steyn, James Lileks and Andrew Bolt with approval.

The notion of far right and far left groups allying with extremist Islamists is sometimes called "Blair's Law" ("the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force"[9]) by conservative and libertarian bloggers.[10][11][12][13]

[edit] Controversy

In 2007, Media Watch, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV program which Blair has often criticised, stated that The Daily Telegraph, other newspapers and Blair failed to censor racist comments on their websites.[14] Blair and the Telegraph reported that Media Watch had themselves failed to censor antisemitic comments at their own website,[15][16] and that their story relied on "unacknowledged assistance"[17] from "Muslim Village, [a website which] is guilty itself of publishing offensive comments".[18] The ABC later launched an internal inquiry into Media Watch's dealings with Muslim Village.[19]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Shooting for top dog in cyber town", Brigid Delaney, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 October 2004
  2. ^ The 2006 Weblog Awards — Best Australia or New Zealand Blog
  3. ^ "Employment News", TimBlair.net, 20 November 2006
  4. ^ "Just for the record", TimBlair.net, 2 September 2007
  5. ^ For example: "Sometimes Moore Is Less", Tim Blair, Fox News website, 22 March 2002
  6. ^ Tim Blair
  7. ^ "Turkey Roll", TimBlair.net, 31 August 2006
  8. ^ Corrections, 11 July 2004, The New York Times
  9. ^ Post by Tim Blair (at an earlier blog), 23 May 2002
  10. ^ "Ted Rall, David Duke, Robert Fisk, Lyndon LaRouche, al-Ahram, Hitler, Noam Chomsky, Blair's Law, the Arab News, and Me", Frank Portman, Blogs of War, 15 May 2002
  11. ^ "Why I am not Celebrating Today's News from Austria", Ben Ze'ev, Six Days blog, 21 February 2006
  12. ^ "It's Not Just A Good Idea, It's Blair's Law", Ed Driscoll, 4 September 2006
  13. ^ " Idiots of a Feather...", J. F. Beck, RWDB blog, 12 December 2006
  14. ^ "Have Your Spray", Media Watch, 18 June 2007
  15. ^ "Prejudice Expressed", Tim Blair, timblair.net, 19 June 2007
  16. ^ "Media Watch fails racism test", The Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2007
  17. ^ "Friends of the ABC", Tim Blair, timblair.net, 25 June 2007
  18. ^ "Antoinette Helped", Tim Blair, timblair.net, 27 June 2007
  19. ^ "Media Watch's jihadi sources", Richard Kerbaj, The Australian, 12 July 2007

[edit] External links