Tim Blair

Journalists Emmanuelle Richard and Aussie Tim Blair at Hustler Jail Babes Party (27 May 1999)

Tim Blair (born 1965) is an Australian editor, journalist, conservative political commentator and prominent blogger. He is based in Sydney, Australia.

Blair was raised and educated in Werribee, Victoria. He began a journalism cadetship in 1988 at the now-defunct Truth newspaper in Melbourne. In mid-2001 he began blogging at Blogspot. By 2004 Blair had attracted a significant following, the Sydney Morning Herald describing him as a "top dog among the new Australian digerati" who "some days draws more than 20,000 readers to his website."^[1] In 2006 his relocated blog, timblair.net, was voted second "Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog" in the 2006 Weblog Awards.^[2]

In addition to running his blog, Blair is the opinion editor for the Sydney Daily Telegraph,^[3] where he also writes a weekly column. He was previously a news editor and regular columnist for the now-defunct The Bulletin. He has also worked as a journalist and senior editor at Time, Truth and Sports Illustrated,^[4] and has also written for Fox News. Blair has also appeared on 4BC, Radio National and the ABC programme Insiders.

Personal life

Blair supports the Collingwood Football Club and lives in Bondi Junction, Sydney. He is married. In January 2008, Blair announced on his blog that he had abdominal cancer^[5] and wrote about his impending surgery (and encouragement from Tony Snow) in a newspaper column.^[6] The surgery was successful and Blair went into remission.^[5][7]

Politics

Blair is known for his conservative political views. He is critical of Islamofascism and those he considers climate change alarmists and hypocrites. He has criticised the work of other journalists and bloggers, including Margo Kingston and writers Elizabeth Farrelly, Mike Carlton, Terry Lane, Mark Lawson, Tracee Hutchison of The Age and Robert Fisk. Politician Al Gore and cartoonist Michael Leunig are also regular targets. In contrast, Blair frequently quotes writers such as Mark Steyn, James Lileks and Andrew Bolt with approval.

Starting a few days after George W. Bush's visit to Baghdad during Thanksgiving 2003, Blair has documented and debunked claims that a roast turkey Bush was photographed holding up was plastic.^{[8][9][10][11]} The roast turkey was real.^[12]

Some bloggers use the term "Blair's Law [sic]" to describe a theoretical alliance or shared empathy between far right groups, far left groups and extremist Islamists. In 2002 Blair described this supposed alliance as an "ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force"^[13]). The phrase has been adopted and embraced by several conservative and libertarian bloggers.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Controversy

As an outspoken columnist and blogger, Blair has sometimes been subject to criticism.

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.^[18] Blair and the Telegraph reported that Media Watch had themselves failed to censor antisemitic comments at their own website,^[19][20] and that their story relied on "unacknowledged assistance"^[21] from "Muslim Village, [a website which] is guilty itself of publishing offensive comments".^[22] The ABC later launched an internal inquiry into Media Watch's dealings with Muslim Village.^[23]

In March 2009, Pure Poison, a blog hosted by online media site Crikey, alleged that Blair "comments under a pseudonym on his blog and various other blogs" and was "unprofessional in his conduct as a journalist".^[24] Both Pure Poison and Crikey issued a partial retraction a few days later. In April 2010, Pure Poison and Crikey fully retracted their report and apologised,^[24] after Blair commenced legal action.^[25] Blair subsequently accepted a confidential settlement.^[26] This legal action drew claims of hypocrisy from some quarters, based on Blair once claiming that "journalists suing journalists" was "graceless and weird".^[27]

In August 2010, Crikey amended an online article, written by Guy Rundle, that "misrepresented the views of Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt", admitting that "references to them were offensive and indefensible."^[28]

References

External links

• Tim Blair Blog - The Daily Telegraph (May 2008)
• Tim Blair's weblog - archive only since move to Daily Telegraph Site
• Right Wing News - The Tim Blair Interview (April 2002)