Piers Akerman
Piers Akerman | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 June 1950 |
| Education | Year 10 Certificate Guildford Grammar School |
| Occupation | Columnist/political commentator |
| Spouse | Suzanne |
Piers Akerman(born 12 June 1950) is an Australian columnist and conservative commentator for the Sydney newspaperThe Daily Telegraph.
Biography
[edit]Akerman was born inWewak,Papua New Guinea,the third son in a family of four children[1]of John, an Australian Government doctor, andEve Akerman(d. 2003), a newspaper columnist and reviewer.[1]The family left PNG forIndiain 1951, before returning toPerth, Western Australia.[1]
He attendedGuildford Grammar School,where he remained until his expulsion, when he was "asked to leave" following a dispute with theheadmaster.He spent the last few months of his schooling atChrist Church Grammar Schoolbut did not complete hisfinal exams.[2]
Career
[edit]Akerman worked for a time at British national newspaper,The Times,and spent ten years as aforeign correspondentin theUnited States.On returning to Australia, he was editor ofThe Advertiser,Adelaide(1988) andThe Sunday Herald Sun,Melbourne(1990). During 1990-92 he was editor-in-chief of theHerald & Weekly Timesgroup in Melbourne before becoming a vice-president ofFox News,USA in 1993.[3]
Mark Lathamwas known to weave complaints about Akerman's writing into his speeches.[4]
Periodically, Akerman was a regular panelist onABC Television's political commentary programInsiders,until his 16 June 2013 participation. This incident involved unfounded allegations about the then Prime Minister's de facto partner.[5]Akerman had also appeared on the ABC's political programQ&A.[6]
Controversies
[edit]Climate change denial
[edit]Akerman is aclimate change denierwith a history of public opposition to acarbon price.He approvingly quotes the work of theNongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change(NIPCC), run byFred Singer.[7]
In a November 2006 article inThe Daily Telegraph,Akerman mis-quoted senior IPCC scientistJohn T. Houghtonsaying "Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen", attributing the quotation to his 1994 bookGlobal Warming, The Complete Briefing.The mis-quote became widely used amongclimate change deniersto argue that climate change scientists showed a propensity to exaggerate their case. However, the mis-quote does not appear in any edition of the book. Houghton denied saying any such thing and believes the opposite to be true, commenting "I would never say we should hype up the risk of climate disasters in order to get noticed." In February 2010, Akerman responded by citing a September 1995 article in which Houghton was correctly quoted as saying "If we want a good environmental policy in the future, we'll have to have a disaster", adding that this passage was not much different to the misquotation Houghton had distanced himself from.[8]A subsequent report byMedia Watchnoted that Houghton's full remark did not carry the same meaning: "If we want a good environmental policy in the future we'll have to have a disaster. It's like safety on public transport. The only way humans will act is if there's been an accident."[9]
Sexual harassment
[edit]Five former employees, three of whom agreed to be named, have said they witnessed Akerman "sexually harass" female members of his staff, according to a 1991 story inThe Sunday Age.[2]
Assault threat
[edit]One of the most controversial episodes in Akerman's life was his alleged threat to assault the literary editor ofThe Advertiser,Shirley Stott Despoja.[2]The dispute ended before a full bench of the Supreme Court where the newspaper appealed against Stott Despoja's successful worker's compensation claim for stress-related sick leave pay. Stott Despoja alleged: "I was physically threatened by the editor while alone with him in an office in a dispute over my work". The appeal byThe Advertiserwas dismissed and Stott Despoja won her $4,000 claim.[2]
Defamation
[edit]In 2006, former director of NRMA Richard James Talbot was awarded a $200,000 defamation payout plus costs. In regards to one point the judgment read "The inaccuracies of fact by the defendant [Akerman] on this topic are gross".[10]
LGBT rights
[edit]In March 2018 Akerman suggested thatgay peopleneed to apologise forchild sex abuse.[11]
Same-sex marriage
[edit]In 2017, Akerman wrote that there were more pressing issues worrying Australians than voting on the issue ofsame-sex marriage.[12]
In 2018 he called the victory of the YES inAustralian Marriage Law Postal Survey"a victory for left's hate".[13]
References
[edit]- ^abc"Papua New Guinea Association of Australia - Vale List".2003.Retrieved30 August2007.
- ^abcd"The power of a Murdoch man".The Sunday Age. 12 August 1991.Retrieved28 August2007.
- ^"Conference Contributors, 14th Conference of The Samuel Griffith Society".samuelgriffith.org.au. 2002. Archived fromthe originalon 29 August 2007.Retrieved28 August2007.
- ^"Iron Mike Latham Goes Ballistic".crikey.com.au. 2002.Retrieved14 January2013.
- ^"Media Watch: The art of deflecting blame (17/06/2013)".Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Retrieved18 December2014.
- ^"Panelist: Piers Akerman Q&A ABC TV".Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Retrieved18 December2014.
- ^Akerman, Piers (31 July 2008)."Icy reality cools the climate cultists".News Ltd.Archived fromthe originalon 5 August 2008.Retrieved17 September2013.
Unlike the hysterical IPCC report, which was riddled with errors and mis-statements, ignored available scientific data, and has already been contradicted in several major areas by more recent research, the [NIPCC] authors don't say that anthropogenic greenhouse gases cannot produce some warming, but they do say that the evidence shows that they are not playing a major role.
- ^Piers Akerman (18 February 2010)."Malicious bullets fired by the global warmists' guns".The Daily Telegraph (Sydney).Archivedfrom the original on 9 September 2010.
- ^Jonathan Holmes.Malice, misquotes and Media Watchabc.net.au, 24 February 2010.
- ^"NRMA director awarded $200,000".The Courier-Mail.news.com.au.Retrieved16 February2010.[dead link]
- ^"Gay people in Australia should apologise for child sex abuse, says conservative journalist".PinkNews.Retrieved22 March2018.
- ^"Dailytelegraph.com.au | Subscribe to The Daily Telegraph for exclusive stories".myaccount.news.com.au.Retrieved23 March2018.
- ^"Dailytelegraph.com.au | Subscribe to The Daily Telegraph for exclusive stories".myaccount.news.com.au.Retrieved23 March2018.