Andrew Bolt

Andrew Bolt
Born	Tarcoola, South Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation(s)	Journalist, editor, coloumnist, TV host, radio host
Years active	1990's -
Employer(s)	Herald Sun, Network Ten, News Limited
Known for	Conservative commentator
Television	The Bolt Report
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia
Opponent	Various
Spouse	Sally Morrell
Children	3

Andrew Bolt nicknamed Bolta (/ˈkɒʃi/ BOLT-a), (born 26 September 1959) is an Australian newspaper columnist and radio commentator, blogger and TV host. Bolt is a columnist and associate editor of the Melbourne-based Herald Sun and writes for Brisbane's Sunday Mail. He has appearanced on the Nine Network, Melbourne Talk Radio, ABC Television, and local radio. In 2005, Bolt released a compilation of newspaper columns in a book titled The Best of Andrew Bolt - Still Not Sorry. From 2011 he hosts The Bolt Report on Network Ten.

Background

Born to newly-arrived Dutch migrants, Bolt spent his childhood in remote rural areas such as Tarcoola, while his father worked as a schoolteacher and principal. After graduating from secondary school, Bolt travelled and worked overseas before returning to Australia and starting university studies. After a year he left university to take up a cadetship at The Age, a Melbourne broadsheet newspaper. He worked for The Age in various roles, including as a sports writer, prior to joining The Herald, which in 1990 merged with The Sun News-Pictorial to form the Herald Sun. He had various roles including as Asia correspondent.

Media appearances

Bolt has had various roles on numerous TV networks, radio stations and in the print media. From 2001-2011 he was a regular guest on Insiders. He hosts a daily radio show Breakfast with Steve Price and Andrew Bolt on MTR 1377. He was previously a regular gust on 3AW in Melbourne. Untill 2011 he appeared every Monday on the Today show on Channel 9 to discuss the news of the day. He appears weekly on 2GB in Sydney for 'The Clash' with Union leader Paul Howes.

He is a fill-in panelist on the 7PM Project on Network 10 and from May 2011 hosts his own TV show, The Bolt Report, also on Network 10. He has appeared on Q&A, Late Night Live with Philip Adams and more.

Bolt writes at least three times a week for the Herald Sun and his coloumn is published in the Daily Telegraph(Australia), Adelaide Advertiser, Northern Territory News and the Courier Mail.

Controversy and criticism

Leak of intelligence document

In June 2003 Bolt published an article criticising Andrew Wilkie in which he quoted from a classified intelligence document written by Wilkie as an intelligence analyst for the Office of National Assessments. It was claimed, but never proven, that someone in Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's office had leaked the document to Bolt. A spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police said that they did not have any evidence to identify the culprit.

Spat with David Marr

Bolt became involved in a dispute with journalist David Marr following the 21 July 2003 episode of Media Watch in which Marr claimed that Bolt's column "A Kick Up The Arts" (2 June 2003) had unfairly represented author Alison Broinowski. In a bitter exchange aired through both the Herald Sun and Media Watch, Bolt demanded Marr apologise for lying about him, while Marr countered that Bolt liked dishing out criticism, but could not take it himself.

Stolen Generations

Bolt has frequently clashed with Robert Manne, Professor of Politics at La Trobe University, about the Stolen Generation. Bolt claims that there were no large-scale removals of children "for purely racist reasons". After Bolt challenged Manne to "name just 10" children stolen for racial reasons, Manne gave him a four-page list of names which, Bolt states, includes children rescued from sexual abuse and removed for other humanitarian reasons. Manne argued that Bolt's failure to address the wealth of documentary and anecdotal evidence demonstrating the existence of the Stolen Generation amounts to a clear case of historical denialism. Bolt noted multiple instances of contemporary Aboriginal children being left "in grave danger that we would not tolerate for children of any other race because we are so terrified of the 'stolen generations' myth."

Defamation case

In 2002, Magistrate Jelena Popovic was awarded $246,000 damages for defamation after suing Bolt and the publishers of the Herald Sun over a 13 December 2000 column in which he claimed she had "hugged two drug traffickers she let walk free". Popovic asserted she had in fact shaken their hands to congratulate them on having completed a rehabilitation program. The jury found that the article was not true, that it was not a faithful and accurate record of judicial proceedings and that it was not fair comment on a matter of public interest. It found that the column had, however, been reasonable and not malicious.

Bolt emerged from the Supreme Court after the jury verdict, stating his column had been accurate and that the mixed verdict was a victory for free speech. His statement outside the court was harshly criticised by Supreme Court judge Bernard Bongiorno, who later overturned the jury's decision, ruling that Bolt had not acted reasonably because he did not seek a response from Ms Popovic before writing the article and, in evidence given during the trial, showed he did not care whether or not the article was defamatory. Justice Bongiorno included $25,000 punitive damages in his award against Bolt and the newspaper for both the "misleading" and "disingenuous" comments he had made outside court and the newspaper's reporting of the jury's decision. The Court of Appeal later reversed the $25,000 punitive damages, though it upheld the defamation finding, describing Bolt's conduct as "at worst, dishonest and misleading and at best, grossly careless."

Litigation

In September 2010, it was reported that nine individuals had commenced legal proceedings in the Federal Court against Bolt and the Herald Sun over two separate posts on Bolt's blog. The nine are suing over posts titled It's so hip to be black/White is the New Black and White Fellas in the Black. The articles suggested it was fashionable for people of diverse ancestry to choose Aboriginal racial identity for the purposes of political and career clout. The applicants claim the posts breach the Racial Discrimination Act. They seek an apology, legal costs, and a gag on republishing the articles and blogs and "other relief as the court deems fit". They are not seeking damages.

Blog

In May 2005, Bolt established a web-only forum in which readers could offer comments, feedback and questions in response to his columns. He posted some of these comments, together with brief responses, in the late afternoon of every business day, on the Herald Sun website. Despite its low-budget format, the forum was a pioneering experiment in Internet-aided "interactive journalism".

Bolt's forum changed to a more conventional blog format in July 2006. The blog covers a wide variety of topics, including climate change, Australian politics, the ABC and issues concerned with multiculturalism and Islam. Comments are open but are moderated to remove defamation, obscenities and so on. Bolt states that abusive commenters will be banned, but opposing voices will not. In late 2009, Bolt temporarily restricted comments to one "readers' tips" post per day.

Bolt's blog registered one million hits for the month of July 2008 and "more than 2 million page impressions from more than 300,000 unique browsers" for November 2009.

External links

• Andrew Bolt's Herald Sun site
• Andrew Bolt's Blog
• Decisions of the Victorian Court of Appeal in the Bolt/Popovic Case
• June 2004 Interview with Bolt by the Institute of Public Affairs