Miranda Devine
Miranda Devine (born 1 July 1961) is a conservative Australian columnist and writer. Her column, formerly printed twice weekly in Fairfax Media newspapers "The Sydney Morning Herald" and "The Sun-Herald", now appears in the News Limited newspapers "Daily Telegraph", "Sunday Telegraph", Melbourne's "Sunday Herald Sun" and Perth's "Sunday Times". She hosted "The Miranda Devine Show" on Sydney radio station 2GB. The show ended in 2015. As of late 2020, her columns appear in the "New York Post". Devine is a controversial figure and several of her statements about race, gender and the environment have  been the subject of public scrutiny and debate. Early life and education. She is the eldest daughter of Frank Devine, a New Zealand-born Australian newspaper editor and journalist, who died in 2009. She attended school at Loreto Kirribilli in Sydney and the International School of the Sacred Heart Tokyo. She has a Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University (USA) and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Macquarie University. Devine studied first-year architecture at Sydney University where she was a resident at Sancta Sophia College and worked briefly at the CSIRO's Division of Textile Physics . Career. Devine worked for the "Boston Herald" as a reporter and feature writer. In 1989, Devine joined "The Daily Telegraph" as assistant editor, police reporter and columnist after returning to Australia to live in Sydney. She had also previously worked at the British tabloid "the Sun" and the British newspaper "Sunday Times" in London. Most recently, Devine's columns, focused on United States politics, are published by the "New York Post" and she makes appearances promoting her articles on local media outlets. Devine lives in Sydney with her husband and two sons. Devine is the author of the book "Laptop  from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide." Commentary. Devine is noted for her conservative stance on a range of social and political issues. In April 2016 she coined the term "delcon" (delusional conservative) to describe conservatives who remained loyal to Tony Abbott after the Liberal Party ousted him in favour of Malcolm Turnbull. Race. In 2002, Devine opined in the "Sydney Morning Herald" that the racial element of the Sydney gang rapes had been "airbrushed" out of the media coverage of the events. She stated that the victims alleged that prosecutors had  intentionally "censored" their official statements to remove any mention of racially sensitive material. Devine has also been accused by "The Guardian" and the "Sydney Morning Herald" of promoting the white genocide conspiracy theory and has been described as pivotal in popularising the concept within Australian politics. Referring to white South African refugees as "oppressed white, Christian, industrious, rugby and cricket-playing Commonwealth cousins", she has claimed they would "integrate seamlessly" with European Australians. Environment. Devine suggested in 2009 that conservationists were to blame for the poor management of forested areas and national parks, and consequently for the deaths during the  Black Saturday bushfires event. This rhetoric was revived during the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, but promptly rejected by the scientific and firefighting community. In 2017, she claimed that shared bicycle schemes were a terror threat. Devine is also a climate change denier, advocating for the continuation of coal-fired electricity production and she has repeatedly stated that climate change is a political conspiracy. Gender and LGBTIQ issues. In 2011, Devine used the news of Australian federal government minister Penny Wong's decision to parent a child with her female partner as the basis of a column in which she argued  that the 2011 riots in England were the result of a "fatherless society". Writing for "ABC News", Catherine Deveny criticised Devine's claim that same-sex marriage was a "political tool to undermine the last bastion of bourgeois morality - the traditional nuclear family". Devine sparked further controversy in 2015 after claiming that "women abusing welfare" were the main cause of domestic violence in Australia and contending "if you want to break the cycle of violence, end the welfare incentive for unsuitable women to keep having children to a string of feckless men". In 2016, Devine caused controversy by comparing the  purported "vilification" of opponents of same-sex marriage in Australia to the victims of beheadings by ISIS, saying that critics of same-sex marriage were being "brutally made examples of" by "intolerant authoritarians". George Pell. In 2019, Devine defended Cardinal George Pell, at the time facing charges of which he was ultimately acquitted related to the sexual assault of two 13-year-old boys, claiming that the victim's "accusations are implausible" and that "Victoria police chief Graham Ashton desperate for a distraction from the crime epidemic he’s incapable of stopping". Donald Trump. Devine is a strong supporter of  former US President Donald Trump. In February 2020 Devine gained attention in the Australian media and was reported to be "over the moon" after being retweeted by Trump. In October 2020, The Guardian described her as "one of Trump's favourite writers" after the President again retweeted one of her articles. Devine drew criticism for a "fantastically fawning love letter" to Trump in which she described him as an "invincible hero" after his recovery from COVID-19 and called COVID-19 "the Chinese virus". Devine has since repeated the Donald Trump's discredited and debunked attempts to overturn the 2020 United States  presidential election with unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was driven by large-scale electoral fraud. In January 2021, Devine blamed past Black Lives Matter demonstrations for the actions of rioters during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. Quaden Bayles. In February 2020, Devine alleged in a series of tweets that a video showing Quaden Bayles, an Indigenous boy with achondroplasia dwarfism, crying after being bullied at school, was a scam and that Bayles was actually an adult actor. That led to Quaden's mother, Yarraka, suing Devine for defamation  on behalf of her son, and also suing on her own behalf over Devine's suggestion she had coached Quaden. Devine's employer, News Corp subsidiary Nationwide News, publisher of "The Daily Telegraph", was also named as a defendant in the suit. In September 2020, ahead of an anticipated settlement of the suit, Devine, who was on secondment at the "New York Post", tweeted an apology for her allegations that the video had been faked.