Janet Albrechtsen

Janet Albrechtsen (born 1966), Australian journalist, is an opinion columnist and social commentator with the News Limited-owned newspaper, The Australian. She is also a Board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's state-owned national broadcaster.

Albrechtsen was born in Adelaide and graduated in law from Adelaide University. Before becoming a journalist, she practised as a solicitor. She has worked for the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age and the conservative literary and political journal Quadrant.

Albrechtsen's political views are strongly conservative. She frequently comments on legal issues, criticising what she views as unacceptable tendencies towards judicial activism in decisions of both the High Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia. Her commentaries also repeatedly criticize trade unions, feminism, gay and lesbian rights and the Australian Labor Party, often without addressing or acknowledging the diverse range of theories, movements or philosophies within each group. As a result she has attracted vigorous criticisms from various elements of the political left.

Former Labor Party leader Mark Latham once described Albrechtsen as a "skanky ho who would die in a ditch for the Liberal Party") [The Latham Diaries, 202]. ("Skanky ho" is an American slang term meaning "smelly prostitute," or more commonly in today's usage, "slutty whore." Latham later claimed he did not know the exact meaning of the term when he used it.)

Some critics have accused Albrechtsen of sloppy journalism or outright misrepresentation and plagiarism. The ABC's Media Watch programme demonstrated that she had misquoted a French psychiatrist, Jean-Jacques Rassial, and claimed that she had done this to make it look as though violence and gang rape were institutionalised elements of the culture of Muslim youths. Albrechtsen did not deny the misquote, but responded by accusing her critics, particularly Media Watch, of inherent left-wing bias, and of deliberately leading a witch-hunt against contrary views.

In February 2005 Albrechtsen was appointed by the Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan to the board of the ABC. The appointment was criticised by, among others, former Media Watch host David Marr, who questioned whether she was qualified for such a position in light of her prior breach of journalistic conduct.

Albrechtsen undertook when appointed not to make further comments on the ABC in her columns.

References

Janet Albrechtsen's View, Media Watch program transcript, September 9, 2002