Christopher Pearson (journalist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Pearson (28 August 1951 – 7 June 2013) was an Australian journalist and conservative commentator who wrote for national broadsheet The Australian and who for many years before had edited a monthly cultural magazine, The Adelaide Review.
Born in Sydney on 28 August 1951, Pearson spent most of his life in Adelaide. He received a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (third-class) from Flinders University as well as a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Adelaide.[1] The topic of his honours thesis was Australian author Patrick White.
He had left-wing leanings as a student, before becoming an admirer of the social democratic politics of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. He then moved to the right, voting for John Howard in 1996.[2]
As proprietor of the Adelaide Review, he bought the name of the Wakefield Press from the South Australian government and operated the company from 1986 to 1988.[1][3]
Pearson wrote occasional articles for a wide range of newspapers, including The Herald, The Age, and The Courier-Mail, through the 1980s and 1990s. He was a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review between 1997 and 2001, before moving to the Weekend Australian.[2] In this paper he wrote commentary and articles that covered a wide variety of cultural and religious matters pertaining to Australian society.[4]
He was a member of the Council of the National Museum of Australia in 2005/6.[5] He was also on the board of the government-owned SBS television station. He served as a speechwriter to Howard, who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, and was a close friend and mentor to another Prime Minister, Tony Abbott (2013–2015), whose books he also edited.[6][4]
Pearson died in Adelaide on 7 June 2013.[2] Tony Abbott was a pall-bearer at his burial.
