Rowan Dean

Rowan Dean is an Australian advertising executive, television presenter, political satirist, and social commentator. After a successful career as an advertising industry copywriter, Dean rose to public prominence as a panelist on early seasons of Gruen, and subsequently became an opinion commentator with multiple newspapers and a co-host of conservative Sky News Australia program Outsiders. He is currently the editor of Spectator Australia in addition to being a frequent contributor.[1] He is a columnist at the Australian Financial Review,[2] has written for The Age,[3] and has appeared on the ABC's panel talk show Q&A.[4] He is regarded as a right-wing conservative commentator.[5][6]

Rowan Dean
Born
Canberra, Australia
OccupationAdvertising executive, television presenter, magazine editor
EmployerSky News Australia

Dean is a well-known commentator in Australia and has been acclaimed by Andrew Bolt as "Australia's finest satirist". Conversely, his work has attracted vehement criticism in some sections of the Australian media, with The New Daily's Michael Pascoe referring to him as an "unfunny Conservative joke and would-be provocateur",[7] while Crikey's Charlie Lewis contended that his recent work displayed a "visceral hatred of activists and minorities".[8] Dean is an outspoken and provocative figure and several of his statements have caused controversy and led to accusations of racism[9][10][11] and misogyny.[12][13]

Career and controversies

Educated at Canberra Grammar School,[14] Dean moved to England in 1978 and worked in a number of advertising agencies. He is credited with co-writing the 'Photobooth' commercial for Hamlet Cigars, one of the most awarded ads of all time, as well as successfully launching Foster's Lager into the UK market, winning D&AD Awards and both Gold and Silver Cannes Lions.[15][16] Dean returned to Australia in 1988 working in the Australian advertising industry, setting up Rowan Dean Films in 1995 to produce advertisements.[15] Dean gained prominence as a commentator appearing as a regular panelist on ABC comedy series Gruen from 2008, also writing pieces for News Corp Australia and The Australian Financial Review.[17] Dean became editor of The Spectator Australia in 2014.[18]

In 2016, Dean became co-host of the Sky News Australia conservative commentary program Outsiders, along with Mark Latham and Ross Cameron.[19][20] The stated impetus for the program's launch was as an answer to the ABC's weekly Insiders (Australian TV program) talk show, which according to Dean, Cameron and Latham was "the embodiment of an out-of-touch, inner-city Leftist class".[21] The program has proved controversial. In July 2016, Outsiders guest David Leyonhjelm remarked on air that Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was "well-known [in parliament] for liking men", leading to an on-air apology from Dean and a producer being stood down.[22] Dean remains the only original host of the format, with the other two initial co-hosts being fired by the channel for various controversies related to comments made during the program.[23][24]

Dean is a frequent critic of political correctness and cancel culture and frequently speaks out on controversial cultural issues. Dean produced a special for Sky News titled "The Death of the Aussie Larrikin", in which Dean and a host of guests contended that political correctness was destroying Australia's larrikin tradition.[25] Dean has also ridiculed the modern push to rename brands and place names with offensive connotations.[26] Dean was criticized in harsh terms in The Guardian in June 2016 after compiling a "Poor Me List" (a parody of a rich list) mocking prominent Australians who he perceived as displaying a victim mentality in spite of their success, many of whom were Indigenous Australians or other ethnic minorities.[27]

Dean has been accused of misogyny and has been linked to a number of controversial comments about women and feminism.[28] In December 2018, Spectator Australia published a column that described the Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young in sexualized language, which the Greens leadership called "appalling" and demanded that Sky News and the Australian Financial Review sack Dean.[29]

In July 2017, Dean caused controversy for suggesting on Sky News that Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane should "leave the country" after Soutphommasane called for more cultural diversity Australian in media and politics.[30] On Sky News Dean comically mispronounced Soutphommasane's name and said "Tim, if you don’t like [Australia], join Yassmin, hop on a plane and go back to Laos" in what Junkee's Osman Faruqi called a "blatantly race-based attack".[31] Soutphommasane was in fact born in Montpellier, France to Chinese and Laotian parents. Amidst the controversy, several Sky News presenters publicly distanced themselves from Dean, with Sky's chief political reporter Kieran Gilbert describing Dean's comments as "pathetic", "low" and "reprehensible".[32]

Dean is an enthusiastic supporter of US President Donald Trump. In November 2016, Dean attended a party at The Rugby Club in Sydney to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.[33] In 2018, Dean described Trump as "the greatest president since Ronald Reagan".[34] Dean was criticized for prematurely predicting the re-election of Donald Trump in 2020 on Sky News based on early, incomplete results.[35] In the aftermath of the election, Dean drew criticism for repeating the debunked and discredited claim that Joe Biden's victory was due to large-scale electoral fraud.[36][37]

Dean is a vocal climate change denier and has called human induced climate change a "hoax".[38] He was widely criticized for comments he made on Sky News in 2019 that climate change was a "fraudulent and dangerous cult" and that children boycotting school to protest climate inaction was a form of "child abuse".[39][40]

Bibliography
  • Beyond Satire: ISBN 9781922168726, 290 pages, Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd, 2013.
  • Way Beyond Satire: ISBN 9781925265873, 288 pages, Wilkinson Publishing, 2017.
  • Corkscrewed: ISBN 978-1925642124, 320 pages, Wilkinson Publishing, 2017.

References
  1. "Rowan Dean". Spectator Australia. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  2. "Rowan Dean: Columnist". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  3. Dean, Rowan (10 August 2011). "It's a blow, but all that positivity's a policy killer". The Age. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  4. McMahon, Neil (15 September 2015). "Q&A recap: How Tony Jones announced the fall of Prime Minister Tony Abbott". The Age. Archived from the original on 1 January 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  5. Lewis, Charlie (22 August 2017). "Pinpointing the exact moment Rowan Dean lost his mind: a Crikey investigation". Crikey.
  6. Butler, Josh (9 November 2016). "We Spent Election Day With Trump's Biggest Aussie Supporters". The Huffington Post.
  7. Pascoe, Michael (17 August 2020). "Michael Pascoe: Conservatives' best weapon? 'Cancel Culture' and fellow travellers". The New Daily. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  8. Lewis, Charlie (22 August 2017). "Pinpointing the exact moment Rowan Dean lost his mind: a Crikey investigation". Crikey. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  9. Stephens, Jessie (5 January 2017). ""Videos of 'racist rants' continue to surprise us. But they shouldn't."". Mama Mia. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  10. Lewis, Charlie (30 June 2020). "Is racism at Sky a mistake or a business model? Here's the evidence, you decide". Crikey. Retrieved 8 January 2021. Cameron is one of the few presenters to face any consequence for racist comments, when he was sacked for his comments about Chinese people being (oh, Christ … ) “slanty eyed”. A sacking which, by the way, made Bolt “heart-sick”. Cameron and then co-host Rowan Dean did apologise when former senator David Leyonjhelm defamed the Greens’ Sarah Hanson Young on their show, but Dean did not after telling race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane to “hop on a plane and go back to Laos”.
  11. Bradley, Michael (10 March 2017). "The limits of 18C: racism is on the rise, and it's not up to judges to stop it". Crikey. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  12. Meade, Amanda (3 December 2018). "Rowan Dean must be sacked by Sky and AFR over Sarah Hanson-Young article, say Greens". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021. “Mr Dean, in his disgusting article, has clearly demonstrated sexist views that are out of place in modern Australia and which make him unfit to be a journalist. I call on you to demonstrate your support for women and your refutation of the values implicit in the article by immediately terminating Mr Dean’s employment with your publication.”
  13. Rushton, Gina. "Here Are All The Times Rowan Dean And Ross Cameron Were Extremely Normal About Women". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 31 December 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  14. Diary Rowan Dean, spectator.com.au, 5 April 2014, accessed 20 November 2020
  15. "Rowan Dean appointed as Euro RSCG's new ECD". Campaign Brief. 27 May 2006.
  16. Burrows, Tim. "DR MUMBO: Gruen Transfer Returns, and we publish our first verbatim press release". Mumbrella.
  17. Canning, Simon (6 December 2009). "Budgie smugglers and Bob Hawke may help sell Mad Monk". The Australian.
  18. Christensen, Nic. "Rowan Dean takes over as editor of The Spectator but signals end to AFR marketing column". Mumbrella.
  19. Hayes, Alex (21 November 2016). "Mark Latham, Rowan Dean and Ross Cameron land Sunday morning 'Outsiders' show on Sky News". Mumbrella.
  20. "Trump's Aussie mates: Latham, Dean and Cameron launch new show". The Australian. News Corp Australia. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.(subscription required)
  21. Mitchell, Jake (21 November 2016). "Trump's Aussie mates: Latham, Dean and Cameron launch new show". The Australian. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  22. Lallo, Michael; Duke, Jennifer (11 August 2018). "Battered by boycotts, will Sky News now ditch its right-wing formula?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  23. Loomes, Phoebe (2 November 2018). "Sky News commentator sacked over on-air racism". news.com.au. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  24. Meade, Amanda (29 March 2017). "Mark Latham sacked by Sky News after controversial remarks". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  25. Penberthy, David (15 June 2020). "How offence culture is killing all the fun". The Australian. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  26. Dean, Rowan (24 July 2020). "What's in a name? Bands, beer and Batman are not immune from cancel culture". The Australian. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  27. Meade, Amanda (3 June 2016). "Spectator editor Rowan Dean rolls to the bottom of offensiveness barrel". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  28. Rushton, Gina (3 July 2018). "Here Are All The Times Rowan Dean And Ross Cameron Were Extremely Normal About Women". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  29. Meade, Amanda (3 December 2018). "Rowan Dean must be sacked by Sky and AFR over Sarah Hanson-Young article, say Greens". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  30. Winston, Nama (11 July 2017). "Attacks on Waleed Aly and Yassmin Abdel-Magied sadly par for the course". The Age. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  31. Faruqi, Osman (10 July 2017). "A Sky News Presenter Told The Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner To Leave The Country". Junkee. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  32. Faruqi, Osman (11 July 2017). "Sky News Presenters Are Slamming Rowan Dean's Race-Based Attack On Tim Soutphommasane". Junkee. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  33. Jabour, Bridie (9 November 2016). "'We've been oppressed': Australian mates of Trump share his finest hour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  34. "Donald Trump is the 'greatest president since Reagan'". Sky News. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  35. Hardaker, David (4 November 2020). "Locals make the call: Sky Australia out-Foxes Fox News". Crikey. Archived from the original on 19 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  36. Dick, Samantha (10 November 2020). "Is Rupert Murdoch really turning his back on Donald Trump?". The New Daily. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  37. Wilson, Jason (21 December 2020). "Sky News Australia is increasingly pushing conspiracy theories to a global audience online". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  38. McCrann, Terry (13 December 2019). "Boris Johnson's win helps us see through climate smoke screen". The Australian. Retrieved 9 January 2021. This is a message which is inescapable. And it is both of those things even if you believe in the climate change — sorry, emergency — hoax, as the great Rowan Dean of the Spectator magazine and our own Sky News so simply yet so precisely describes it. Indeed, especially if you believe in the hoax.
  39. "Turns Out, That TV Presenter Who Said "Climate Change Is A Dangerous Cult" Got His Research Wrong". GQ. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  40. Samios, Zoe (16 January 2020). "Weathering the storm: inside the Murdoch family climate schism". The Age. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
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