Paul Sheehan (born 1951) is an Australian columnist and former senior writer for the '' Sydney Morning Herald'', and the ''

Melbourne Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'' where he has been day editor, chief of staff and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

correspondent. He generally writes from a conservative viewpoint in the opinion of observers.

Early life and education

Sheehan is a graduate of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

in Canberra and the Graduate School of Journalism at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York.

Career

Sheehan was a

Nieman Fellow The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists A Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. His work has appeared in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and '' Foreign Policy''. Sheehan's first book, ''Among the Barbarians'', was published in 1998. The book, written by Sheehan to "lift the veil of intimidation" hanging over critical discussion of

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

and

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

, spent five months on Australian best-seller lists. In 2003, he released his second book, ''The Electronic Whorehouse'', a critical examination of the media in Australia. His third book, '' Girls Like You'' (2005), commented on the

Ashfield gang rapes The Ashfield gang rapes was a series of attacks involving indecent assault and rape which were carried out in Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia over a six-month period in 2002. Four Pakistani brothers and a Nepali student were convicted and ...

, a series of gang rape trials in Australia involving four brothers who had recently migrated to Australia from Pakistan.

Commentary

Sheehan's columns in the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' were generally written from a right-wing perspective and were noted for their criticism of the "human rights industry", Muslims in Australia, large-scale immigration and the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

. Other topics covered by Sheehan included criticism of the Australian legal system's handling of sexual assault cases as well as criticism of the

neo-conservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and cou ...

ideology. Paul Sheehan, who suffers from chronic pain, has written an article promoting magnesium-rich "Unique Water" as a pain relief. This was criticised by ABC-TV Media Watch, and may be merely a placebo effect. On 24 February 2016, Sheehan published a column in the Sydney Morning Herald titled, 'The story of Louise: we'll never know the scale of the rape epidemic in Sydney', which described the horrific rape of a nurse in the Inner City of Sydney in 2002. He subsequently published a retraction of this article on 25 February 2016 in the Sydney Morning Herald. Sheehan left the Sydney Morning Herald in April 2016 without having contributed any further articles.

References

External links

Girls Like You Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Paul Australian columnists Australian journalists Living people Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Nieman Fellows 1951 births The Sydney Morning Herald people