Rowan Dean | |
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| Born | Canberra, Australia |
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| Employer | Sky News Australia |
Rowan Dean is an Australian advertising executive and conservative commentator.[1][2] After a career as an advertising industry copywriter, Dean was a panellist on early seasons ofGruen, and became a commentator with multiple newspapers and a co-host of conservativeSky News Australia programOutsiders. He is currently the editor ofSpectator Australia in addition to being a frequent contributor.[3] He is a columnist at theAustralian Financial Review,[4] has written forThe Age,[5] and has appeared on the ABC's panel talk showQ&A.[6]
Educated atCanberra Grammar School,[7] Dean moved to England in 1978 and worked in a number of advertising agencies. He co-wrote the 'Photobooth' commercial forHamlet Cigars, as well as successfully launchingFoster's Lager into the UK market, winningD&AD Awards and both Gold and SilverCannes Lions.[8][9] Dean returned to Australia in 1988 working in the Australian advertising industry, setting up Rowan Dean Films in 1995 to produce advertisements.[8]
Dean was a regular panellist on ABC comedy seriesGruen from 2008, and started writing pieces forNews Corp Australia andThe Australian Financial Review.[10] Dean became editor ofThe Spectator Australia in 2014.[11]
In 2016, Dean became co-host of theSky News Australia conservative commentary programOutsiders, along withMark Latham andRoss Cameron.[12][13] The stated impetus for the program's launch was as an answer to the ABC's weeklyInsiders current affairs talk show which, according to Dean, Cameron and Latham, was "the embodiment of an out-of-touch, inner-city Leftist class".[14] The program has proved controversial. In July 2016,Outsiders guestDavid Leyonhjelm remarked on air thatAustralian Greens senatorSarah Hanson-Young was "well-known [in parliament] for liking men", leading to an on-air apology from Dean and a producer being stood down.[15] 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.[16][17]
Dean is a frequent critic ofpolitical correctness andcancel culture and frequently speaks out on controversialcultural issues. He produced a special for Sky News titledThe Death of the Aussie Larrikin, in which he and a host of guests contended that political correctness was destroying Australia'slarrikin tradition.[18] Dean has also ridiculed the modern push to rename brands and place names with offensive connotations.[19] Dean was criticised inThe Guardian in June 2016 after compiling a "Poor Me List" (a parody of a rich list) mocking prominent Australians who he perceived as displaying avictim mentality in spite of their success, many of whom wereIndigenous Australians or from other ethnic minorities.[20]
Dean has been accused ofmisogyny based on his comments about women andfeminism.[21] In December 2018,Spectator Australia published a column that described theAustralian Greens senatorSarah Hanson-Young in sexualised language, which the Greens leadership called "appalling" and demanded thatSky News and theAustralian Financial Review sack Dean.[22]
In July 2017, Dean suggested on Sky News that the Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner,Tim Soutphommasane, should "leave the country" after Soutphommasane called for more cultural diversity in Australian media and politics.[23] On Sky News he comically mispronounced Soutphommasane's name and said "Tim, if you don’t like [Australia], joinYassmin, hop on a plane and go back toLaos" in whatJunkee's Osman Faruqi called a "blatantly race-based attack".[24] Soutphommasane was in fact born inMontpellier,France, toChinese andLaotian parents. 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".[25]
Dean is a supporter of former US PresidentDonald Trump. In November 2016, Dean attended a party atThe Rugby Club in Sydney to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump in the2016 United States presidential election.[26] In 2018, Dean described Trump as "the greatest president sinceRonald Reagan".[27] Dean prematurely predicted the re-election of Donald Trump in 2020 onSky News based on early, incomplete results.[28] In the aftermath of theelection, Dean drew criticism from a columnist writing for The Guardian for repeating thedebunked and discredited claim thatJoe Biden's victory was due to large-scaleelectoral fraud.[29][30]
Deanrejects thescientific consensus on climate change and has claimed thathuman induced climate change is a "hoax".[31] He was widely criticised for comments he made onSky News in 2019 that climate change was a "fraudulent and dangerous cult" and that children boycotting school to protestclimate inaction was a form of "child abuse".[32][33]
On 13 December 2020, Dean expressed fear about theGreat Reset on Sky News Australia, claiming that "This Great Reset is as serious and dangerous a threat to our prosperity – to your prosperity and your freedom – as we have faced in decades."[34]
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.
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