ABC1 (until 2008 ABC Television) is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 5 November 1956 it is the responsibility of the ABC's television division, and is available nationally. In August 2009, ABC1 had a 19.1% audience share.^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

Origins[link]

The history of ABC1 can be traced back to 1953, when the federal Television Act was passed, providing the initial regulatory framework for both ABC Television and commercial television networks.^[1][2] Over the next three years, planning for the introduction of a national television service was put in place – land for studios and transmitters in Sydney and Melbourne was acquired, and overseas tutors were brought to Australia to assist with training.^[1][2]

Commercial station TCN-9 Sydney was the first to broadcast in Australia, soon followed by the ABC's own ABN-2 Sydney and later ABV-2 in Melbourne.^[1][2] Six stations, three in Melbourne and three in Sydney, were in operation in time to cover the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.^[1][2] The channel's first television broadcast was inaugurated by prime minister Robert Menzies on 5 November at the Gore Hill studios in Sydney, followed two weeks later by transmission in Melbourne.^[1][2]

Although radio programmes could be broadcast nationally by landline, television relay facilities were not put in place until the early 1960s.^[1] This meant that news bulletins had to be sent to each capital city by teleprinter, to be prepared and presented separately in each city, with filmed materials copied manually and sent to each state.^[1][2]

A purpose-built television studio opened in Sydney on 29 January 1958—replacing temporary sound studios used since ABC TV's inception. In the same year, technical equipment was also moved to permanent locations, while main transmitters were introduced to Melbourne and Sydney in 1957 and 1958 respectively.^[3]

1960s to the 1990s Colour television[link]

Weekly current-affairs programme Four Corners began in 1961,^[4] followed in the same year by Profiles of Power, a series of interviews with prominent Australians.^[4] Direct relays between Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra were also established in 1961, replacing temporary microwave relays as a means of simultaneously airing programmes across multiple stations.^[2][4] Videotape equipment, allowing the sharing of footage with much greater ease and speed, was installed in each state capital by 1962.^[1]

ABC TV was one of the first television networks in Australia to embrace the rock'n'roll revolution of the late 1950s, most notably with Six O'Clock Rock, hosted by Johnny O'Keefe.^[2] During the 1960s and early 1970s the channel continued to broadcast programmes on popular music, including the pop show Hitscene, performance specials by groups such as Tully and Max Merritt & The Meteors, as well as the magazine-style programme GTK, which premiered in 1969 and screened for 10 minutes, four nights per week at 6:30 pm, immediately prior to Bellbird and the 7:00 pm news bulletin.^[5] In 1967, the weeknightly television current-affairs programme This Day Tonight was launched on ABC TV.^[4]

Teletext services were introduced to ABC TV in 1983 to allow hearing impaired viewers access to closed captions.^[6] Nationwide, successor to This Day Tonight, was replaced in turn by a new, hour-long, national news programme called The National. Having proved unsuccessful,^[6][7] it reverted to a state ABC News bulletin at 7:00 pm, with a state-based edition of The 7.30 Report following afterwards.^[6] Lateline and Media Watch also launched in the 1980s.^[6][8]

2000s and beyond - Digital television[link]

The year 2001 saw the launch of a new logo to celebrate the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia. The logo was modified to a three-dimensional metallic design. Coinciding with this, digital television was introduced to most of the network's coverage area on 1 January 2001 - this was soon followed by the gradual introduction of widescreen and high definition programming.^[9]

In 2002, to celebrate seventy years of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC TV's logo reverted to the "over and under" design seen in the previous decades, however it retained the three-dimensional metallic design. The channel's idents featured elements - fire, leaf and ice, and the slogan was updated to Everyone's ABC. The idents also featured the silver ring that morphs into the ABC logo.^[10][11] This however did not last, as later in 2003, the channel's idents were modified to feature everyday Australians. On 19 December 2005 the channel's idents were revamped featuring a modified ABC logo transforming to a television. These idents were also carried onto ABC2.

At midday on 8 February 2008 ABC TV was rebranded as ABC1 with the standard-definition redirect channel moved from LCN22 to LCN21, complementing the existing ABC2 digital-only channel launched on 7 March 2005.^[12] Further cementing the change in identity was the change from the slogan There's more to television to It begins with 1. After concerns in some sections of the media that the 43-year-old Lissajous curve brand was to disappear completely, ABC management reaffirmed that it would remain in use by the corporation.^[13][14][15]

June 2010 saw ABC1's high definition digital transmission terminated, to be replaced with a fourth channel, ABC News 24.

On 6 February 2011, ABC1 launched its new branding via idents featuring a range of channel personalities and the new tagline - "ThinkEntertainment". A new watermark is also aired with a single "1″ above the network's famous squiggle logo.

Controllers[link]

As part of a revamp of the entire ABC Television network, the ABC1 hired its very first television controller, Brendan Dahill from BBC Worldwide.

• 2010-: Brendan Dahill

Programming[link]

ABC1 is required by charter to meet certain programming obligations. Although it has a strong focus on news and current affairs, it also presents documentaries and educational programmes, children's shows, drama, light entertainment comedy and variety, and sports.

News and Current Affairs[link]

ABC News, broadcast on ABC1, is a national news service produced by the News and Current Affairs division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A number of bulletins and updates are shown throughout the day, which include the flagship state-based evening bulletins of ABC News at 7.00pm, focused on local, national and international news relevant to their entire respective state or territory.^[16] In addition, ABC News Breakfast is broadcast each weekday morning and it is also shown on ABC News 24, The Midday Report, a national weekday edition of ABC News, is broadcast at noon live from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's studios in Ultimo, Sydney. News updates for ABC1 are presented nationally throughout the day, however evening updates are shown in most states by their respective presenters. '

Other flagship programmes, which include Four Corners, Australian Story, Foreign Correspondent, Lateline and The 7.30 Report, are broadcast in primetime and are widely-regarded for their agenda-setting journalism.^[16] Similarly, each state-based station produces and broadcasts their respective edition of Stateline in primetime, which includes one for every state and territory of Australia. In addition, Landline, Insiders, Media Watch and At the Movies cover rural, political and business, and media affairs respectively.

Sport[link]

ABC Sport currently holds the broadcast rights to a range of sports, which are broadcast on ABC1, these include the Women's Australian Open, Netball World Championships, W-League, Women's National Basketball League, AFC Women's Asian Cup as well as state football league competitions which include Australian rules football and rugby league.^[16] In addition to this, The ABC also holds the rights to the Paralympic Games, Australian Rugby Championship and the Hopman Cup tennis tournament.

ABC Sport currently broadcasts a Grandstand Sport which included the state football league such as New South Wales Rugby Union, Queensland Rugby League, Victorian Football League, Tasmanian Football League, South Australian Football League, West Australian Football League, and Northern Territory Football League. in addition to Tiwi Islands Football League and Australian Rugby Championship.

Children[link]

Children's programming is broadcast in one block, afternoons from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Two distinct age groups are targeted, preschoolers and non-preschoolers.

ABC's children's programming consists of a mixture of both in-house and out-sourced children's television programmes. Due to their longevity, current long-running programmes such as Play School, Giggle and Hoot, Five Minutes More and other shows are aired with iconic within Australia. in addition to older-children's programming on ABC1 & ABC3. former children's shows includes Bananas in Pyjamas, The Adventures of Bottle Top Bill and His Best Friend Corky, Mixy from The Ferals and other pre-school shows.

Children's programming also includes educational programmes. Behind the News is a long-running series which provides background information to current affairs. The programme has come to be incorporated into many school curricula. Schools TV is a segment between 10:00am and 11:00am that consists of documentaries and specials relevant to school study.

Availability[link]

ABC1 varies depending on state and territory in terms of what 7:00 pm news bulletin, edition of Stateline, and in some stations promotions, are shown. National programming is often interrupted in order to show state election coverage. Each state and territory's individual station is based on that of its capital city, meaning that in the state of Victoria, all programmes originate from either Melbourne or Sydney, where the remainder of programmes are broadcast from. ABC1 is broadcast nationally via ABC Television transmitters, in an analogue and standard definition format.

Logo History[link]

In the early years, ABC TV had been using Lissajous curves with its initials, ABC TV, inside it as fillers in-between programmes. A staff competition was conducted in 1963 to create a new logo for use on television, stationery, publications, microphone badges and ABC vehicles.^[2] Graphic designer, Bill Kennard, who had been experimenting with telerecording of the Cathode Ray Oscillograph displays, submitted a design in 1965 which was part of the waveform of an oscilloscope.^[2] The letters A-B-C were added to the wavelength design and it was adopted as the ABC's official logo.^[2] Bill Kennard was paid £25 for his design.^[2] This logo has been modified from two dimensions, to colour, to three dimensions, over time and it is now one of the most well-known logos in Australia.

To celebrate the introduction of colour television in 1975, the ABC logo was modified to a thickened version. The logo was also changed to an "over and under" design. To celebrate the Australian Bicentenary, on Australia Day in 1988, the idents were updated. The original set of idents were titled "Natural Textures of Australia", with a following called "Man Made Textures of Australia". The ABC logo featured on idents and promos was modified in 1996 to a similar design to that seen in 1963 on the first design. The logo was hand drawn by persons featured in the promos and idents.

• To celebrate the introduction of digital terrestrial television in Australia in 2001, ABC TV's logo was again modified, but this time to a 3D silver design. The logo was also radically modified to lose the "over and under" design.
• In 2002, to celebrate seventy years of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC TV's logo changed back to the "over and under" design, however it still kept the 3D silver design. The channel's idents featured elements - fire, leaf and ice, the silver ring that morphs into the ABC logo, and the slogan "Everyone's ABC". These idents were also carried to ABC Asia Pacific.^[10][11]

• Later in 2004, the channel's idents were modified to feature everyday Australians. On some promos during this era, the ring animation from 2002 was kept.
• On 19 December 2005 the channel's idents were revamped featuring a slightly modified ABC logo transforming into a television. For example, the ABC logo transforms into a television that has gameplay of Rhythm Heaven Fever's minigames that are Hole In One, See-Saw, Screwbot Factory and many others. The idents were also carried on ABC2 for the Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie promo.

• On 8 February 2008 the channel was renamed as ABC1 with its logo updated concurrently with ABC2 although it uses a blue version.^[12][17] In addition to this, the slogan There's more to Television was rebadged to It begins with 1.^[17] After concerns in some sections of the media that the 43-year-old Lissajous curve logo was to disappear completely, ABC management reaffirmed that it would remain in use by the corporation.^[13][14] Aside this, the idents were revamped to feature a version of that of 2003, but with animations.
• In 2007, the ABC Television Coporation announced that the squiggle logo will not be removed but kept it a secret until in 8 February 2008 when the ABC1 logo was branded with the ABC2 logo.
• On 6 February 2011, the channel was rebranded with new idents and a new on-air logo, with a new slogan "ThinkEntertainment".

Branding Gallery[link]

• ABCTV1975.svg

  Jan. 1975–31 December 2000

• ABC1.svg

  8 February 2008-5 February 2011^[17]

• ABC1 logo.svg

  6 February 2011-present

Identity History[link]

• 1956: Different Lissajous curves on an oval base wave with the initials ABC TV inside. We zoom out to see it is on a television.
• 1970: Australian Broadcasting Commission, National Television Service.
• 1971: This is National Television ABC. (based on "A Shade of Brass")
• 1972: This is ABC Television, The Good Looking Australian. (based on "A Shade of Brass")
• 1972-1973: Around Australia, You’re in Tune with the National Network - ABC Television.
• 1974: This is ABC National Television.
• Christmas 1974: Wishing You a Merry Christmas From ABC National Television.
• 1975 (Jan-Feb): Come on Home to ABC.
• 1975: Come to Colour on ABC National Television.
• 1977: You're at Home with ABC.
• 1978–80: ABC TV.
• 1980–88: The ABC logo is a white ribbon on a blue background, we zoom in on it and when we zoom out, there is a Western plain and the then ABC logo. ABC TV fades above it.
• Summer 1980/81: Summer '80.
• 1981: A blue ribbon goes down, then an orange outlined ABC logo zooms forward and has "ABC TV" above it.
• Summer 1981/82: ABC Summer.
• 1982–83: ABC - Your National Network.
• 1985–90: Squares are made on the ground, we zoom through them to a yellow sun with an ABC logo which turns away. This identity was re-made for the ABC By Satellite programme.
• 1985-88: You're Watching ABC, Your Australian Network.
• 1988–95: Natural Textures of Australia.
• 1992: 8 Cents a Day.
• 1990–95: Man-Made Textures.
• 1995: A bunch of words flicker on the screen, eventually stopping on a word, some footage is then shown, then the ABC logo flips up at the end, with different music for each ident.
• 1996-31 December 2000: A different person hand-draws the ABC logo. From 1998 onwards, the logo stays to the end of the ident with the letters abc appearing next to it. In 1996/1997, the logo fades away before the end, and the words it's your abc appear, with information about who was in the ident/where it was filmed.
• 1 January 2001 – 2002: A giant silver ring morphs into the ABC logo with the slogan The National Broadcaster at the bottom. This is the first identification to use the silver logo.
• 2002–2004: A silver ring morphs into the 2002 logo. The idents feature the elements fire, leaf, and ice. The "Everyone's ABC" slogan was used in mid-2003.^[10][11]
• 2004–2005: An everyday situaton is seen with the slogan Everyone's ABC.
• 2005–2008: The ABC logo transforms into a television with a different picture in it for each identity. The slogan There's More to Television or a variation of it is seen.
• 2008–2011: A single person is seen along with animations and the slogan It Begins with 1, which means that things begin with one person.
• Summer 2010/11: Colour Your Summer with ABC. (based on "Colour My World" by Petula Clarke)
• 2011–: Think Entertainment.
• Summer 2011/12: Happy Summer.

References[link]

External links[link]

Television in Australia portal

• Official Site
• Program Websites by Subject of ABC TV
• ABC TV Online website in 2001
• ABC TV's Program Websites - Complete List
• ABC TV Online website in 1999
• ABC TV Online website in 2000
• Corporate Site
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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Shaun Micallef
Shaun Micallef (right) being interviewed in March, 2010
Birth name	Shaun Patrick Micallef
Born	(1962-07-18) 18 July 1962 (age 49) Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Medium	Television, radio, books, internet
Nationality	Australian
Years active	1987-present
Genres	Sketch comedy, surrealism, dadaism
Subject(s)	Humour
Influences	The Goons,[1] Peter Sellers, Marx Brothers,[2] S. J. Perelman, James Thurber, Spike Milligan,[3] Barry Humphries, Frank Muir,[4] Monty Python,[5] Woody Allen
Influenced	Sammy J[6]
Spouse	Leandra (1988-present) 3 children
Notable works and roles	The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) Welcher & Welcher Micallef Tonight Newstopia Thank God You're Here (2006-2007) Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation

Shaun Patrick Micallef (born 18 July 1962) is an Australian actor, comedian and writer. After ten years of working in insurance law as a solicitor in Adelaide, Micallef moved to Melbourne to pursue a full-time comedy career in 1993. He first gained recognition as a cast member of the sketch comedy show Full Frontal, which in turn led to a number of television roles including his own sketch show, The Micallef P(r)ogram(me), the sitcom Welcher & Welcher and the variety show Micallef Tonight. He also fronted the satirical news comedy series Newstopia on SBS and currently hosts the game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation on Network Ten.

In addition to his television work Micallef has appeared on stage, most notably in the Australian production of Boeing Boeing, and radio as the co-host of Melbourne station Vega 91.5 FM's morning program. He is also a published author; his book Smithereens was released in 2004, and re-released in January 2011. His other book, a novella by the name of Preincarnate, was released in 2010.

Personal life[link]

Micallef was born in Adelaide, South Australia and is of Maltese and Irish descent.^[1] His father worked for a company that sold parts for Volvos and his mother was employed at the Adelaide Bank.^[7] As a child he lived in Clovelly Park and attended St Bernadette's School in St. Marys then St Joseph’s Catholic School in Mitchell Park (now Sacred Heart College Middle School) before moving on to Sacred Heart Senior College where he was the College Captain.^[8] He studied law at the University of Adelaide, where he was frequently involved in comedy revues, often involving Francis Greenslade and Gary McCaffrie, with whom he continues to work.^[9] He was a practising solicitor for ten years in the field of insurance law before making the decision to move to Melbourne and pursue a full-time career in comedy in 1993.^[7] He currently lives in Williamstown, Victoria with his wife Leandra (whom he married in 1988) and their three sons.^[1][10] He relates the story that while working as a solicitor, he talked so much about making a career change and becoming a comedian that his wife gave him an ultimatum. She circled a date in the near future on a calendar and told Shaun to quit his job and become a comedian by that date, or never talk about it again.

Career[link]

Early theatre[link]

In 1972, having three younger sisters taking ballet classes, ten year old Micallef was often asked to help out when a dance routine required a boy. The following year he auditioned for the Bunyip Children's Theatre and over the next four years participated in plays that they performed in the Scott Theatre during school holidays. In 1976 he doubled for Humphrey B. Bear for personal appearances.

Television and film[link]

Following early TV appearances on Theatre Sports (1987) and The Big Gig (1989), in early 1993 Micallef was offered a job writing for the Jimeoin show which was soon followed by an offer to also write for the sketch comedy show Full Frontal where six months later he took on the role as co-producer with Gary McCaffrie. In 1994, Micallef became a full time cast member of Full Frontal, where he became well known for characters such as Milo Kerrigan, Nobby Doldrums and a send-up of Italian male model Fabio. Micallef recalls that the show was a good introduction to television comedy because, with an ensemble cast, its success did not hinge on his performance and he had more freedom to make and learn from mistakes. However, he was frustrated with the lack of control he had over his work in the series as well as the repetition of characters and gags.^[7]

Micallef's role on Full Frontal led to a 1996 special Shaun Micallef's World Around Him and three seasons of the two-time Logie Award-winning ABC series The Micallef Program (1998–2001), which he co-wrote and produced with long-time writing partner Gary McCaffrie.^[11] Since the series' end he has created and starred in two short-lived television series, the sitcom Welcher & Welcher (2003) and the variety show Micallef Tonight (2003),^[12] and devised a series of telemovies, BlackJack (2003–present).^[13]

He has also had acting roles on the television series SeaChange (2000), Through My Eyes (2004) and "Offspring" (2010), and supporting roles in the films Bad Eggs (2003), The Honourable Wally Norman (2003), The Extra (2005), Aquamarine (2006), and The King (2007). In 2006, Micallef was a recurring guest on the Network Ten Improvisational theatre show Thank God You're Here.

In 2007, along with partners McCaffrie and Michael Ward, Micallef developed the satirical comedy program Newstopia, which he hosted. The show began airing 10 October 2007 on SBS, and in August 2008 it was announced that a third series had been commissioned.^[14] In 2009, Micallef joined the Ten Network and hosted "Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation", which has been a hit on Australian television screens.

In 2012 he began hosting ABC1's Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell.^[15]

Other work[link]

In September 2005, Micallef began hosting the breakfast show on Melbourne radio station Vega 91.5 FM, Shaun, Beverley and Denise, with comedian Denise Scott and television presenter Beverley O'Connor. In July 2006, comedian Dave O'Neil took over as host and the show was renamed Dave and Denise with Shaun Micallef. Micallef left the network on 23 November 2007.^[16]

He has also released a book, Smithereens, which was published in 2004 and contains a collection of prose, poetry and plays. Micallef describes it as a collection of "all sorts of bits and pieces I have written".^[3][12]

Mainstream popularity[link]

With Micallef's 2009 move to the Ten Network's Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, a sudden and unprecedented rise in his popularity within the Australian mainstream has been observed.^[17] His contract with the program marks his first long-term position in a commercial network and has raised his profile in commercial television. The extent of this has been demonstrated with celebrity appearances on Rove McManus' Rove^[18] and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?,^[19] and on 9am with David & Kim.^[20] In 2010, he was voted most popular presenter at the Annual Logie Awards.^[20]

List of works[link]

Films[link]

• The King (2007) - Colin Bednall
• Aquamarine (2006) - Storm Banks
• The Extra (2005) - Paul Ridley
• Bad Eggs (2003) - Premier Cray
• The Honourable Wally Norman (2003) - Ken Oats
• The 13th House (2003) - Sir
• Silly Billy Don't Touch That! (Unknown)

Television[link]

• Mad as Hell (2012) - Host
• Mollusks (2011) - Easty (voice)
• The Bazura Project's Guide To Sinema (2011) - MK-Ultra (voice)
• Laid (2011–present) - G-Bomb
• A Quiet Word With ... (2011) - Himself (guest)
• Offspring (2010) - Lachlan
• Shaun Micallef's New Year's Rave - Host
• Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
• Chaser's War on Everything (2009) - Himself (guest in the Rudd song sketch)
• Rove (2009) - Himself (guest)
• Melbourne International Comedy Festival (2009) - Host
• Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (2009–present) - Host
• Good News Week (2009) - Himself (Guest)
• Spicks and Specks (2008) - Himself (guest)
• Newstopia (2007–2008) - Himself
• Dogstar (2007) - Narrator
• Thank God You're Here (2006–2007) - Various (semi-regular guest)
• The Shambles (2006) - (guest cameo)
• Through My Eyes (2005) - Jack Winneke
• BlackJack (2003–2007) (writer)
• Micallef Tonight (2003) - Himself (also writer)
• Welcher & Welcher (2003) - Quentin Welcher (also writer/producer)
• SeaChange (2000) - Warwick Munro
• The Micallef Program (1998–2001) - Various (also writer/producer)
• Shaun Micallef's World Around Him (1996) - Various (also writer/producer)
• The Glynn Nicholas Show (1996) (writer)
• Full Frontal (1994–1997) - Various (also writer/producer)
• Jimeoin (1994) - Various (also writer)
• The Big Gig (1989) (writer)

Theatre[link]

• Boeing Boeing (2008) - Bernard
• Good Evening - Sketches from Dudley Moore and Peter Cook (2010)

Radio shows[link]

• Dave and Denise with Shaun Micallef on Vega 91.5 FM (2005–2007)
• Hamish & Andy on Fox FM (a guest twice)
• Pete and Myf (with Newstopia writer Richard Marsland on Triple M (guest two times)
• Get This appeared on the final show in the first hour

Books[link]

• Preincarnate (2010)
• Smithereens (2004)

Music[link]

• His Generation (2009)

Awards[link]

• 2008: Won Aria Award Best Comedy Release - The Expurgated Micallef Tonight: The Very Best of Shaun Micallef's Short-Lived but Brilliant Tonight Show^[21]
• 2010: Won Most Popular Presenter and nominated for the Gold Logie at the Logie Awards for his role on Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Unofficial Shaun Micallef Fansite
• Shaun Micallef at the Internet Movie Database
• Unofficial Shaun Micallef Fansite

Christopher Hitchens
Hitchens speaking in 2007
Born	Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949-04-13)13 April 1949 Portsmouth, England
Died	15 December 2011(2011-12-15) (aged 62) Houston, Texas
Occupation	Writer, journalist, public speaker
Nationality	English American
Citizenship	British and American
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Subjects	Politics, religion, history, biography, literature
Spouse(s)	Eleni Meleagrou (m. 1981-1989; divorced) Carol Blue (m. 1989-2011; his death)
Relative(s)	Peter Hitchens (brother)
Influences George Orwell,[1] Leszek Kolakowski, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, George Eliot, Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, John Stuart Mill, Joseph Heller, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Edward Said, Salman Rushdie, Vladimir Nabokov, Richard Llewellyn, Aldous Huxley, PG Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Richard Hofstadter, Paul Mark Scott, James Fenton, James Joyce, Albert Camus, Oscar Wilde, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Martin Amis, Kingsley Amis, Ian McEwan, Colm Tóibín, Bertrand Russell, Wilfred Owen, Israel Shahak,[2] Isaiah Berlin, Émile Zola, W. H. Auden, Susan Sontag[3]
Influenced Johann Hari,[4] Martin Amis,[5]
Signature

Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was an English American^[6][7] author and journalist whose career spanned more than four decades.^[8] Hitchens, often referred to colloquially as "Hitch",^[9] was a columnist and literary critic for New Statesman, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Mirror, The Times Literary Supplement and Vanity Fair. He was an author of twelve books and five collections of essays. As a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits, he was a prominent public intellectual, and his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded and controversial figure.

Hitchens was known for his admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, as well as for his excoriating critiques of various public figures including Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger and Diana, Princess of Wales. Although he supported the Falklands War, his key split from the established political left began in 1989 after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left to the Rushdie Affair. The September 11 attacks strengthened his internationalist embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his vociferous criticism of what he called "fascism with an Islamic face." His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, although Hitchens insisted he was not "a conservative of any kind", and his friend Ian McEwan describes him as representing the anti-totalitarian left.^[10][11]

A noted critic of religion and a self described "antitheist", he said that a person "could be an atheist and wish that belief in god were correct", but that "an antitheist, a term I'm trying to get into circulation, is someone who is relieved that there's no evidence for such an assertion."^[12] According to Hitchens, the concept of a god or a supreme being is a totalitarian belief that destroys individual freedom, and that free expression and scientific discovery should replace religion as a means of teaching ethics and defining human civilization. His 2007 book, God Is Not Great, sold over 500,000 copies.

On 15 December 2011, Hitchens died from pneumonia, a complication of his cancer, in the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. A popular figure, his death prompted tributes and eulogies from a range of public figures, including Tony Blair, Richard Dawkins, Martin Amis, James Fenton, Nick Clegg, Stephen Fry and Bill Maher.

Life and career[link]

Early life and education[link]

His mother, Yvonne Jean (née Hickman), and father, Eric Ernest Hitchens (1909–1987), met in Scotland while both were serving in the Royal Navy during World War II.^[13] Yvonne was at the time a "Wren" (a member of the Women's Royal Naval Service),^[14] and Eric a "purse-lipped and silent" commander, whose ship HMS Jamaica helped sink Nazi Germany's battleship Scharnhorst in the Battle of the North Cape.^[3] His father's naval career required the family to move a number of times from base to base throughout Britain and its dependencies, including in Malta, where Christopher's brother Peter was born in Sliema in 1951.

Hitchens's mother having argued that "if there is going to be an upper class in this country, then Christopher is going to be in it,"^[15] he was sent off to Mount House School in Tavistock in Devon at the age of eight, followed by the independent Leys School in Cambridge, and then at Balliol College in Oxford, where he was tutored by Steven Lukes and read philosophy, politics, and economics. Hitchens was "bowled over" in his adolescence by Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley, Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, R. H. Tawney's critique on Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, and the works of George Orwell.^[14] In 1968, he took part in the TV quiz show University Challenge.^[16]

Hitchens has written of his homosexual experiences when in boarding school in his memoir, Hitch-22.^[17] These experiences continued in his college years, when he allegedly had relationships with two men who eventually became a part of the Thatcher government.^[18]

In the 1960s Hitchens joined the political left, drawn by his anger over the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons, racism, and "oligarchy", including that of "the unaccountable corporation". He would express affinity with the politically charged countercultural and protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s. However, he deplored the rife recreational drug use of the time, which he describes as hedonistic.^[19]

He joined the Labour Party in 1965, but along with the majority of the Labour students' organization was expelled in 1967, because of what Hitchens called "Prime Minister Harold Wilson's contemptible support for the war in Vietnam".^{[20][clarification needed]} Under the influence of Peter Sedgwick, who translated the writings of Russian revolutionary and Soviet dissident Victor Serge, Hitchens forged an ideological interest in Trotskyist and anti-Stalinist socialism.^[14] Shortly after he joined "a small but growing post-Trotskyist Luxemburgist sect".^[21]

Journalistic career (1970–1981)[link]

Hitchens began working as a correspondent for the magazine International Socialism,^[22] published by the International Socialists, the forerunners of today's British Socialist Workers Party. This group was broadly Trotskyist, but differed from more orthodox Trotskyist groups in its refusal to defend communist states as "workers' states". Their slogan was "Neither Washington nor Moscow but International Socialism".

Hitchens left Oxford with a third class degree.^[23] In 1971 he went to work at the Times Higher Education Supplement where he served as a social science correspondent.^[24] Hitchens admitted that he hated the position, and was later fired; he recalled, "I sometimes think if I'd been any good at that job, I might still be doing it."^[25] He then went on to become a researcher for ITV's Weekend World.^[26] In 1973 he went on to work for the New Statesman, where he became friends with the authors Martin Amis and Ian McEwan, among others.^[26] At the New Statesman he acquired a reputation as a fierce left-winger, aggressively attacking targets such as Henry Kissinger, the Vietnam War, and the Roman Catholic Church.

In November 1973, Hitchens' mother committed suicide in Athens in a suicide pact with her lover, a former clergyman named Timothy Bryan.^[14] They overdosed on sleeping pills in adjoining hotel rooms, and Bryan slashed his wrists in the bathtub. Hitchens flew alone to Athens to recover his mother's body. Hitchens said he thought his mother was pressured into suicide by fear that her husband would learn of her infidelity, as their marriage had been strained and unhappy. Both her children were then independent adults. While in Greece, Hitchens reported on the constitutional crisis of the military junta. It became his first leading article for the New Statesman.^[27]

In 1977, unhappy at the New Statesman, Hitchens defected to the Daily Express where he became a foreign correspondent.^[26] He returned to the New Statesman in 1979 where he became foreign editor.^[26]

American career (1981–2011)[link]

After moving to the United States in 1981, Hitchens wrote for The Nation, where he penned vociferous critiques of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and American foreign policy in South and Central America.^{[28][29][30][31][32][33][34]} He became a contributing editor of Vanity Fair in 1992,^[35] writing ten columns a year. In 2002 Asteroid 57901 Hitchens was named after him.^[36] He left The Nation in 2002 after profoundly disagreeing with other contributors over the Iraq War. There is speculation that Hitchens was the inspiration for Tom Wolfe's character Peter Fallow in the 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities,^[30] but others — including Hitchens (or he indicated as such while alive) — believe it to be Spy Magazine's "Ironman Nightlife Decathlete" Anthony Haden-Guest.^[37][38] In 1987, his father died from cancer of the esophagus.^[39] He became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008.^[40]

Hitchens spent part of his early career in journalism as a foreign correspondent in Cyprus.^[41] Through his work there he met his first wife Eleni Meleagrou, a Greek Cypriot, with whom he had two children, Alexander and Sophia. His son, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, born in 1984, has worked as a researcher for London think tanks the Policy Exchange and the Centre for Social Cohesion. Hitchens continued writing essay-style correspondence pieces from a variety of locales, including Chad, Uganda^[42] and the Darfur region of Sudan.^[43] His work took him to over 60 countries.^[44] In 1991 he received a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.^[45]

Before Hitchens' political shift, the American author and polemicist Gore Vidal was apt to speak of Hitchens as his "Dauphin" or "heir".^[46][47][48] In 2010, Hitchens attacked Vidal in a Vanity Fair piece headlined "Vidal Loco," calling him a "crackpot" for his adoption of 9/11 conspiracy theories.^[49][50] Also, on the back of his book Hitch-22, among the praise from notable writers and figures, a Vidal quote endorsing Hitchens as his successor is crossed out with a red 'X' and a message saying "NO C.H." His strong advocacy of the war in Iraq had gained Hitchens a wider readership, and in September 2005 he was named one of the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines.^[51] An online poll ranked the 100 intellectuals, but the magazines noted that the rankings of Hitchens (5), Noam Chomsky (1), and Abdolkarim Soroush (15) were partly due to supporters publicising the vote.^[52]

In 2007 Hitchens' work for Vanity Fair won him the National Magazine Award in the category "Columns and Commentary".^[53] He was a finalist once more in the same category in 2008 for some of his columns in Slate but lost out to Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone.^[54] He won the National Magazine Award for Columns about Cancer in 2011.^[55][56] Hitchens also served on the Advisory Board of Secular Coalition for America and offered advice to Coalition on the acceptance and inclusion of nontheism in American life.^[57]

Literature reviews[link]

Hitchens wrote a monthly essay on books in The Atlantic^[58] and contributed occasionally to other literary journals. One of his books, Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere, is a collection of such works, and Love, Poverty and War contains a section devoted to literary essays. In Why Orwell Matters, he defends Orwell's writings against modern critics as relevant today and progressive for his time. In the 2008 book Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left, many literary critiques are included of essays and other books of writers, such as David Horowitz and Edward Said.

During a three-hour interview by Book TV,^[3] he named authors who have had influence on his views, including Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh, P. G. Wodehouse and Conor Cruise O'Brien.

Political views[link]

The San Francisco Chronicle referred to Hitchens as a "gadfly with gusto".^[60] In 2009, Hitchens was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the "25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media".^[61] However, the same article noted that he would "likely be aghast to find himself on this list", since it reduces his self-styled radicalism to mere liberalism. Hitchens' political perspective can be found in his wide ranging writings which include many of the political dialogues he published.

Socialism[link]

Hitchens became a socialist "largely [as] the outcome of a study of history, taking sides ... in the battles over industrialism and war and empire." In 2001, he told Rhys Southan of Reason magazine that he could no longer say "I am a socialist." Socialists, he claimed, had ceased to offer a positive alternative to the capitalist system. Capitalism had become the more revolutionary economic system, and he welcomed globalisation as "innovative and internationalist", but added, "I don't think that the contradictions, as we used to say, of the system, are by any means all resolved." He stated that he had a renewed interest in the freedom of the individual from the state, but that he still considered libertarianism "ahistorical" both on the world stage and in the work of creating a stable and functional society, adding that libertarians are "more worried about the over-mighty state than the unaccountable corporation" whereas "the present state of affairs ... combines the worst of bureaucracy with the worst of the insurance companies."^[62]

In 2006, in a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania debating the Jewish Tradition with Martin Amis, Hitchens commented on his political philosophy by stating, "I am no longer a socialist, but I still am a Marxist".^[63] In a June 2010 interview with The New York Times, he stated that "I still think like a Marxist in many ways. I think the materialist conception of history is valid. I consider myself a very conservative Marxist".^[64] In 2009, in an article for The Atlantic entitled "The Revenge of Karl Marx", Hitchens frames the late-2000s recession in terms of Marx's economic analysis and notes how much Marx admired the capitalist system he was calling for the end of, but says that Marx ultimately failed to grasp how revolutionary capitalist innovation was.^[65] Hitchens was an admirer of Che Guevara, commenting that "[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time, he was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do — fought and died for his beliefs."^[66] However, in an essay written in 1997, he distanced himself from Che, and referred to the mythos surrounding him as a "cult".^[67]

He continued to regard both Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky as great men,^[68][69] and the October Revolution as a necessary event in the modernization of Russia.^[21][30] In 2005, Hitchens praised Lenin's creation of "secular Russia" and his discrediting of the Russian Orthodox Church, describing it as "an absolute warren of backwardness and evil and superstition".^[21]

Iraq War and the war on terror[link]

In the years after the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, Hitchens became increasingly critical of what he called "excuse making" on the left. At the same time, he was attracted to the foreign policy ideas of some on the Republican-right that promoted pro-liberalism intervention, especially the neoconservative group that included Paul Wolfowitz.^[70] Around this time, he befriended the Iraqi dissident and businessman Ahmed Chalabi.^[71] In 2004, Hitchens stated that neoconservative support for US intervention in Iraq convinced him that he was "on the same side as the neo-conservatives" when it came to contemporary foreign policy issues.^[72] Hitchens had also been known to refer to his association with "temporary neocon allies".^[73]

Following the September 11 attacks, Hitchens and Noam Chomsky debated the nature of radical Islam and the proper response to it. In October 2001, Hitchens wrote criticisms of Chomsky in The Nation.^[74][75] Chomsky responded^[76] and Hitchens issued a rebuttal to Chomsky^[77] to which Chomsky again responded.^[78] Approximately a year after the September 11 attacks and his exchanges with Chomsky, Hitchens left The Nation, claiming that its editors, readers and contributors considered John Ashcroft a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden,^[79] and that they were making excuses on behalf of Islamist terrorism; in the following months he wrote articles increasingly at odds with his colleagues.

Christopher Hitchens argued the case for the Iraq War in a 2003 collection of essays entitled A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, and he held numerous public debates on the topic with George Galloway^[80] and Scott Ritter.^[81]

Criticism of George W. Bush[link]

Prior to September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, Hitchens was highly critical of Bush's "non-interventionist" foreign policy. He also criticized Bush's support of intelligent design^[82] and capital punishment.^[83][83]

Although Hitchens defended Bush's post-September 11 foreign policy, he criticized the actions of U.S. troops in Abu Ghraib and Haditha, and the U.S. government's use of waterboarding, which he unhesitatingly deemed as torture after being invited by Vanity Fair to voluntarily undergo it.^[84][85] In January 2006, Hitchens joined with four other individuals and four organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace, as plaintiffs in a lawsuit, ACLU v. NSA, challenging Bush's warrantless domestic spying program; the lawsuit was filed by the ACLU.^[86][87][88]

Presidential endorsements[link]

Hitchens would elaborate on his political views and ideological shift in a discussion with Eric Alterman on Bloggingheads.tv. In this discussion Hitchens revealed himself to be a supporter of Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, who was disenchanted with the candidacy of both George W. Bush and Al Gore.^[89]

Hitchens speaking at a September 2000 third party protest at the headquarters of the Commission on Presidential Debates

Hitchens made a brief return to The Nation just before the 2004 U.S. presidential election and wrote that he was "slightly" for Bush; shortly afterwards, Slate polled its staff on their positions on the candidates and mistakenly printed Hitchens' vote as pro-John Kerry. Hitchens shifted his opinion to "neutral", saying: "It's absurd for liberals to talk as if Kristallnacht is impending with Bush, and it's unwise and indecent for Republicans to equate Kerry with capitulation. There's no one to whom he can surrender, is there? I think that the nature of the jihadist enemy will decide things in the end".^[90]

In the 2008 presidential election, Hitchens in an article for Slate stated, "I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that 'issue' I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity." He was critical of both main party candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. Hitchens went on to support Obama, calling McCain "senile", and his choice of running mate Sarah Palin "absurd", calling Palin a "pathological liar" and a "national disgrace".^[91]

Blumenthal–Hitchens feud[link]

Hitchens and Carol Blue chose to submit an affidavit to the trial managers of the Republican Party in the trial of impeachment of Bill Clinton. In the affidavit, Blue and Hitchens swore that their then-friend, Sidney Blumenthal, had described Monica Lewinsky as a stalker. This allegation contradicted Blumenthal's own sworn deposition in the trial,^[92] and it resulted in a hostile exchange of opinion in the public sphere between Hitchens and Blumenthal. Following the publication of Blumenthal's The Clinton Wars, Hitchens wrote several pieces in which he accused Blumenthal of manipulating the facts.^[92][93]

Israel–Palestine[link]

Hitchens had said of himself, "I am an Anti-Zionist. I'm one of those people of Jewish descent who believes that Zionism would be a mistake even if there were no Palestinians."^[94]

A review of his autobiography Hitch-22 in the Jewish Daily Forward refers to Hitchens as "a prominent anti-Zionist" and says that he views Zionism "as an injustice against the Palestinians".^[95] Others have commented on his anti-Zionism as well^[96] suggesting that his memoir was "marred by the occasional eruption of [his] anti-Zionism".^[97] The Jewish Daily Forward quoted him saying of Israel's prospects for the future, "I have never been able to banish the queasy inner suspicion that Israel just did not look, or feel, either permanent or sustainable."^[95]

In Slate, Hitchens pondered the notion that, instead of curing antisemitism through the creation of a Jewish state, "Zionism has only replaced and repositioned"^[98] it, saying: "there are three groups of 6 million Jews. The first 6 million live in what the Zionist movement used to call Palestine. The second 6 million live in the United States. The third 6 million are distributed mainly among Russia, France, Britain, and Argentina. Only the first group lives daily in range of missiles that can be (and are) launched by people who hate Jews." Hitchens argued that instead of supporting Zionism, Jews should help "secularize and reform their own societies", believing that unless one is religious, "what the hell are you doing in the greater Jerusalem area in the first place?" Indeed, Hitchens goes so far as to claim that the only justification for Zionism given by Jews is a religious one.^[99]

During a town hall function in Pennsylvania with Martin Amis, Hitchens stated that "one must not insult or degrade or humiliate people"^[100] and that he "would be opposed to this maltreatment of the Palestinians if it took place on a remote island with no geopolitical implications". Hitchens described Zionism as "an ethno-nationalist quasi-religious ideology" and stated his desire that if possible, he would "re-wind the tape [to] stop Hertzl from telling the initial demagogic lie (actually two lies) that a land without a people needs a people without a land".

He continued to say that Zionism "nonetheless has founded a sort of democratic state which isn't any worse in its practice than many others with equally dubious origins." He stated that settlement in order to achieve security for Israel is "doomed to fail in the worst possible way", and the cessation of this "appallingly racist and messianic delusion" would "confront the internal clerical and chauvinist forces which want to instate a theocracy for Jews". However, Hitchens contended that the "solution of withdrawal would not satisfy the jihadists" and wondered "What did they imagine would be the response of the followers of the Prophet [Muhammad]?" Hitchens bemoaned the transference into religious terrorism of Arab secularism as a means of democratization: "the most depressing and wretched spectacle of the past decade, for all those who care about democracy and secularism, has been the degeneration of Palestinian Arab nationalism into the theocratic and thanatocratic hell of Hamas and Islamic Jihad".^[98] He maintained that the Israel-Palestine conflict is a "trivial squabble" that has become "so dangerous to all of us" because of "the faith-based element."^[100]

Hitchens collaborated on this issue with prominent Palestinian advocate Edward Said, in 1988 publishing Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question.

Domestic policy[link]

Hitchens actively supported drug policy reform and called for the abolition of the "War on Drugs" which he described as an "authoritarian war" during a debate with William F. Buckley.^[19] He supported the legalization of cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes, citing it as a cure for glaucoma and as treatment for numerous side-effects induced by chemotherapy, including severe nausea, describing the prohibition of the drug as "sadistic".^[101] On the issue of abortion, Hitchens prioritized in affirming that he believed a fetus should be regarded as an "unborn child", but opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade and supported the development of medical abortion techniques, and fundamentally believed in access to contraceptives and reproductive rights as "the only thing that is known to cure poverty", and in order to prevent surgical abortion altogether.^[102][103]

Other[link]

Other issues Hitchens wrote on the subjects of included his support for the reunification of Ireland,^[104][105] abolition of the British monarchy,^[106] and his condemnation of the war crimes of Slobodan Milošević^[107] and Franjo Tuđman^[108] in Yugoslavia, and the Bosnian War.^[109]

Critiques of specific individuals[link]

Hitchens was known for his scathing critiques of public figures. Three figures — Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Mother Teresa — were the targets of three separate full length texts, No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. Hitchens also wrote book-length biographical essays about Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson: Author of America), George Orwell (Why Orwell Matters), and Thomas Paine (Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography).

However, the majority of Hitchens's critiques took the form of short opinion pieces, some of the more notable being his critiques of: Jerry Falwell,^[110][111] George Galloway,^[112] Mel Gibson,^[113] Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama,^[114] Michael Moore,^[115] Daniel Pipes,^[116] Ronald Reagan,^[117] Jesse Helms,^[118] and Cindy Sheehan.^[21][119]When comedian Bob Hope died in 2003, Hitchens wrote an attack piece on him, calling Hope "a fool and nearly a clown, but he was never even remotely a comedian" and "Quick, then—what is your favorite Bob Hope gag? It wouldn't take you long if I challenged you on Milton Berle, or Woody Allen, or John Cleese, or even Lenny Bruce or Mort Sahl. By this time tomorrow, I bet you haven't come up with a real joke for which Hope could take credit." Critics however argued that Hitchens focused solely on Hope's declining years and ignored his heyday in the 1940s.^[120]

Views on religion[link]

Hitchens often spoke out against the Abrahamic religions, or what he called "the three great monotheisms" (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). He said: "The real axis of evil is Christianity, Judaism, and Islam".^{[cite this quote]} In his book, God Is Not Great, Hitchens expanded his criticism to include all religions, including those rarely criticized by Western secularists such as Hinduism and neo-paganism. His book had mixed reactions, from praise in The New York Times for his "logical flourishes and conundrums"^[121] to accusations of "intellectual and moral shabbiness" in the Financial Times.^[122] God Is Not Great was nominated for a National Book Award on 10 October 2007.^[123][124]

Hitchens contended that organized religion is "the main source of hatred in the world",^[125] "[v]iolent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children", and that accordingly it "ought to have a great deal on its conscience". In God Is Not Great, Hitchens contends that:

[A]bove all, we are in need of a renewed Enlightenment, which will base itself on the proposition that the proper study of mankind is man and woman [referencing Alexander Pope]. This Enlightenment will not need to depend, like its predecessors, on the heroic breakthroughs of a few gifted and exceptionally courageous people. It is within the compass of the average person. The study of literature and poetry, both for its own sake and for the eternal ethical questions with which it deals, can now easily depose the scrutiny of sacred texts that have been found to be corrupt and confected. The pursuit of unfettered scientific inquiry, and the availability of new findings to masses of people by electronic means, will revolutionize our concepts of research and development. Very importantly, the divorce between the sexual life and fear, and the sexual life and disease, and the sexual life and tyranny, can now at last be attempted, on the sole condition that we banish all religions from the discourse. And all this and more is, for the first time in our history, within the reach if not the grasp of everyone.^[126]

Hitchens and John Lennox at an "Is God Great?" debate (Alabama, 2009)

His book rendered him one of the major advocates of the "New Atheism" movement, and he also was made an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.^[127] Hitchens said he would accept an invitation from any religious leader who wished to debate with him. He also served on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America,^[128] a lobbying group for atheists and humanists in Washington, DC. In 2007, Hitchens began a series of written debates on the question "Is Christianity Good for the World?" with Christian theologian and pastor, Douglas Wilson, published in Christianity Today magazine.^[129] This exchange eventually became a book by the same title in 2008. During their book tour to promote the book, film producer Darren Doane sent a film crew to accompany them. Doane produced the film Collision: "Is Christianity GOOD for the World?" which was released on 27 October 2009.