Kerry O’Brien Biography
Kerry O’Brien born Kerry Michael O’Brien on 27 August 1945, in Brisbane, Queensland is an Australian journalist based in Byron Bay. O’Brien was born in Brisbane, Queensland, where he attended St Laurence’s College. He has two honorary doctorates: Doctor of the University from the Queensland University of Technology in April 2009, and Doctor of Letters honoris causa from the University of Queensland in December 2011.
Kerry O’Brien Age
He was born on 27th August 1945. Heis 73 years old as of 2018
Kerry O’Brien Wife
O’Brien has been married twice . Currently he is married to Sue Javes since 1981.
Kerry O’Brien Children
He has six children, three from his first marriage, and three with Sue Javes.
Kerry O’Brien Career
After six years as a host and interviewer of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Lateline program, in 1995 O’Brien moved to The National 7.30 Report, as editor, compère and interviewer. He also hosted and moderated the ABC’s election telecasts for 20 years. O’Brien has over the years won many awards, including the top award in Australian journalism, the Gold Walkley in 2000.
With respect to effective interviewing, O’Brien revealed: “It’s very much about being prepared. Think through the issues related to what you’re talking about—think them through. Look for the logic. Try to understand as best you can, then you try and cut to the heart of the issue in the same way, I suppose, a lawyer might.”
In September 2010, O’Brien announced that he would be resigning as the editor and presenter of The 7.30 Report at the end of the year, and would move on to new roles within ABC in 2011. On 9 December, he concluded his time at The 7.30 Report .
The ABC on 14 October 2010, announced that O’Brien would host Four Corners, beginning in 2011. O’Brien announced he would be stepping down as host of Four Corners on 6 November 2015. In 2016, he was replaced by Sarah Ferguson .
Kerry O’Brien Awards
O’Brien has won six Walkley Awards for his journalistic work. He received his first two awards in 1982, when he won the award for the best television current affairs report and the ceremony’s top prize, the Gold Walkley. He also received prizes in 1991 and 2000. In his final year on The 7.30 Report in 2010, he received two awards: one for broadcast interviewing, and the other for journalism leadership. O’Brien also received the Queensland Greats Awards in 2011 .
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ABC supporters including Kerry O’Brien and Magda Szubanski rally to ‘save’ broadcaster
Updated on: 8th July 2018
Source: theguardian.com
In 30 years at the ABC, the broadcaster Phillip Adams has never seen such a “moment of danger” for public broadcasting, which is now under attack on several fronts, he told a rally in support of the ABC on Sunday.
“This is a really, really dark time,” the Late Night Live host said at a packed event organised by ABC Friends in Sydney, which also heard rousing speeches about the importance of the ABC from the author Thomas Keneally, the journalist Kerry O’Brien and the actor Magda Szubanski.
The crowd heard that the ABC had suffered from $400m in cuts since 2014, faced several government inquiries, daily hostility from News Corp and calls for privatisation from the Liberal party conference and the Institute of Public Affairs.
“Never before have we had a political party call for our extinction,” Adams said.
“It’s not just public broadcasting, it’s public health, it’s public education, it’s public transport.
“If it’s public, public is the adjective, it is now a pejorative.”
The actor Hugo Weaving, the former Play School presenter Benita Collings, the ABC science broadcaster Robyn Williams, the former ABC foreign correspondent Greg Wilesmith and the feminist academic Eva Cox were among the familiar faces in the audience, which was so large it had to spill into a second room.
O’Brien, the former host of 7.30, urged people not to be partisan, saying support for the ABC was strong across the political spectrum and everyone – no matter how they vote – should fight for it.
“Honestly I don’t like hissing,” he told the crowd when they hissed at the meniton of the prime minister’s name. “This is something that is too important to allow divisions and divisiveness about.
“There are many very, very passionate ABC supporters that are part of a national conservative constituency and they should be applauded for it and they should be encouraged to feel they are a part of this fight.
“There has been times when the Labor party has forgotten its support for the ABC.”
O’Brien said the ABC was already heavily scrutinised and it should be because it is taxpayer funded. However, the scrutiny being applied to the ABC should be honest and the government driving that should have “honest intent” and not be driven either by “political prejudice or ideology”.
Szubanski also called for a bipartsan approach, saying it was “up to all of us to open our arms to all sides of politics”.
“This is an attack on the soul of this nation,” she said. “And it’s up to us to fight for it and to preserve it and, as far as I’m concerned, the line is here. The line has been crossed. The fight is on.”
Keneally, who said at 82 he was probably the oldest person in the room, said as a child his imagination was formed by Australian broadcasting, and warnings of war and peril always came via ABC broadcasting, right back to when his father fought in the second world war.
“People turn to the ABC as they never can and will never turn to commercial outlets,” Keneally said. “Commercial outlets will still be serving their shareholders. If the ABC were cancelled, no communicator will be serving us.
“A commentator in the Australian recently said, to my great outrage, the ABC should not bite the hand that feeds it. We are the hand that feeds it!”
The Chaser comedian and independent producer Julia Morrow was a late addition to the rally, speaking about the shelving of his show The Checkout on Friday. Morrow said the ABC had made a mistake but he would not abandon a friend just because it had made a mistake.
The rally was the first of a series of national rallies cross the nation, including one in Melbourne on Sunday.