Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn is a controversial journalist and critic, born in Toronto,Canada and who identifies as an American conservative identification. He is a columist for the Washington Times, and, on his website, modestly calls himself the "one-man worldwide content provider." He is also a guest host for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

He began writing at the then-new Independent (UK) newspaper in London in the mid-1980s, after leaving school at 16 and becoming a disk jockey.

Critics of the Critics

His website proudly says "You can't argue with endorsements like these" from some of his critics, giving a chosen few a place of honor:

• "The arrogance of Mark Steyn knows no bounds." (The Saudi ambassador to the US)
• "Dangerous Idiot of the Week." ( New Statesman magazine)
• "The champion stage-door-Johnny of the Broadway musical scene, whose forays into the geopolitical uplands remind us why Rodgers, Hart and Hammerstein so seldom tried their luck at comment journalism." ( Guardian columnist Matthew Norman)

With respect to Saudi poet and diplomat, he says Ghazi al-Gosaibi. "He's certainly my favourite Saudi...I got into a kind of running spat with him at one point in London and he wrote very sarcastically to the Spectator (magazine) …

Oh, Mark Steyn: the destroyer of nation states and destabiliser of entire regions

Steny said "I liked so much I had it put on my business card. You can't buy publicity like that. 'Strictly by appointment' sort of thing." And Steyn roars with self-satisfaction."And when I congratulated him on his appointment as Minister of Water and Sewerage, he wrote to the paper thanking me for that and saying that his treatment plants would always be ready to process my literary work." More laughter. "He's actually a very funny man and he sent me a copy of a rather limpid novel he (wrote), a 150-page novel written in English … and he wrote in the front of it 'To Mark, ambivalently, Ghazi', which is my favourite book inscription of all time."