| Douglass Wilkie | |
| Death Date: | 10 April |
| Occupation: | Newspaper journalist |
| Father: | Allan Wilkie |
| Mother: | Frediswyde Hunter-Watts |
Douglas Wilkie (1909 – 10 April 2002) was an Australian journalist, a respected columnist for The Sun News-Pictorial.
The son of travelling Shakespearean actors Allan Wilkie and Frediswyde Hunter-Watts, he began his newspaper career as a copy boy with the Hobart Mercury. This period was followed by Keith Murdoch appointing him as Geelong correspondent for The Herald.
By 1935 he was a foreign correspondent for The Herald in China, reporting on the Japanese "consolidation" of Manchukuo as the White Russians departed west.[1] In 1942 he was in Singapore, reporting for the Adelaide Advertiser on the Japanese invasion,[2] followed by Rangoon, Delhi,[3] and London,[4] from where he reported on the Blitz and the Invasion of Europe.[5] He was in Berlin to report on the Occupation[6] and the post-war shortages.Around this time he was condemned in the Catholic press for criticising General MacArthur, for favoring peace with Russia and recognition of China, and preferring Moslem values to Christian.[7]
Wilkie is best remembered for his regular political commentary for The Sun News-Pictorial which he wrote during 1946–1986. His columns were syndicated across Australia,[8] [9] in Adelaide as "As I See It".[10]
He was notoriously critical of Melbourne's obsession with Australian rules football. The Douglas Wilkie Medal, a mock award of the Anti-Football League, was named in his honour.