Joshua Livestro

Joshua Livestro (born 1970, Amersfoort) is a Dutch columnist and political person. He was a former assistant to EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein.

Livestro read political science at Leiden University and philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Livestro was active in the Edmund Burke Foundation, a conservative think tank. During his studies, Livestro was an active checkers player, and became national students' champion in 1994. He writes a column about foreign affairs for "De Telegraaf".cite news
url=http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/07/how_to_fight_bias_in_broadcast.php
title=Tilting at Windmills
author=Joshua Livestro | publisher= Pajamas Media
date=2007-07-09 |accessdate=2007-07-11]

Livestro succeeded Ronald Plasterk as a columnist for the Sunday morning television talkshow "Buitenhof". Plasterk became an education and culture minister in the fourth Balkenende cabinet. The producers of "Buitenhof" fired Livestro after just four months, saying that his columns were subpar.Fact|date=July 2007 Livestro on the other said in a "Telegraaf" op-ed that he was fired for his "right-wing views," that the show routinely ignores alternate viewpoints and even censures columnists' views. He also called one of the broadcaster of "Buitenhof", the NPS, a "left-wing funnel," where a "a "DDR" mentality reigns." [nlcite news | url = http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/65908321/Retourtje_Buitenhof.html?p=1,2 | title = Retourtje Buitenhof | author = Joshua Livestro | publisher = "De Telegraaf" | date = 2007-06-18 | accessdate = 2007-06-27] [nlcite news | url = http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/65897991/Commentator_Livestro_voor_NPS_te_rechts.html?p=2,1 | title = Commentator Livestro voor NPS te rechts | publisher = "De Telegraaf" | date = 2007-06-19 | accessdate = 2007-06-27] [nlcite news | url = http://www.vpro.nl/programma/buitenhof/artikelen/35261576/ | title = Reactie van Corinne Hegeman | author = Corinne Hegeman | publisher = "Buitenhof" | date = 2007-06-20 | accessdate = 2007-06-27] In wake of Livestro's firing, political parties D66 and VVD asked parliamentary questions to the culture minister, Ronald Plasterk, who incidentally was Livestro's predecessor at "Buitenhof". [nlcite news | url = http://www.nrc.nl/media/article726432.ece/Platte_censuur_van_linkse_publieke_omroep | title = ‘Platte censuur van linkse publieke omroep’ | publisher = NRC Handelsblad | date = 2007-06-20 | accessdate = 2007-06-27] Plasterk answered that there was enough diversity in Dutch public television. [nlcite news | url = http://www.minocw.nl/documenten/26799.pdf | title = Vragen van het lid Van der Ham (D66) aan de minister van Onderwijs Cultuur en Wetenschap over een columnist bij programma Buitenhof | publisher = MinOCW | date = 2007-06-26 | accessdate = 2007-06-27] Livestro later wrote a longer account his experiences at "Buitenhof" for Pajamas Media.

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