Samantha Maiden

Samantha Louise Maiden is an Australian political journalist. Until June 2018, she was a political reporter for Sky News Australia and was previously the political editor for a number of Sunday News Corp Australia newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Herald Sun and Sunday Mail. She has been based in Canberra as a political correspondent since 1998.

Career

Maiden was known for breaking exclusive political stories for News Corp papers until resigning in 2016. She also appears as a commentator on television news programs, including Today and Pyne & Marles and is a known associate of Annabel Crabb. She joined Sky News in 2017, first appearing on 30 January 2017.

In 2016, Maiden said that Immigration Minister Peter Dutton had inadvertently sent a text message describing her as a "mad fucking witch" directly to her, instead of a colleague, after Maiden wrote a critical opinion piece. The "witch incident" became internationally significant when Marvel's dark hero Jessica Jones tweeted encouragement to Maiden "welcoming her to the club (of mad fucking witches)".

Maiden resigned from Sky News in June 2018. She then wrote for the online newspaper The New Daily.

In April 2020 Maiden left The New Daily to return to NewsCorp as Political Editor, news.com.au.

Personal life

Maiden was born in Adelaide and has three children.

On 6 April 2016, Maiden pleaded guilty to a drink driving charge and two 'fail to obey police' charges in Goulburn Local Court, having recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.136 on 20 March 2016. On 18 May 2016, Maiden was given a 12-month good behaviour bond, disqualified from driving for 7 months and fined $1000.