http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/stephen-romei/ Stephen Romei started his career in journalism when drinking and smoking at your desk was mandatory. He misses those days but keeps busy editing The Australian Literary Review, a journal still quaintly printed on dead trees, while also blogging, Tweeting and doing anything else he can to remain relevant. Follow his blog at http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/alr en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/journalists-in-lycra-tights-say-it-isnt-so/ Three new books about groundbreaking figures in Australian journalism - a proprietor, an editor and a reporter – provide some interesting insights into the contemporary media landscape. The three men are: Rupert Murdoch, who needs no introduction, Graham Perkin, revered ‘60s and ‘70s editor of The Age after whom we name one of our highest journalism awards, and Alan Reid, guru of the Canberra press gallery from the late ‘50s to early ‘70s. The three books are reviewed in the June issue of The Australian Literary Review today. Les Carlyon, no slouch himself, looks at Alan “The Red Fox” Reid: Pressman Par Excellence, by Ross Fitzgerald and Stephen Holt; former Fairfax editor Max Suich tackles Breaking News: The Golden Age of Graham Perkin, by Ben Hills; and Clive Mathieson, a rising star at The Australian, considers his boss’s big deal in War at the Wall Street Journal: How Rupert Murdoch Bought an American Icon, by Sarah Ellison. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Romei) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/journalists-in-lycra-tights-say-it-isnt-so/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/journalists-in-lycra-tights-say-it-isnt-so/#item3207 Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:55:47 +0000 Stephen Romei | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Sorry-theyre-the-rules-my-new-policy-for-poor-service/ Remember the Seinfeld episode where George is slugged $75 because he cancels an appointment with a physio within her arbitrarily decreed 24-hour exclusion zone? “24 hours for all cancellations … It’s our policy,’’ he’s told. When the physio subsequently cancels an appointment with George, also within 24 hours, he demands she pay him $75. “I have a policy …,’’ he tells her. A man ahead of his time, George Constanza. Who do these people think they are? And why do we meekly acquiesce to such injustices? Needless to say I have my own particular axe to grind, which I’ll get to in a minute, but more broadly this is a call to all self-respecting citizens to stand up to the sort of professional and corporate bullying that insists “their” time is valuable and our time is worthless. While the cancellation “policy” (consider how often bastardry is cloaked in that word: refugee policy, indigenous affairs policy, tax policy, mental health policy) is the most despicable example, it’s far from the only one. How about the four-hour “window” when you want to get some service – a phone connection, say – installed or a courier package delivered? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Romei) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Sorry-theyre-the-rules-my-new-policy-for-poor-service/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Sorry-theyre-the-rules-my-new-policy-for-poor-service/#item2917 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:55:04 +0000 Stephen Romei | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-dig-at-the-diggers-whats-wrong-with-anzac-day/ It worked for playwright Alan Seymour 50 years ago and it is working for historians Henry Reynolds and Marilyn Lake today. Having a dig at Anzac, that is. Reynolds and Lake, fine historians both, are making ripples with their new book, the provocatively titled What’s Wrong with Anzac?  The questionmark is a fig leaf, as the book sets out, in emphatic fashion, what the authors think is wrong with our most cherished piece of national mythology. Their subtitle is The Militarisation of Australian History. In short, Reynolds and Lake believe recent emphasis on our military past, and especially Gallipoli and its commemoration on Anzac Day, has distorted and devalued Australia’s true history. They blame governments past and present, which probably makes them long odds to go back-to-back in the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction (they got the nod last year for Drawing the Global Colour Line.) feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Romei) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-dig-at-the-diggers-whats-wrong-with-anzac-day/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-dig-at-the-diggers-whats-wrong-with-anzac-day/#item2768 Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:40:18 +0000 Stephen Romei | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/revealed-our-federal-politicians-favourite-books/ We all know the Prime Minister writes books but does he read them? We are left wondering because the author of Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle did not take part in a landmark survey of federal politicians’ reading habits, to be published this Wednesday in The Australian Literary Review.  Tony Abbott was not so shy, revealing his favourite novel to be J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.  Julia Gillard played it safe with Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, Joe Hockey showed his SNAG side with Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Peter Garrett was immersed in a Bunnings catalogue (he also mentioned March, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the one-time Fairfax reporter Geraldine Brooks). feedback@thepunch.com.au (Stephen Romei) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/revealed-our-federal-politicians-favourite-books/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/revealed-our-federal-politicians-favourite-books/#item2518 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:25:53 +0000 Stephen Romei | Author bios | The Punch