During a consultation with one of Darwin’s medical specialists, who has since departed for greener and possibly more rewarding pastures, he emphatically stated that the Sydney Morning Herald is a “ terrible, lefty paper.” This caused my blood pressure to jump as I had once worked on that broadsheet when it was reliable, respected, if somewhat staid. In no way could you diagnose Granny Herald , as it was known, as being of the left. Indeed, Sir Warwick Fairfax , of the founding establishment family, would rotate in his sarcophagus on hearing such a blasphemy. Of course, along came Margot Kingston who got Granny to lift her skirts and gave PM John Howard a working over.
I may be wrong, but I surmise the doctor was politically conservative and could have been a regular, outraged reader of the strong political columns written by Alan Ramsey for the SMH from l987-2008. Many of those powerful pieces-l50- are in his recently released book - A matter of Opinion- published by Allen and Unwin, $35.
Ramsey, described as a grumpy old bastard and a curmudgeon , covered the national capital political beat. He and I have things in common. Both of us worked at the Northern Territory News in the old tin bank when Jim Bowditch was the editor and did the same rounds , including court reporting . Ramsey was there in the mid - l950s ; I arrived from Sydney in l958 . While he later spent five years as Bill Hayden’s press secretary , I spent an interesting time as press secretary for the NT ALP leader of the Opposition , Jon Isaacs.
Ramsey, described as a grumpy old bastard and a curmudgeon , covered the national capital political beat. He and I have things in common. Both of us worked at the Northern Territory News in the old tin bank when Jim Bowditch was the editor and did the same rounds , including court reporting . Ramsey was there in the mid - l950s ; I arrived from Sydney in l958 . While he later spent five years as Bill Hayden’s press secretary , I spent an interesting time as press secretary for the NT ALP leader of the Opposition , Jon Isaacs.
While Ramsey was called variations of a grouch, I- a sweet, loveable guy at heart- have been identified as cranky, aggressive and an expletive or two . I emailed Alan for info about his time at the NT News when researching the life of Big Jim Bowditch. In interviews associated with the launch of the book, straight talking Ramsey criticised the modern ALP, commercial TV , spoke of the media’s obsession with celebrity and trivia , spin " sludge ", and gave some wonderful insights .
In an at home session in Canberra with Phillip Adams of the ABC’s Late Night Live , Ramsey served up chicken and lettuce sandwiches, and let the political revelations flow . One was a detailed account of the time he shouted from the Press gallery that PM “ Jolly” John Gorton was a liar. There are two column pieces related to the Northern Territory in the book . With a preface by the inimitable David Marr, which describes the farewell party for Ramsey in Canberra , attended by a host of politicians from the past, including Andrew Peacock who flew in from overseas to be in attendance , the book is a welcome , refreshing read, bringing back memories of long gone editors, reporters and politicians .
