You really have to feel sorry for ABC journalists: a billion dollars a year, and they still aren’t safe. Safe from what, I hear you ask?
Why, safe from meany-mean mean people on Twitter.
Alarming statistics quietly released by the public broadcaster show that trending on Twitter has already become dangerous for many of its journalists, who are seeking help in record numbers from an in-house “social media wellbeing adviser” to help them deal with the online “hellscape”.
That’s right: a virtual place where no-one can physically touch you and you are fully empowered to silence them forever with a simple click of a “block” button is “dangerous” for our gold-plated ABC luvvies.
This is what Australian taxpayers get for our billion dollars-plus a year.
Of course, some non-ABC journalists could tell the Ultimo Snowflakes a thing or two about “danger”. Andy Ngo, for instance, who was viciously assaulted by Antifa thugs. Or Lara Logan, gang-raped by hundreds of Muslim men in Tahrir Square. A Dutch reporter was raped by five men at the same event. Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated by car bomb in Malta. Mohamed Heeza, critical of the Muslim Brotherhood, was abducted and tortured.
But they got off easy. ABC journalists have to deal with mean tweets. Mean tweets!
The numbers show by far the highest incidence of workplace health and safety (WHS) incidents at the ABC over the past year has occurred as a direct result of interaction with social media, including Twitter – which is used by more journalists at Aunty than any other platform.
That last shouldn’t surprise in the least anyone who suffers through what passes for “reporting” at the ABC. More and more, the bulk of its content is simply regurgitating something a state-funded millennial sipping an almond milk latte in an Ultimo cafe read on their Twitter feed.
In total, 76 work-related incidents at the ABC – or 32 per cent of the entire total of workplace incidents at Aunty for the year to June 2022 – were put down to what the public broadcaster dubbed “social media safety” incidents.
Furthermore, in the fine print of the 2022 ABC annual report, it is noted that the ABC’s in-house social media wellbeing adviser, Nicolle White – who has apparently been with the public broadcaster since October 2020 — has “assisted with 94 incidents and proactively reached out to 48 staff following recognition of high-risk of abuse, such as trending on Twitter or media mentions”.
Let me repeat that: trending on Twitter is “abuse”.
Some of the ABC’s highest-profile journalists have also been “weighing up” whether to stay on social media, with the likes of former 7.30 host Leigh Sales and ABC News Breakfast presenter Lisa Millar deleting their accounts over bizarre Twitter attacks claiming they had a ‘‘right-wing bias’’.
Of course the rest will stay. They’re as likely to leave Twitter as they were to move to New Zealand or Canada.
Take, for instance, one-time comedian, now tiresome Jon Stewart wannabe, Shaun Micallef. For a week, Micallef was chest-beating about leaving Twitter. It never happened, of course. In due course, Micallef’s bravado collapsed and he admitted that he was on Twitter to stay. But he’s created an Instagram account, just in case! Take that, Elon!
It’s all so laughably pathetic — except that it’s costing we taxpayers a fortune. And not just the billion dollars flushed into the ABC’s left-wing propaganda machine.
The growing number of incidents on Twitter and other platforms appears to be costing the ABC money. The ABC’s annual report shows indicative premiums for Comcare, the government’s workers compensation insurer, will rise from $3.3m in the year to June 2022, to more than $3.8m in the year to June 2023.
The ABC notes the rise reflects “higher-than-expected ABC claims costs … due to increased mental stress claims”.
The Australian
That’s right: Australian taxpayers are beings stiffed millions by these grifting snowflakes.
And it’s so easily fixed: just implement an ABC-wide Twitter ban. Any ABC employee using it in a personal capacity can suck up whatever “abuse” they knowingly choose to cop.
