Just Deserts For Catherine Deveny

But she is soooo out there – totally

Aurelius said :

Whatever one believes about this woman and her sense of humour (and I’d not heard of her until today), is it right to lose one’s job for what one posts to their personal Twitter feed?

When your job is in the public arena and you use it in your ‘role’ as a social commentator. Sh*t yeah!

Twitter isn’t personal. Never has been, never will be

Aurelius said :

Whatever one believes about this woman and her sense of humour (and I’d not heard of her until today), is it right to lose one’s job for what one posts to their personal Twitter feed?

But it isn’t her personal Twitter feed. She is a ‘personality’ who trades on the brand of her name. Anything she does under that brand is related to the service she provides and employers have to option to no longer engage her if they don’t like the brand.

If it was personal then she should use a pseudonym like I do here to protect my professional reputation as a car salesman.

If it’s being twittered, it’s public.

Can I nominate her for a RiotACT Mully award?

I loved her attempts to “justify” herself by explaining to all us that we don’t actually understand the concept of social networking… um, okay.

Shame really.

Not that she’s been fired…that’s good. I think it’s a shame that she didn’t get fired for her ham-fisted and spectacularly un-funny writing and just faded into obscurity. Instead, she’s gone out on a wave of cheap sensationalism. It gets her in the news and looking like a martyr for “edgy humour”. Now she’ll end up an online celebrity.

Grrrr said:

Lots of things, but it depends on how long they’ve used it for:

Since the early 90s – “I am a Baby Boomer with some tech clue and too much money. I got on the internet early, and was happy to pay $5 per hour for it whilst anyone from Gen X was getting it free from their Uni. My email address hasn’t changed for 17 years, so the rest of you are techno-plebs.”

Since the late 90s – “I just picked a dialup ISP cause I’d heard their name advertised lots. I couldn’t be bothered with this Broadband thing that’s starting to gain traction, but I’ve got some money to spend on internet regardless. I want to make Malcolm Turnbull rich.”

The last few years – “I couldn’t be bothered getting a GMail address like anyone with a clue.”

Interesting comments there Grrrr. I currently have an ozemail address, which I have had for years (even though my ISP is now Internode) simply because it saves me the hassles of having to tell everyone that I have a new email address. I am happy to pay the extra money to keep my email address to save the hassles. Maybe I am just lazy but I am certainly NOT a baby boomer, I certainly CAN be bothered with Broadband and I certainly DO have a clue! 🙂

It really cheeses my pizza when people say “that wasn’t funny” or “she isn’t funny”. No. Humour is subjective and just because it doesn’t tickle you in that way doesn’t mean it was the same for other people. Saying that I though whatserface’s comments were funny TO ME (making sure there was nobody around me to hear me laugh) but obviously outrageously offensive. /0.2c

Bindi child porn jokes are just not funny. Ever.

Cath says her twatter was taken out of context. What a delusional cow.

Looks like the sh*t has hit Deveny’s one and only fan.

Aurelius said :

Whatever one believes about this woman and her sense of humour (and I’d not heard of her until today), is it right to lose one’s job for what one posts to their personal Twitter feed?

Twitter is private and personal in the same way as getting on top of a roof with a bullhorn is private. If you want your thoughts to be private, you don’t broadcast them. Absolute Zero sympathy.

I just sent her an email expressing my vitiolic sentiment to cdeveny1 [at] ozemail.com.au. You could do the same for a laugh should you wish.

Stay classy.

Aurelius said :

is it right to lose one’s job for what one posts to their personal Twitter feed?

My 2c, if I employed people I’d sack someone just for using twitter full stop. It would limit hiring opportunities but would certainly weed out the plebs.

The distinction between the public and private spheres isn’t absolute. In a position as a columnist for a media-organisation, one would be hard put to say whether the twitter feed was ‘personal’ or an extension of media-related activities.

I guess it is a question of whether her contract with the Age was exclusive, or whether she was free to “entertain” in other fora, and also if her contract had some clause about her bringing the publication into disrepute, such as many sporting personalities frequently have (and break).

Also I guess, if she had a contract at all, and wasn’t just paid per article.

The distinction between the public and private spheres isn’t absolute. In a position as a columnist for a media-organisation, one would be hard put to say whether the twitter feed was ‘personal’ or an extension of media-related activities. Her twitter feed was certainly used to push herself as a ‘media personality’: live by the sword, die by the sword.

Regardless of whether you think it’s right for her to be fired for the contents of a twitter feed, you’d be hard put to deny that she shouldn’t be fired for being terminally unentertaining.

Whatever one believes about this woman and her sense of humour (and I’d not heard of her until today), is it right to lose one’s job for what one posts to their personal Twitter feed?

“I’m edgy, I push the envelope”

Nope.

Wasn’t funny then, not funny now.

Which leads me to this – how do I get a job as a comedian at a newspaper??

Kazza said :

What does it say exactly if you have an ozemail address?

Lots of things, but it depends on how long they’ve used it for:

Since the early 90s – “I am a Baby Boomer with some tech clue and too much money. I got on the internet early, and was happy to pay $5 per hour for it whilst anyone from Gen X was getting it free from their Uni. My email address hasn’t changed for 17 years, so the rest of you are techno-plebs.”

Since the late 90s – “I just picked a dialup ISP cause I’d heard their name advertised lots. I couldn’t be bothered with this Broadband thing that’s starting to gain traction, but I’ve got some money to spend on internet regardless. I want to make Malcolm Turnbull rich.”

The last few years – “I couldn’t be bothered getting a GMail address like anyone with a clue.”

Woody Mann-Caruso – just out of curiosity, what is the issue with Ozemail? What does it say exactly if you have an ozemail address? Ta!

Ozemail? Says it all, really.