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Gerbilgate

Nic Christensen

by Nic Christensen

09 May 09:13pm

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Filed under: Catherine Deveny, Internet, Media, Miranda Devine, Twitter

88 comments

If you thought the Catherine Deveny-Fairfax-Twitter saga was over, think again. Another similar but less blockbusting sequel has unfolded which has already, uncharitably, been labelled Gerbilgate.


It began on Saturday night when columnist Miranda Devine became involved in a “tweet war” with a 20-year-old university student named Justin Barbour. Devine suggested that Barbour “rogers” gerbils.

In the wake of Catherine Deveny’s sacking last week, Twitterers have started baying for Devine’s blood – but before you make up your mind on this latest development, here is some background. (Justin Barbour’s reaction is below, too.)

The conflict began when Devine posted a link to her most recent column on the Deveny sacking and how journalists and those in the media should use Twitter.

Justin Barbour, who used to follow Devine but has now been blocked by her, responded to her tweet with the following reply:

His tweet was a reply to a column that Devine wrote on the 22 April 2010, in The Sydney Morning Herald, on the issue of the problems facing marriage.

In that column Devine wrote “marriage increasingly is under threat, from sky-high divorce rates and de facto unions to a push for same-sex marriage, which confuses legitimate gay rights with the undermining of a battered institution maligned as misogynistic and fostering intolerance.”

Barbour argues this comment was a homophobic attack that blames the gay community for the problems facing the institution of marriage.

Devine, based on her reaction on Twitter, disputed this interpretation and took considerable offence to Barbour’s accusation that she had attacked gays.

However, it is the poorly thought out nature of Devine’s subsequent response to Barbour that will be picked apart.

Devine replied to Barbour with a tweet that presumably was an ill-executed attempt at hyperbole:

This tweet went out to the Twitter feeds all of Miranda Devine’s 2,600+ followers, plus anyone else who chooses to visit her profile page.

But Devine also went further - sending Justin Barbour a private message that read:

Obviously, the appropriateness of a professional journalist giving a university student this “lesson in life”, will and should be a central issue.

As Devine herself commented in her column on Saturday, tweets do and should have an impact on the brand of the masthead the journalist works for.

It’s worth pointing out here that Devine immediately apologised to Barbour “for any offence”. (She later deleted her side of the whole exchange).

That’s not to say that the rest of the media won’t have their say as well (and before you post, yes I am aware I work for News Limited).

But amid the excitement that is already ensuing, it’s worth pointing out Devine’s comments, arguably, do not fall into the realm of the Catherine Deveny tweets.

While some may disagree with me on this, we should try and avoid hysteria that seemed to consume the media last week over Deveny.

This maybe asking too much, and I’m sceptical about it actually happening as by yesterday afternoon, some on Twitter were already keen to stoke the controversy, pulling together incomplete photos of the ‘tweet war’ and making it appear as Devine is solely to blame.

I’m not saying that Devine is without blame but before we seek to crucify her consider the themes that surrounded Deveny’s sacking: underage sex and a man’s dead wife.

However, in the instance of Devine, I’m not sure all those issues are at play.

Rather the issue for Fairfax should be a simple one: did Devine as a professional journalist, cross a line in her tweets to Barbour and then what action is appropriate to rectify the situation?

For me I won’t speculate on what remedy, if any, the Herald will come up with, but it is interesting that even Justin Barbour isn’t asking for Devine’s dumping from the paper.

He told The Punch: “It’s not quite in the same league as Catherine Deveny but I would like an apology for the gerbil comment - it’s the least she can do.”

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88 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Mark says:

      10:35pm | 09/05/10

      Suggesting an 11 year old should get laid and a University aged student that has a means of reply and response are two way different things.

      An argument between adults is fair.

      A comment on a kid getting laid, especially when that kid would not even understand the context or the reason behind the “humour”, are poles apart.

      Typical over reaction and contextual bastardisation of an event to prove or score a political point.

      What a joke. The idiots asking for Devine’s head, even suggesting this is in the same league, really need a reality check.

      Reply

    • DG says:

      11:10pm | 09/05/10

      I agree Mark

      the internet attack on an minor vs an online war between 2 adults( use that term loosly) is definately not comparable- she has no right of reply
      BUT
      was is obvious is how these new sharing platforms can easily be used in attacking someone from far away…eyeball someone in person and consider mouthing the rogering gerbils…you would never do it!!

    • Super D says:

      06:51am | 10/05/10

      Anyone who equates an unprovoked attack against an 11 year old girl which was designed as an act of self promotion with an unfunny comeback to an unfunny slur is indeed a twit.

    • Jack Thomas says:

      02:16pm | 10/05/10

      Surely this is all John Howard’s fault?

      I mean, he was to blame by so many Neo Socialists when he was in charge. I remember well the cries of David Marr and other assorted Luvvies about the awful attacks on freedom of the press under Howard.

      Guess it’s not relevant now under Rudd ey. Freedom of the press was under threat then but not so now?

      PS. in my humble view this gerbil joke is a long long way from telling an 11 year old girl to “get laid” as Catherine Deveny said (then tried to weasel out of).

      This is also a pretty good lesson on how ‘new media’ is not so new. Just like Conroy’s NBN and his $50,000 per page report, this medis still needs to exist within our moral codes, etc.

    • Louis McLennan says:

      10:58pm | 09/05/10

      What Mark said.

      http://www.google.com.au/search?q=south+park+gerbil
      I assume this comment stems from South Park or what ever event it was that South Park based that piece of comedy on?

      justinbarbour is a very active twitter user. Seems to be every active most of the aus political hash tags.

      Reply

    • question says:

      01:48pm | 10/05/10

      “Now that you’re the Gerbil king has more adventures to go on!
      Fly away to faraway lands and to the setting sun!
      So many enemies and battles yet to fight!
      For Lemmiwinks the Gerbil King’s tale is told throughout the night!

      Le-Le-Lemmiwinks Lemmiwinks Lemmi-Lemmiwinks Lemmiwinks, Lemm-Le-Lemmiwinks Gerbil King! ”

    • Sean says:

      11:01pm | 09/05/10

      This attack on Miranda Devine is a tad ironic considering some of the racist and offensive tweets @justinbarbour has posted.

      Reply

    • Gibbot says:

      11:08pm | 09/05/10

      Poppycock. This is about blatant hypocrisy, not a call for blood. Devine had the chutzpah to pass judgement on Deveny for ‘trashing the brand’ and within the same day has proven herself to be in many ways far worse. Deveny made some off colour remarks about some B grade celebrities. Devine put her homophobia on display for the world to see. That she lacked the moral fortitude to stand by what she said, and instead deleted her comments in the hope she wouldn’t get found out speaks reams of her lack of character. It’s also certainly far from the first clanger she’s dropped, unless you support the idea of lynching political rivals from lamp posts of course.

      I don’t believe Devine should be sacked, as I don’t believe Deveny should have been sacked. The punishing of the gutlessness of the former doesn’t atone for the gutless actions of Fairfax management in the way they dealt with the latter.

      Having followed the stream on twitter this afternoon, I can’t say I saw much bloodlust at all. What I saw was a lot of people having a great time making jokes at the expense of an idiot - which is how it should be.

      There is no reason on Earth to sack Miranda Devine. There is a very good case, however, for getting a [Gibbot, you do an excellent comment a disservice with your last remark - mod.]

      Reply

    • stealthpooch says:

      11:39pm | 09/05/10

      I agree with Gibbot.  There was little bloodlust, just a lot of people having a laugh at the irony of Devine making such a comment after writing a (fairly nasty) column on Deveney’s sacking and the way in which journalists should be careful about tainting their employer’s ‘brand’.

    • Dan says:

      05:43am | 10/05/10

      One of the funniest things I read was Devine calling herself a journalist!

    • bec says:

      06:58am | 10/05/10

      Agreed. For all the bluster that people like Miranda Devine make about having conviction in your actions, she was pretty cowardly.

    • anthony says:

      11:35pm | 09/05/10

      What is it with the left and trying to get columnists they disagree with fired?

      Reply

    • bec says:

      06:57am | 10/05/10

      You didn’t follow much of the Deveny incident, did you?

    • T.Chong says:

      08:07am | 10/05/10

      Yes Anthony , evil Lefties are now forcing partisan hacks like Devine to tweet crap.
      For all those defending Devine, how many would defend a male “journo” replying to a female member of public that they should or do participate in beastiality?
      The outrage would be overwhelming.
      Anyways , if Devine was to leave The Sydney Morning Tory, I’m sure she would easily find another site that loves Right wing extremists.

    • Charles says:

      08:39am | 10/05/10

      Here, here Anthony, the nanny state is alive and wel, why don’t they gt the governement to sort this out for them and create some new legislation, I’m sue Kev or that other fool Stephen conroy can censor her with a commitee and some legislation.

    • Matt says:

      09:27am | 10/05/10

      anthony

      i never knew deveny was a conservative…...

    • Rover says:

      09:39am | 10/05/10

      Wow. Matt’s comment was posted from the future - because by my clock it’s not even 10am yet.

    • Carlos says:

      02:24pm | 10/05/10

      It is pathetic. In fact as soon Rudd won there were a host of Lefty columnists who saw the victory as the end to some age old argument and thought no further discussion should be entered in to. Several wondered in their columns and on radio why papers would employ the few conservative columnists they have.

      These two incidents are poles apart in every meaningful way. The very fact that the ‘Devine’ incident is being discussed at length is because of the left’s blood lust. Deveny’s monumental stupidity finally cost her a job and they think someone of the right should go down too. Sad. Sad. Sad.

    • Billy C says:

      01:20am | 10/05/10

      Devine looks like a fool given her recent comments about Deveny. What she was basically doing though was responding to what she saw as an unjustified attack with one of her own. He basically wrote a “how often do you hit your wfie” sort of question and she responded with one of here own. He picked a fight and now he’s complaining about it. The problem is of course that she comes off as responding to him by making a personal attack If Fairfax are going to sack people for making comments that don’t meet their standards they should be consistent about it. I must say I’m delighted that Devine has been so foolish. It’s great entertainment to see the people who dish out opinions having to justify themselves. Devine has less than 3,000 followers. I wonder what she bothers with Twitter at all.

      Reply

    • Bec says:

      05:36am | 10/05/10

      Oh Miranda. You’re still as elegant as an Ed Hardy g-string. Never change.

      Reply

    • Dan says:

      06:20am | 10/05/10

      You’ve just said “we should try and avoid hysteria that seemed to consume the media last week”, and yet on the home page for this website is the large and unmissable headline “GERBILGATE” with the byline to follow. Surely you are already beginning to fail by your own standards?

      Reply

    • Super D says:

      06:42am | 10/05/10

      All serious journalists should leave twitter for the twits.  Any idea that can be communicated effectively in 140 characters is simply not worth communicating.

      Reply

    • Eric says:

      08:17am | 10/05/10

      “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” - 49 characters.

    • Sarah says:

      08:02am | 10/05/10

      What she said was pretty… awful, I guess. I didn’t really equate it as homophobic to begin with, but perhaps I’m just not understanding of the whole gerbil in that context?

      I am a religious twitter user, especially during Q and A on Monday nights, so I’ve seen a few twitter comments from this user, and was able to have a read through his page before he made them private.

      He must be a fairly smart boy for doing so, because I remember it being riddled with offensive tweets about women, Asian people at his university, sniping at the Premier, the Prime Minister and something offensive about the holocaust.

      So while what Miranda said was uncalled for and upsetting, perhaps the moral of the story is: if you want to be offensive on Twitter, don’t be surprised if someone hits back, and hits back hard.

      Reply

    • Cate says:

      08:15pm | 10/05/10

      ” if you want to be offensive on Twitter, don’t be surprised if someone hits back, and hits back hard.”

      Goes both ways. Miranda needs to learn to take what she herself dishes out.

    • iansand says:

      08:29am | 10/05/10

      The funniest thing about this was a controversialist hack like Devine claiming some sort of high moral ground about anything, Deveny or Barbour.  It began to look as though she actually believes the stuff she writes.

      Reply

    • Charles says:

      08:36am | 10/05/10

      Jeez I’m glad I left Australia, get over yourself Justin, you poor dear, what about freedom of speech, Devine is one of the only credible journalists left in that nanny state you call Australia, I suppose it is inevitable the loony left and minority groups that have already destroyed that place will get her too, you’ve got everyone else in that country who has an opinion, like I said, get over yourself. Hey, I have an idea Australia, why don’t you create more legislation to stop people like Devine.

      Reply

    • T.Chong says:

      09:05am | 10/05/10

      So Chuckles, how is life in your new cloudcuckooland?
      No evil unionists, republicans or anyone having a humanist view there, I’ll bet.
      PS Chuckles, now you have left, are your views still relevant?
      I mean, one thing good, loyal Ozzie conservatives hate is outsiders telling us what to do.

    • James1 says:

      10:38am | 11/05/10

      Is Australia destroyed?  I had no idea.  Here I am, just living my life like I always have, not even realising that I am apparently living in a destroyed country.  Partisan political types are such sooks - on both sides.  “Oh a political party that differs slightly on a few issues from the one I support is in power.  The world is ending.”  Grow a spine.

    • Darren says:

      08:41am | 10/05/10

      I am absolutely shocked - Miranda has 2,600 followers! - now they are twits!!!

      Reply

    • Grant says:

      08:49am | 10/05/10

      I don’t like what Miranda writes.  She espouses offensive and what I consider bigoted material officially in her capacity as a ‘columnist’.

      In regards to the tweets, out of context though those comments are a 0.3 / 10 on my offensiveness scale; even in context directed at Justin they rate maybe a 0.8 / 10 jerkiness level.  However she loses 1 point for not being witty so that’s a -0.2 / 10 for being lame.

      Seriously though, insulting or offending speech should never be restricted and is not a legitimate reason to limit speech; such a right would create a duty for everyone not to offend.

      Everything someone writes or says can be considered offensive by some people out there, and it is impossible to predict what will or will not be considered offensive by someone.

      A duty not to offend would ultimately lead to a duty to remain silent.

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      09:02am | 10/05/10

      Who cares? This is just the media feeding off itself, and wasting everyone’s time.

      Reply

    • Steven says:

      09:03am | 10/05/10

      Whatever your opinion on Devine, ‘rogering gerbils’ is a pretty funny phrase.  Made me laugh.

      I bet Deveney wishes she thought of it, which might be why she’s been one of the big parties stoking the fires of gerbilgate.  She mush have done around 30 tweets on it yesterday.

      Reply

    • A Bob says:

      12:22pm | 10/05/10

      Are you implying Devine thought of it? Back in the late 80’s there was a Usenet group called alt.sex.hamster.duct-tape created just for this gag.

      It’s one of the oldest insults on the ‘net.

    • brendan T says:

      09:09am | 10/05/10

      oh come on, this is not homophobia - the irrational fear of gays - it is a legitimate robust albeit insulting banter between adults. Sure, Mirinda is with the Fairfax crew but that is not a crime. The only people who need to be offered here are gerbils - poor little things.

      Reply

    • Chris says:

      11:59am | 10/05/10

      Crudely implying that if you’re gay you have sex with gerbils is not homophobic? That’s good to know. I’m going to write a column crudely implying that if you’re Arabic you’re a terrorist. I hope you back me up when the “PC mad racism brigade” come a knocking. Cheers Brendan!

    • Carl says:

      08:11pm | 10/05/10

      Actually Chris if you bothered to read it, it says nothing about whether Justin is gay or not and what Miranda “knows” about his personal life… it is just one “adult” accusing another “adult” of engaging in sexual acts with an animal. Nothing about being gay there that I can see…
      I find it offensive that if someone brings up the topic of bestiality you automatically assume and equate it with being gay… just like paedophilia is only a “gay thing” too? How enlightened you must be over there in the year 1350…

    • Andrew says:

      10:08am | 11/05/10

      @BT, you want to make an “offering” of the poor gerbils?? Surely whether this is homophobia depends on the gender of the gerbils doesn’t it? And if I understand the original (and best) gerbil story correctly, gerbils are not rogered - they effectively do the rogering. Hopefully a practising gerbilophile can “fill me in” on that point, so to speak.

    • casey says:

      09:31am | 10/05/10

      Remember that she was talking directly to a twenty-year-old. That wave of kids is not so easily offended, and more than capable of being offensive in return to those older than they are.

      Miranda exhibited a backbone, though she might have kept it off of Twitter, this was no worse than having a shouting argument outside a pub on George St.

      Reply

    • Gannik says:

      02:17pm | 10/05/10

      Devine exhibit backbone, how? By deleting the thread before anyone could read and report on it? As a Journalist you live or die by what you write, be it good or ill. There are no “do-overs” or take backs.
      Now not only has she shown she has a thin skin, and can’t give a come back to save her life, but that if given the option of erasing something that makes her look stupid, she’ll take it and got caught out.
      Cowardice, thy name is Miranda.

    • will says:

      09:43am | 10/05/10

      I suspect it’s been commented on ad nauseum… but seriously enough with the “[insert trivial b-grade flash in the pan ‘news’ item here]-Gate” headlines. Sh1ts all over sarcasm as the lowest form of wit.

      Also, twitter should be destroyed, for the good of mankind.

      Reply

    • Kelly says:

      10:27am | 10/05/10

      I agree wholeheartedly, Will. Enough with the “-gate” nonsense.

    • Michael says:

      11:30am | 10/05/10

      So what will it be called when there’s a controversy over water?

    • ILR says:

      01:59pm | 10/05/10

      Aquagate

    • Colin says:

      09:43am | 10/05/10

      Maybe Justine B. is just a sook.

      Reply

    • Sean says:

      09:45am | 10/05/10

      So Charles, I assume you have left Australia to live on the moon? I hope you haven’t simply locked yourself in your bedroom with a few fellow rightwingers. Don’t worry, your liberal/national mates will be back in power soon enough as the pendulum swings and suddenly your world will look brighter.
      To the rest of us it’s all the same.

      Reply

    • james says:

      09:47am | 10/05/10

      steven hit the nail on the head…rogering gerbils is a pretty funny phrase - check out the twitter hashtag #rogeringgerbils

      Reply

    • latte_left says:

      10:56am | 10/05/10

      Sorry to rain on your parade, but if you’re not Gay, you don’t get to decide whether or not it’s funny . . .

    • nic says:

      11:54am | 10/05/10

      Excuse me? So what new law is this? Better tell one half of Little Britain then.

    • Eric says:

      11:55am | 10/05/10

      Sorry to rain on your parade, but gays don’t have an exclusive licence to decide what’s funny or not.

    • Latte_left says:

      12:18pm | 10/05/10

      Implying that gay men enjoy bestiality is homophobic. End of argument.

    • Muttley says:

      12:49pm | 10/05/10

      no latte left, implying gay men enjoy beastiuality is gross and stupid, not homophobic. Straight people can have the same poor taste joke levelled at them as well.

    • Latte_left says:

      02:18pm | 10/05/10

      The context in which it was sent makes it pretty obvious it was aimed at a homosexual. The triggering post was with respect to an anti-gay marriage article and he directly refers to anti-gay remarks.

      Whether or not the poster is in fact gay is irrelevant, MD clearly made the assumption that any person bothered to stand up to her anti-gay remarks is gay themselves; few straight people seem to care about the 2nd-class citizen status of LGBT people in Australia.

      As for the assertion that straight people are equal targets for this gibe, there isn’t an entire south-park episode devoted to straight gerbil-bestiality and I have never heard this used in any way against a straight person.

      To suggest that this is not an anti-gay comment in light of the above is naive in the extreme.

    • Muttley says:

      09:53am | 11/05/10

      nonsense. When the basis of your argument is that South Park did an episode on it you are indeed on shaky ground. It may offend you and any fair minded person, but that does not make it exclusively a gay taunt. I am not arguing that was not her intention, merely it is not an exclusively gay attack.

    • Zeta says:

      10:03am | 10/05/10

      Miranda Devine is the poor man’s Ann Coulter.

      Reply

    • bella starkey says:

      11:00am | 10/05/10

      I thought Janet Albrechson was a poor man’s anne coulter. Miranda Devine is a poor man’s frank devine.

    • IMHO says:

      10:07am | 10/05/10

      Well it’s a public medium…bit like email really…you might want to pause for a minute or two before you hit ‘send’ on emotionally generated content! Coz’ it’s gonna be out there! Not sure why people havent worked this out. Just twits I guess!

      I actually think it’s devine who has the responsibilty to act professionally in the public sphere…she’s a “journalist”. deveney is stand up comedian (apparently) who is known for her brash offensive comments. devine has lost credibility now for her twitter foible but I don’t think deveny has lost credibility since she’s behaved as expected.

      Reply

    • Tails says:

      10:11am | 10/05/10

      Won’t somebody think of the gerbils!!!!!

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      10:27am | 10/05/10

      And who supplies the duct tape?

    • Mr. W says:

      10:22am | 10/05/10

      I think both Deveny and Devine need a course in PR, so they can understand how their actions can have a negative effect on theor career.
      If this is how they want to be recognised, they should not take that course and keep and publishing these provocative things, but then they also need to stop acting like they are victims!

      Either they stand for what they have written and take the consequenses, or they start to learn what to say and not to say in the public space.

      For both cases it is a perfect example of that ‘you can not have the cake and eat it too’. You can not go around provoking people and later complain about people getting provoked by what you say.

      Reply

    • Frank says:

      10:27am | 10/05/10

      Justin Barbour? Is he that child singer that nobody can shut up about? And they say young kids don’t tweet.

      Reply

    • Teacup storm says:

      10:30am | 10/05/10

      Bah, the lefty factional opinion warlords want a scalp to even the score. Of course, Miranda isn’t exactly hard right, but that’s doesn’t matter. They just want a scalp; be it Miranda, Bolter, Tim Blair, etc.

      Reply

    • James D says:

      10:34am | 10/05/10

      She should be charged with suggested cruelty to animals. Think of that poor Gerbil

      Reply

    • angelo says:

      10:35am | 10/05/10

      We have a PM who loves to Tweet and look how well he is running the country.

      Reply

    • halberstram says:

      10:46am | 10/05/10

      Why are the Right so threatened by homosexuals. . Abbott, Devine. . . .next thing you know Alan Jones will turn all homophobic and cancel his end-of-year trip to London !

      Reply

    • Emma says:

      10:53am | 10/05/10

      I see nothing wrong with what Miranda said. If this bloke can dish it out he should be able to cop it back…very different to Bindi and Rove comments which were sick and not at all provoked.

      Reply

    • bella starkey says:

      11:26am | 10/05/10

      You see nothing wrong with perpetuating stereotypes of homosexuals and their supposed beastiality sexual practices?

    • Andrew says:

      12:37pm | 10/05/10

      I’m sure every gay teenager who commits suicide thinks exactly the same way, Emma.

    • Winter says:

      11:22am | 10/05/10

      Everyone seems to be marking it as a homophobic slur, but last I checked gerbils came in both the male *and* the female varieties. Yet I haven’t seen the word bestiality tossed around much in this story, isn’t that the real problem here?  Straight men have been known to roger animals too. As envinced by my own private research, this pile of chicken carcasses wrapped with duct tape just here to my left.

      I can assure you however that they were all hens. Don’t Twitterhate me, please.

      Reply

    • John Mac says:

      11:35am | 10/05/10

      Is Devine a “journalist” or a “columnist”? I think there’s a pretty large difference between the two, and my understanding based upon what I read is that she’s a columnist who erroneously calls herself a journalist. Which is misleading, but not a big deal, really. But the distinction is important, because a columnist’s job, these days, is to stir people up to increase readership. Most (if not all) columnists in this country aren’t on the payroll for their erudite prose or keen objective sense. If she WAS a journalist, this would possibly be an issue, but she plainly is not.

      Reply

    • Dontwanttosay says:

      11:36am | 10/05/10

      Isn’t the issue with Devine’s comment that it is part of the classic homophobic comment canon? Rather akin, and equally distasteful, to telling an African-American to “go eat some watermelon” or to accuse a Jewish person of being tight with money. It’s not the comment itself that offends but the underlying attitude that it indicates.

      Reply

    • Simon says:

      12:07pm | 10/05/10

      Hang on - there’s nothing to indicate Barbour is gay. Why do you presume that he is? And as for “rogering a gerbil”  - surely the stereotype involves a gerbil rogering the human. If someone tried rogering a gerbil I’d suggest they put down a drop sheet first - it’s going to be messy.  Anyway- didn’t South Park do a whole episode on that sterotype - I don’t remember any outrage back then.

      It’s just a clumsy insult to a guy that she would have been better off ignoring.

    • Brady says:

      11:37am | 10/05/10

      I can’t say I really think she should loose her job, and I think Justin Barbour will survive, but for Devine to have written a collumn about thinking before you tweet claiming that the difference between her and Deveny is that she’s a journalist and knows the importance of the brand and how your actions on other media can trash it does legitimately expose her to jokes at her expense.

      Reply

    • dancan says:

      11:37am | 10/05/10

      Stupid people say stupid things and often in a very public forum.  Take your common Bogan for example, who seems without any self respect capable to yelling the most disgusting, disrespectful and feral comments across an open and crowded courtyard.  I see this as no different.

      Arguing on the internet and getting into childish slanging matches with poor insults is a past time generally reserved for; internet tough guys, emos, boys between the ages of 9-17, attention whores and pseudo intellectuals.

      Though from reading some of the comments it seems that neither side has been a beacon of integrity in the past so it’s not surprising they would eventually end up here.

      Reply

    • silvia says:

      12:08pm | 10/05/10

      I take it dancan you’ve completed high school? Bogans are here to stay. Why not be open on another platform? Shows the media’s propaganda.

      Reply

    • CJ says:

      03:32pm | 10/05/10

      The difference between Deveny and Devine is that Deveny was at least trying to be funny. Not saying she was, but I don’t think her intentions were bad. Devine on the other hand is malicious.

      Reply

    • Spanish Girl says:

      04:26pm | 10/05/10

      Seriously, who cares?  Ultimately, it’s only someone’s opinion and surely we are still allowed to have those?  It would be a boring old world if we all thought and said the same things.

      Frankly neither of those people are interesting enough for me to worry about and I’ve never heard of that guy that Miranda is having a slanging match with.  So he can’t be that great, can he?

      Reply

    • Dean says:

      05:08pm | 10/05/10

      Personally i think it’s all petty squabling and I really couldn’t give a s%^#.
      But for God’s sake, will the media PLEASE stop ending absolutely every political controversy with GATE. What the hell!?
      It was over 30 years ago now and is completely irrelevant to Australia. It’s now just used for anything controversial. WHY?
      A gate is to put on a fence so you can walk through it. THAT’S IT. Nothing controversial there.
      Stop using it. Please. I know! Be original for once. Try coming up with something new?
      Because currently it’s about as original as ‘reality’ TV.

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      07:21pm | 10/05/10

      gerbilfence?

      gerbilwall?

      fortressgerbill?

      gerbilhilton?

      gerbillbehindatallstructure?

    • John in Alice says:

      06:37pm | 10/05/10

      I don’t listen to or view the potty mouthed garbage spewed or written by any of these people, for the obvious reasons given above.  I don’t care what anyone has to say about gays - they can certainly speak for themselves, more often than I’d care to hear. 
      We don’t need censors - we need parents who discipline their brats and teach them more respect for others, what is permissable to say in public and what is not.  Australian women seem to go out of their way to out do male counterparts in obscenity, vulgarity and immoral behaviors.  The world is not impressed and neither is any self respecting Australian.

      Reply

    • nr darcy says:

      12:14am | 11/05/10

      devine in name but hardly in nature, or so I’ve heard…nothing surprises me here

      Reply

    • Tab says:

      12:57am | 11/05/10

      Oh grow up!

      Reply

    • The Greasy Gerbil says:

      07:14am | 11/05/10

      Nothing funnier than watching a mincing abomination of nature stamp his feet and throw a hissy fit.

      Reply

    • HLT says:

      07:57am | 11/05/10

      Funny how devine uses twitter.  She is a twit and always will be.

      Reply

    • vic says:

      08:03am | 11/05/10

      I rarely agree with Miranda, but she has responded to my angry emails in the past with nothing but class, dignity and politeness. This guy must be a real pratt for her to have responded with that.
      Good on her.

      Reply

    • Michael says:

      09:03am | 11/05/10

      Locke and Demosthenes anyone?

      Reply

    • Fredster says:

      09:05am | 11/05/10

      Just proves, once again, that we don’t need Twitter, and if you just ignore it, it will go away.

      Reply

    • The Fox says:

      07:39am | 12/05/10

      OMG.  Justin Barbour - toughen up boy!

      Reply
 
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