Journos Are Putting Their Bloopers Out To Protest Natasha Exelby’s Axing

Video of an astonished-looking Natasha speeding through her lines after being rudely interrupted from gazing in fascination at a pen went viral over the weekend because, duh, newsreaders cocking up is hilariously funny.

That feeling when you’re caught daydreaming at work 🙂 (via @UmmRKSZ ) #mediawatch pic.twitter.com/lRkTbpygfo

— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) April 9, 2017

It’s funny because newsreaders are trained to be unyielding, personality-free vessels via which news is delivered, so any glimpse at a fallible human nature or, say, a personality is an absolute delight. We bloody eat it up. 

Unfortunately, the ABC didn’t see the humour in it, deciding to give her the boot – at least from being on this side of the camera. Rightfully, this provoked all manner of outrage and a groundswell campaign to get the ABC to pull their head in is already picking up a lot of speed, with fellow TV personalities taking to the hashtag “#PutYourBloopersOut” in solidarity.

I started eating a Tim Tam live on air during rolling coverage of a leadership spill #putyourbloopersout

— Ashleigh Gillon (@ash_gillon) April 10, 2017

@byrnesh @NatashaExelby I fainted twice and said “fuck” once. To paraphrase @billybragg reading live news is an Accident Waiting To Happen. #putyourbloopersout

— Tracey Spicer (@TraceySpicer) April 10, 2017

Reading Triple J news I declared Pat Rafter won the tennis “in straight sex but had to be treated for a groin injury” #putyourbloopersout https://t.co/t6nikJFqQu

— Shelly Horton ???? (@ShellyHorton1) April 10, 2017

.@NickButler10 had an autocue malfunction and the director cut back to me looking like I was going to cry about it. #putyourbloopersout pic.twitter.com/zsLargBzUV

— Rebecca Morse (@RebeccaMorse10) April 10, 2017

I once said “sadly we lost Simon Townsend from Wonder World a few years back” only for people to email me Wikipedia pointing out he’s alive. https://t.co/9cximjLLDQ

— BenFordham (@BenFordham) April 10, 2017

I once instantly ruined an April Fools Day joke by stating on air “And now for an April Fools Day joke…” #PutYourBloopersOut

— Dan Ranson (@danranson_) April 10, 2017

I danced in my seat in the news booth in between audio grabs, not realising we were live streaming the news bulletin. #putyourbloopersout

— Lisa Barnes (@Barnsy_Lisa) April 10, 2017

“The Roosters have had their worst slump under c**t Trent Robinson” #putyourbloopersout

— Louise Rennie (@lourennie) April 10, 2017

I said Buddy Holly had died… (I meant #ChuckBerry #putyourbloopersout

— Becko (@beckodotcom) April 10, 2017

@Kieran_Gilbert @byrnesh I once broke down in childish giggling on Sky News after Tony Abbot said he was “between two stools”.

— Malcolm Farr (@farrm51) April 10, 2017

While we’re being honest, I did a Facebook live video last week and said that ‘The Notebook‘ was a 2005 film, when in reality, it’s from 2004. Truly embarrassing.

The hashtag was started by News Corp TV editor Holly Byrne and, in addition to the stirring show of solidarity from broadcasters, also dug up this incredible video from 2010 of Lee Lin Chin being thirsty as hell – get it, girl:

#PutYourBloopersOut @NatashaExelby SBS News – Lee Lin Chin blooper: “Who is that handsome…?” https://t.co/ghXn9VJB3M

— Flick (@flick2001) April 10, 2017

If that doesn’t convince the ABC to get their shit together, I don’t know what will.