Just to jog your memory, here’s a quick recap of the saga of Natasha Exelby (any news story that goes for more than 24 hours is a saga now, this is the world we live in):
- Your mate and mine Natasha was caught unaware by the camera cutting back to her during a broadcast because she was too busy staring at a pen.
- News Corp reported that she was being barred from further on-air roles with the ABC due to the blunder.
- A bunch of journos tweeted out the worst mistakes they’d ever made on TV as a show of solidarity.
- The ABC pulled a ‘fake news’ and claimed they had never intended to pull her off the air (although between you and me, I reckon public opinion might have made them do a re-think).
Because it never stops making me laugh, here’s the video again:
That feeling when you’re caught daydreaming at work 🙂 (via @UmmRKSZ ) #mediawatch pic.twitter.com/lRkTbpygfo
— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) April 9, 2017
And now the plot is thickening even further, with Sydney radio station KIIS 1065 announcing that they’ve taken Exelby on (temporarily) with a pretty plum gig as a breakfast newsreader.
Exelby will be taking over the morning newsreader shift for all of next week (from 6am to 9am every day from 17th to the 21st) and will (I imagine) be delighted to be doing so in a format where it’s impossible to tell if she’s, say, staring intently at a pen or started to discover she’s supposed to be saying words.
National content director Duncan Campbell says he’s chuffed as to have her on board:
“We are excited to have someone with Natasha’s expertise join our newsroom at KIIS 1065. Not only is she a seasoned journalist, but the way she has handled the unexpected attention and public scrutiny following her ‘blooper’ this week shows Natasha has poise under pressure and, most importantly, a sense of humour so I am sure she will feel at home with the KIIS team.”
Seems like this story has been a net positive for everyone involved, so if there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s clearly “Fuck up at work if you feel like it.”
Photo: Twitter / Media Watch.
