ICYMI, yesterday News Corp announced it was going to cut 55 journalism roles from its staff, including ones at The Australian, the Daily Telegraph, and the Herald Sun.
And ICYMI #2, SBS‘s branch of satirical comedy, The Backburner, yesterday published an article called: ‘Fired News Corp Journalists Now Free To Pursue Jobs As Actual Journalists‘.
In no uncertain terms whatsoever, it belittles the journalistic integrity of a media organisation that not five days ago mocked the Grand Mufti up as a monkey on the front cover of one of its national papers, and calls Rupert Murdoch a “megalomaniacal near-corpse looking over the Australian media landscape like a decrepit octogenarian Galactus“, of which a more apt description we’re yet to see.
SBS’s piece included a very obviously fake interview with a fake ex-News Corp employee:
“I was devastated at first. No one wants to lose their job, even if it is essentially being a pawn to a megalomaniacal near-corpse looking over the Australian media landscape like a decrepit octogenarian Galactus.
“But with some time to sink in it’s really freeing, just like thinking about possibilities. I could write about things that happen without trying to shoehorn them into a fear-mongering, nightmarish, right wing agenda! I may never have to type the words ‘death cult’ again!
“I have dreams of writing a piece in a newspaper where the front page isn’t a weird racist photoshop os someone with a headline that’s a pun at the expense of Muslims. Imagine writing a piece about Reclaim Australia that doesn’t read as weirdly sympathetic of their plight.”
Needless to say, News Corp journos were about as unimpressed as you can be without getting into the semantics of what is / isn’t quality journalism. (And hey, we’re a pop culture website, so who are we to judge – except that we literally do it all the time.)
Here’s what they were saying:
There is nothing funny about news rooms being gutted and colleagues losing their jobs. Fucking wankers @TheFeedSBS https://t.co/tzBljnsN2u
— Paul Syvret (@PSyvret) November 23, 2015
This is disgusting. Since when were redundancies a laughing matter? https://t.co/QZ7WHW49Tr #noclass
— Cassie Zervos (@cassiezervos) November 23, 2015
What kind of media company thinks hardworking people losing their jobs is funny? Disgusting. Stay classy, SBS. https://t.co/wdSc4PS7GI
— Tom Minear (@tminear) November 23, 2015
On a day when 55 journos have lost their jobs, this from taxpayer-funded SBS Backburner is pretty tasteless: https://t.co/wR9f8pkYet
— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) November 23, 2015
The backlash wasn’t contained to those on Rupert Murdoch’s payroll, however; journalists at Fairfax, ABC, Mumbrella, and probably The Guardian also condemned the satire:
Seriously @sbscomedy… Not funny. https://t.co/DVRnTIeKCy
— Nic Christensen (@nicchristensen) November 23, 2015
loooots of journos very mad about (usually awesome) Backburner for this article laughing at fired NewsCorp reporters https://t.co/VKSCxPaToW
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) November 23, 2015
Not cool, @SBS
https://t.co/vThAhMqwTN
— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) November 23, 2015
So, having attracted the ire of almost the entire media industry, media industry publication Mumbrella got in contact with SBS to figure out what exactly the fuck was up. And, as SBS confirmed to Mumbrella, they knew exactly what they were doing.
“The Backburner is a satirical site which publishes articles across a breadth of topics, including local current affairs, which are clearly labelled as comedy / satire.”
“Like all of our industry, SBS is not immune to budget reductions, has had to manage job losses over the years, and we are acutely aware of the sensitivities.”
As to *which* jobs will be cut, there’s no word yet, but it’s too much to hope that Miranda Devine‘s will be among them.
