Fake Stephen Conroy satirist Leslie Nassar has launched an abusive blog assault on the Telstra boss of his division, chief technology officer Hugh Bradlow, ending the post by telling him to "go f*** yourself".
Fake Stephen Conroy satirist Leslie Nassar has launched
an abusive blog assault on the Telstra boss of his division, chief
technology officer Hugh Bradlow, ending the post by telling him to
"go f*** yourself".
Nassar this morning claimed he had been sacked by Telstra due to
his online satirical efforts, a claim Telstra quickly denied, with
Bradlow writing on the telco's Now We Are Talking website that
Nassar would be subject to disciplinary action but not fired.
"Leslie is subject to disciplinary action not because he
Twittered as the Fake Stephen Conroy, but because of his ongoing
unauthorised public statements about Telstra, including abusive
comments towards a colleague," wrote Bradlow. "There was never
any consideration on my part of Leslie losing his job over the Fake
Stephen Conroy matter."
"It's good to see you speaking publicly about this," Nassar
wrote in response to Bradlow's post. "Of course, you didn't speak
to me privately about it until 8:30am this morning; 10 days after
the story broke, but whatever. You're a busy man."
Nassar wrote he had requested a written order from Bradlow that
he stop blogging and Twittering as Fake Stephen Conroy; a request,
he wrote, that Bradlow refused.
The satirist then claimed he had been a victim of a "smear
campaign" by Telstra's public policy and communications arm and
social media chief Mick Hickinbotham, who had attempted to provide
Telstra's view of Nassar's hidden identity on the Now We Are
Talking (NWAT) site.
You didn't speak
to me privately about it until 8:30am this morning; 10 days after
the story broke, but whatever. You're a busy man.
Leslie Nassar
Hickinbotham had initially written that Telstra had not asked
Nassar to stop using the Fake Stephen Conroy persona, but later
updated his post with further information from within the company
to note that Nassar's managers had in fact done so.
"On Hickinbotham, I believe him when he said nobody told him
when he posted that piece on NWAT," wrote Nassar, however, he
claimed that he sent Hickinbotham messages about the halt order from his
managers, without result. That situation, he wrote, led Nassar to
comment publicly about what he saw as Telstra's falsehood.
Nassar said it was a recent satirical blog post on his
Department of Internets site that had led to the disciplinary
action, but said that others within Telstra, such as public policy
and communications staffer Jeremy Mitchell, enjoyed his work and
had wanted to discuss the possibility of Nassar writing for NWAT in
future.
"Finally, and just so there's no confusion, I do get annoyed
when I'm maligned. Even more annoyed when I'm just flat-out lied
about by a company that demands an employee's absolute loyalty, but
is utterly unwilling to reciprocate. Sometimes that annoyance leads
to harsh words, so here are some for you; go f*** yourself," Nassar
concluded.
A Telstra spokesperson had not yet responded to a request for
comment.
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