Fake Conroy abuses Telstra boss Bradlow

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".

Leslie Nassar
(Image by Nick Hodge, CC 2.0)

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.