This article is more than 1 year old
Oz radio newsreader skips broadcast for Facebook
IT team probe exposes social networking hackette
An Oz radio news outfit last Sunday failed to broadcast its 4pm bulletin because the female newsreader was glued to Facebook, The Australian reports.
3AW listeners were alerted to the impending six-minute newscast by its theme music, but nothing more than ads followed. An insider recounted that "a producer raced to the newsroom to see what was happening and found the reader on the computer".
The source said: "Questions were asked and the reader said she had 'computer problems'. Further investigations by the IT team found she was on Facebook at the time."
The gaffe threw other regional radio stations relying on 3AW's news into "disarray". The powers that be later dispatched a memo to the station's staff "instructing them to stay off Facebook unless they were using it for research". ®
Bootnote
Ta very much to Tanya Cumpston for the heads-up.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
