Simply when Twitter gave the impression to be dropping its lustre for the mainstream media elite, alongside comes an account that has bought Britain’s largest newsroom speaking.
Enter Nero’s Slacker, an nameless sh*tposter who’s roasting BBC Information bosses and colleagues one X replace at a time — and getting a flurry of consideration.
“I assumed the times of excellent old school snark accounts have been lifeless till Nero’s Slacker,” laughed one BBC Information journalist, the 94th particular person to level out the account to Deadline this week.
Arrange in October, Nero’s Slacker is a reference to the Caffè Nero espresso store that overlooks the revolving doorways of New Broadcasting Home, the BBC’s London headquarters.
Sipping on a black Americano and wreathed in cigarette smoke, they’re posting acerbic observations about colleagues and newsroom skulduggery.
Nero’s Slacker’s id stays a thriller for now. Deadline’s try to slip into the account’s DMs was met with the riposte: “Good strive. However you bat for the opposite aspect Jake.”
Some suppose it’s one particular person on the controls, others suspect a gaggle of workers — discontented on the countless treadmill of job losses and repair cuts — have gone rogue.
Both approach, BBC Information insiders will inform you that Nero’s Slacker’s posts, though typically fictionalized for comedy impact, comprise sufficient reality to counsel they’re well-versed in newsroom gossip.
Let’s run by just a few current examples.
Marking the information of Mishal Husain’s shock departure from the BBC, Nero’s Slacker wrote: “That @Emmabarnett simply walked into the @BBCr4today workplace carrying a black armband, weeping. ‘I’m so sorry to see you go Mishal,’ she sobbed. I really like Emma. Such heat and sincerity. I don’t know why she had an onion in her purse although.”
Now, we don’t actually know if Husain and Emma Barnett didn’t see eye-to-eye after the latter’s arrival on In the present day in Could, nevertheless it’s completely honest to say that their supposedly frosty relationship has been a supply of fevered gossip within the New Broadcasting Home “information pit.”
Right here’s a pair extra. Nero’s Slacker immediately referred to as former BBC North America editor Jon Sopel “The Olympic Torch,” a reference to an outdated (and quite unfair) joke that the journalist preferred the comforts of the Washington D.C. bureau a lot he “by no means went out.”
Then there’s the playful accusation that BBC Information CEO Deborah Turness had a “heavy evening on the Aperol” earlier this week, which insiders suppose might be a nod to the apéritif that was on faucet on the International Press Affiliation Awards in London.
And when you can’t beat them, be part of them. BBC correspondent Jon Donnison noticed the humorous aspect when dubbed the “Milk Tray Man” by Nero’s Slacker.
Nameless BBC social media posters are nothing new (the ceaselessly weird @Futuremice is a enjoyable observe), however UK media has not had a sh*tposter this compelling because the acidic @TheTVController.
