Twitter & The Logies. Offensive, funny or just modern?

I’m about to do an interview with A Current Affair about that exact thing for a report tonight on Logies Twittergate.

The Herald Sun reports:

 

GOLD Logie nominee Wil Anderson is under fire after an X-rated Twitter spray during the Logies telecast.

And comedian Catherine Deveny has also come under fire after tweeting vulgar and offensive comments about Belinda Emmett, Bindi Irwin and Don Lane, among others.

Anderson saved his worst for international guest John Mayer. “In front row for John Mayer.” Anderson tweeted.He then made obscene tweets about Mayer. And when Mayer came back to the stage he wrote, “Mayer is back unexpectedly like herpes.”

Another tweet joked that Meldrum seemed to be affected by drugs.”Molly says he has only been drinking water. Pills must be strong.”

A disgusted Meldrum has hit back at Anderson. “I always thought Wil was a great guy, but obviously his ego has gone through the roof,” Meldrum said. Another Anderson tweet compared Sigrid Thornton to Lord of the Rings character Gollum.

Twitter was at the centre of another Logies furore when Ray Meagher’s Gold Logie win was revealed on the social networking service at least half an hour before it was announced on Channel 9.

Then there was this:

Deveny, a regular columnist for The Age newspaper, used Twitter to dish out scathing attacks on dozens of guests – including late TV legend Don Lane, Ruby Rose, Andy Lee and Karl Stefanovic – during the awards.

Among the most offensive comments was one aimed at 11-year-old Bindi Iriwn. “I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid,” Deveny wrote. A source close to the family described the comment as “repulsive”.

Deveny, who has appeared on Good News Week, The 7.30 Report and Rove, also took aim at comedian Rove McManus and his wife Tasma Walton. “Rove and Tasma look so cute … hope she doesn’t die, too,” she posted in reference to McManus’s first wife, Belinda Emmett, who lost her battle with cancer in 2006.

Deveny, a former writer for the Logies, also took aim at the awards ceremony. “The Logies, the Australian celebration of television excellence, makes me proud to be un-Australian,” she wrote.

Deveny yesterday stood by her comments. “Among other things I’m a comedian,” she said. “Twitter is online graffiti, not a news source. Offence is a healthy by-product of free speech.”

Twitter users yesterday attacked her cruel comments. “Catherine Deveny lacks decency,” one wrote. Another posted: “She is vulgar, bitter and essentially, unsuccessful.”

My view is this. Twitter is a public forum and yet also a democratic one. You follow who you want to follow. Unfollow anyone who is offensive or whose tweets you don’t want to read. I am a friend of Wil Anderson. He’s a comedian and he knows what he’s doing. There is nothing he wrote on Twitter (for his own audience of followers) that he would not say on radio or in one of his stand-up shows.

Other tweeters I will not defend or follow. And you don’t have to be someone with a public profile to write offensive, cruel or revolting tweets. All I can do is be accountable for what I say in my own tweets….

On Logies night, I made a public pledge to only tweet positive things. As one amusing follower tweeted back “What’s that I hear? The sound of crickets?”

As for the argument about guests not being ‘allowed’ to tweet from the ceremony and results being blown well, I think that’s ridiculous. Television wake up and look at the calendar. It’s 2010 and life has changed. Fine if you want to delay your telecast by 2 hours but don’t be surprised when technology gives you the middle finger…

What do you think? If you’re on twitter were you offended? If you’re not on twitter, are you offended? And how has technology changed the way we view these kinds of shows? It’s certainly not a passive experience anymore…..

I’ll be talking about this on A Current Affair tonight as well…

meanwhile: for the REALLY important stuff, run don’t walk to Frockwatch to see all the red carpet pics and there are also some highlight clips from the show HERE.