Boned! was the message former The Age columnist Catherine Deveny sent to her three and a half thousand Twitter followers letting them know she had been sacked from her position as columnist at The Age.
Deveney was heavily criticized in the media, including The Age itself and Fairfax owned 3AW, for a series of comments Tweeted during the Logies coverage on Monday night. The Tweets included the #logies hashtag and made a number of disparaging remarks to those on screen, including KD Lang, Molly Meldrum and Rove McMannus.
However it was one Tweet, in which Deveney said: "I do hope that Bindi Irwin gets laid" that appears to have rankled the community the most, and led to her sacking.
In explaining the decision to sack Deveney, The Age's Editor-In-Chief, Paul Ramadge, said:
"We are appreciative of the columns Catherine has written for The Age over several years but the views she has expressed recently on Twitter are not in keeping with the standards we set at The Age,"
Deveney said that the comments were taken out of context and the Bindi Irwin comments in particular were "to expose celebrity raunch culture and the sexual objectification of women, which is rife on the red carpet".
Will Anderson was also criticised for a number of comments made on Twitter during the Logies, however the backlash so far has been squarely aimed at Deveney.
Whilst Deveney was a columnist, the incident is sure to fire up the already heated debate over the rights and responsibilities of using Twitter and other social media as a form of personal self expression.
Last month gaming blog Kotaku reported that Zoo Weekly journalist Toby McCasker was sacked after comments he made on Facebook, outing Rockstar Games pressuring him to write positive reviews, whilst Young Liberal member Nick Snowden was expelled from the Liberal party after likening US President Obama to a monkey on Twitter.
The phenomenon is not limited to Australia, with a UK Labour candidate fired over comments embarrassing Gordon Brown.
8% of US companies admit to sacking workers
because of Facebook activity, whilst 45% of employers are screening applicants using social media sites. With employers increasingly using public information as a factor in hiring and firing.
Whilst many would claim that social media sackings impinge on free speech, the litany of incidents suggest that anyone using Twitter or Facebook as a form of self expression should think twice before sending out that controversial or cutting remark.
