Rupert Murdoch
Twitter gaffe lands holidaying Murdoch in warm water
Rupert Murdoch’s foray into the world of social media has provided its first car crash, with the global media mogul stating the British have too many holidays for what he termed a ”broke country”. Mr Murdoch, who joined Twitter on December 31, quickly deleted the message, but not before it was read by many of his 40,000 followers, who helped spread it around the website.
”Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!” Mr Murdoch, who is holidaying on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, wrote early yesterday.
It was first thought that his wife, Wendi Deng, replied straight away with: ”RUPERT!! delete tweet!!”, after which the tweet vanished within a minute. Her account has since been revealed as a spoof.
The decision of the octogenarian billionaire to embrace Twitter has been greeted with surprise by many, given his previous view of the internet as the home of ”porn, thievery and hackers”.
Charities report increase in junk dumped
Every festive season the St Vincent De Paul society i s swamped with useless household items and unwanted gifts as people clear out their garages and cupboards. Instead of helping the charities, the annual dump costs the society $1.5 million a year as up to 50 to 60 per cent has to be taken to the tip.
Figures show 500,000kg of non-resaleable items in NSW are dumped on charities each month. Some of it is recycled but much of it “unfortunately ends up as landfill”. Donations to the Vinnies store in Surry Hills have included sex toys, dirty underwear, bottles of alcohol and knives. Staff members yesterday filled five rubbish bags with junk.
Tech-savvy Aussies are anything but close friends
Facebook habits have exposed us as unsocial with about a third seeing fewer than five of our online friends in the past year, research reveals.
The research also found just more than a third of us do not consider our Facebook friends’ list a “true friends” list. More than a quarter admit they do not know all their friends on Facebook.
How many of your Facebook friends do you consider to be ‘real’ friends?
Drag queen tampon ad ‘transphobic’ claim
Tampon maker Libra has apologised after its new ad was branded “outrageously transphobic” and caused a storm of controversy on social media websites. In a statement issued tonight, Libra said it regrets any offence taken to the New Zealand television commercial, which implied transgender people are not real women because they don’t menstruate.
The ad, which wrapped with the catch phrase “Libra gets girls”, faced strong criticism, with dozens posting harsh comments on the company’s Facebook page.
Watch the ad below: do you find it offensive?
Is there anything in the news that you want to talk about?
Comments
48 Comments so far
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I never really got facebook until a few close friends moved overseas. Now with time differences making phone calls too hard its the best way to keep in touch. I can see how it can get out of hand though. I have had friend requests from people I have never met and from people I havent seen in years. I dont accept ones from people I dont know. I keep my security settings at the higest level because it is a way I communicate with my real friends and dont want strangers being able to view that.
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One of the reasons I left Facebook was that I felt there was no “social” aspect to my “friends” on Facebook…
I feel much “closer” to the people I chat to on Twitter…
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I don’t really get the difference – surely it’s about how you use it? I only recently started to use facebook to keep up with mostly younger friends – some of these friends I see rarely, but it’s nice to keep up with their lives (with 20+ years age difference, we’re not going to be socialising every weekend); others are OS family members who I can keep up with or contact easily; others are people I also see in real everyday life, but facebook is convenient for arranging things or sharing interests that I wouldn’t want to waste their time with a specific email. So, to me, Facebook is like an animated address book – keep in touch with some people I rarely see, chat often with some I see more often, use it for arrangements with groups of other friends I also see everyday (but don’t want to make 10 phone calls to arrange something).
The weirdest thing about Facebook is the general public statements people make about themselves without any specific audience from their “friends” in mind, or any specific choice by friends to consider or discuss some issue. This still seems weird to me, and I just can’t/don’t do it, but I think that’s age. There’s no real difference to putting down an opinion there that people can engage with or not, and making a comment here. But I don’t mind if my “friends” do it – those who are too obsessed with self-revelation can just be turned off, and with others I quite like being told something trivial that might never come up in general conversation.
Twitter is weird in this way – how can people possibly monitor/care about more than a few twitter feeds? But maybe this is just unfamiliarity with it. The accounts I’ve had a look at don’t seem worthwhile to me. opinion-swapping at it’s most memory-less.
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Never mind all this other stuff…….Zoe & Hamish….SHRIEK !!!
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I didn’t find the ad offensive, but it’s not funny anyway. I had period ads.
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To be honest I’m surprised Rupert’s account is real.
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Me too. His tweet sounds like the kind of thing people would say in a Rupert spoof.
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I thought the ad was quite clever myself – people need to stop being so sensitive!! I find it quite refreshing to see an ad for women’s products that don’t insinuate if you use them you’ll immediately feel like going horseback riding or wind-surfing?!
All ads operate off blatant stereotypes and unrealistic ideals, which can be taken as offensive by those outside the demographic they are targeting. I find it ironic that the transgender community doesn’t seem to be upset that the ad is suggesting they all dress like drag queens, but are upset that it highlights a factual biological difference between born women, and those who become women?!
I actually would have liked to have seen the transgender character pull out the wad of cash that she’d saved from NOT having to buy tampons!!!
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i don’t find the Libra ad offensive. Just stupid.
Facebook friends. i have about 190 people on there. I’ve hidden alot of them before facebook made their changes and now i can’t delete them because i can’t find them. I see maybe 10 people on my list at least once a month and the rest i don’t really care about but can’t be bothered going through the whole “omg have you deleted me” thing that happens every time i do a friend clean out.
The Charities thing annoys the hell out of me. My train station has a charity bin next to it and yesterday it was filled to the brim with actual rubbish and more rubbish just all around it. People are so unbelievably disgusting. If you aren’t going to help out right, then don’t help out at all.
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I must admit, initially I did find the libra add funny but I wasn’t really thinking too much about it. It wasn’t until a friend pointed out the fact that it was derogatory to transgender people that I saw the offensive side to it. I now agree that it’s probably a little out of line.
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Well, it’s also saying that if you don’t get your period you’re not a real woman – therefore if you’ve been through menopause, had a hysterectomy or just plain identify as female regardless of your sex at birth, you aren’t a ‘real woman’. It also gets rid of one stereotype – women in white swimsuits in tampon ads – and replaces it with another – bitchy, overdone drag queens and female competitiveness.
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Omg! I’m post-menopausal and wasn’t offended in the slightest! I’m glad I don’t get my period anymore!
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I think the Libra ad is offensive for its implication that in order to be a real woman you have to menstrate.
Some women don’t menstrate due to ovarian or hormonal issues. Some don’t due to chemotherapy, due to being underweight, due to having been through menopause. There are so many different reasons why a woman wouldn’t menstrate, so yeah, it is offensive. To everyone, not just the trans community.
However, I don’t see how being harsh is constructive. The people who run their facebook page are people too, and it’s unlikely they made the ad. So just a calm “This is offensive” would probably suffice.
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Also, it’s just a crap ad.
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I agree that it is offensive to a number of groups of people. It is not even clear that the woman in the left is transgendered, she is a drag queen.
Totally offensive to suggest that only real women menstruate.
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Real women don’t have to menstruate!
But real women don’t have a penis!
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Is there something about Zoe that we need to know?
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This maybe?
http://www.mamamia.com.au/relationships/look-whos-getting-married/
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I thought the ad was quite funny and clever… It’s clever advertising that’s for sure.
Perhaps people read into things too much. :/
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Re – Facebook:
When I first joined up back in 07 I had way more friends than now, why? because I did the whole let’s add people I knew back in high school/Primary School and uni days. But then I realised what’s the point! I haven’t seen or heard from these people in YEARS! And not a lot of them were very nice to me back then anyway so I decided to just remove anyone on my list that I probably would never see or talk to again.
Now on my list I have family members, including my mum, sisters, aunts, cousins, some of my husband’s family members, of course my husband. I have the friends I keep in touch with regularly, but I also have family friends and some people who I grew up with and friends I met through my husband and even if we don’t keep in contact all the time I still consider them my friends. There’s no one on my list that I don’t know or who I wouldn’t want to talk to if I saw them in real life.
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The facebook article is an excellent example of how to manipulate a result to sound like something else. It refers purely to how often we meet face-to-face with online friends. To imply we are anti-social as a result of those figures is an error. Do we no also have friends that are not ‘online friends’? Of course we do. I would suggest that in some instances ‘online friends’ would become lost friends or no-longer-friends-at-all if it weren’t for social networking and therefore we are actually more social than we otherwise would be.
The transgender thing irks me sor so many reasons. The ad is mean, and unnecessary. I do not rely on tampons to make me feel like a woman, I just want them to work for their intended purpose. Seriously Libra, menstruating is a biological process, not a damn lifestyle! BUT, I also find it insulting to suggest that becoming a woman is as easy as hormone therapy and surgery (I KNOW it’s not that easy). I am finding it hard to express what I mean. Transgender women are not the same as naturally born women. They are both equally special in their own ways, one is not more valuable than the other, but they are not the same. Comparison’s between transgender women and naturally born women are insulting to both in my opinion. In fact as I think about it, my biggest problem with this add is that it reinforces the stereotype that women (transgender or not) are shallow, competitive bitches.
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“In fact as I think about it, my biggest problem with this add is that it reinforces the stereotype that women (transgender or not) are shallow, competitive bitches”. Yep, that’s what I don’t like about the ad, too.
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Agreed. And even if they were referring to Drag Queens instead of mtf women, it’s still the old ‘Gay men are bitchy and feminine’ stereotype. Ugh.
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The only thing worse than the Libra ad is the comments about it on their facebook, and on the news.com.au article about it. Makes me lose faith in humanity
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I think it’s very funny! People need to stop being so sensitive. Have a laugh and stop being so serious!
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I agree. My mum has epilepsy and she laughs at epilepsy jokes. She says she cant change it so she might as well try and enjoy the humour of it. She cant drive a car in case she has a seizure, she cant drink alcohol because of her medication, it is difficult to live with but she gets on with it.
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As I said to Lu’s reply below, it’s a little harsh to tell people how they should be reacting to something. The ‘You’re too sensitive/uptight/can’t you take a joke’ invalidates people’s opinions sometimes.
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Not at all. I think some people are just too bloody uptight and self absorbed. Typically Gen Y behaviour.
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Well, I tried to be civil but I see there’s no point discussing this with you.
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Oh FFS! I dont know any woman who loves having her periods. I think the transgender mob have the best of both worlds and need to get over themselves regarding this ad. Its a fact of life that isnt really pleasant or enjoyable – they arent missing out on anything. Are they jealous they cant have a pap test too???
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It’s more the tone of ‘Libra gets girls….Don’t have a period? OF COURSE YOU DON’T, YOU’RE NOT REALLY WOMEN, SILLY’ which makes it offensive, not the act of having a period itself.
t’s also indicating that there are specific guidelines to be met to identify as a woman, which is only true from a biological standpoint, gender being a social construct and all.
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OK, fair enough. Still think its being overly sensitive though.
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I’m not really comfortable with the ‘you’re too sensitive’ argument, it’s kind of like telling someone how they ‘should’ be feeling or reacting to something, by which I mean, it IS telling someone how to feel. The trans community get enough shit as it is, they don’t need people to invalidate their feelings by being told they’re over reacting to something.
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They aren’t women though, by natures definition they AREN’T women, no matter how much they want to be.
Why is speaking the truth seen as so offensive by some people or seen as being mean?
I agree that the ad is probably a bit crass and not needed.
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Transgendered women are women! They aren’t genetically female but they are most certainly women.
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Ah not by NATURES definition they’re not, which is what I said.
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There is a difference between gender and sex. Nature doesn’t define who a man/woman is but it does define who a female and male are. Gender is a social construct, sex isn’t.
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Drag queens are NOT real women! How is this ad offensive? It’s clever and witty! Even Drag Queens would have a laugh at it!
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And the transgender community definitely don’t have the best of both worlds, which is why the rate of suicide is depressingly high.
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I like the ad!
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Petition for the Libra ad to be pulled and an apology: http://www.change.org/petitions/boycott-libra-productscompany
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Apparently the ad’s been pulled.
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28 minutes from link to ad being pulled? You may have set yourself a new record!
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The Libra ad- I can understand why people are upset.
It really does come across as kinda smug and condescending, and I think it looks just plain mean.
Plus- who gets out their tampons to get one over somebody else?
Of course not all your facebook friends are your real friends. Some are girls from high school that I won’t ever see except maybe at a reunion.
Some are friends because we are members of an interest group.
I even have some who are complete strangers that I just need to play games *L*
I have many people who I have never met or talked to- but have known for many years as I met them in a chat room, no they wouldn’t be called my “true friends”, but they’re still friends and I’m interested in their lives.
How wonderful that we can have friendships all over the world, because of technology!
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Well, it was an entertaining idea anyway
http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/wendi-murdoch-deng-twitter-account-exposed-as-a-spoof-20120104-1pk15.html
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Thanks Melinka, updating
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http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/03/fake-wendi-deng-murdoch-makes-mockery-of-twitter-verified-account-process/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=gcluley&utm_campaign=naked+security
The real Wendy Deng? Who knows??
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You know as I read the headline about Rupert my immediate thought was ‘Is Wendi Deng gonna still be smacking off the haters?’ And clearly, yes! Yes she is!