@ABCnewsIntern uncovered

Following up our recent article on fake social media accounts. ABC Radio National’s Media Report this week exposed the now famous @ABCnewsIntern account… sort of.

The ‘intern’ came clean about the motives behind starting the account, telling RN Media Report’s Alex McClintock:

“If you said [I’m in] Ultimo, I would say yes, but I’m not necessarily in the building… There’s a bit of careful cultivation of that, but still very much trying not to confuse people or make it seem like it’s something it’s not.”

The ‘intern,’ who now has over 25,000 followers, came on the idea of an ABC intern, looking at the control rooms and green rooms and hallways of power, but also examining politics and current affairs. “It had a lot of latitude for amusement… Essentially, if there’s an absurdity or hypocriticality, then Intern is right on it and will have a lot of fun with it.”

Recent developments in the feuds between big media players have also caught the intern’s attention:

“The absurdity of the tribalism between News Corp, Fairfax and the ABC is hilarious at the best of times, but in the last couple of years it has just become sad. But there’s an absurdity to that which has become amusing… ‘I’ve tried very hard to make sure that there’s no bullying or misogyny or bad feelings about that account, because it is more difficult when you start taking the piss out of a real person than it is with News Intern. News Intern has always been much simpler because he’s the tiny little person at the bottom of the well.’


Intern is in no hurry to reveal his real identity. He claims his followers ‘don’t want to know’ who he really is.

Listen to the Intern’s interview here.

 

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