Bill Shorten shares the outrage over Natasha Exelby’s ‘axing’

OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten and a pack of television celebrities and journalists have made a show of solidarity with Natasha Exelby after her hilarious blooper left the ABC fuming.

OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten may be busy ducking salvos from Team Turnbull, but this morning he found time to stick his head above the parapet in defence of Natasha Exelby.

Mr Shorten has joined a cavalcade of criticism against the ABC after it reportedly “boned” the ABC 24 newsreader over a harmless blooper.

“Just ridiculous’... Opposition Leader Bill Shorten

It's live TV. This is just ridiculous.https://t.co/xy6dp7nKwi

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) 10 April 2017

General Secretary of the NSW Labor Party, Senator Sam Dastyari, also came to the newsreader’s defence, threatening to take the matter to Senate Estimates.

Ok. If people think that is a complete bullshit overreaction that should be raised in SENATE ESTIMATES can you retweet and let me know? pic.twitter.com/31r2xfYlRb

— Sam Dastyari (@samdastyari) 10 April 2017

An online petition calling on ABC CEO Michelle Guthrie to reinstate Exelby has already gained more than 3,700 signatures this morning. Fellow TV presenters have shown solidarity by tweeting their own on-air bloopers using hashtags #PutYourPensOutForTash and #PutYourBloopersOut, with some of TV’s biggest names sharing their stories.

@byrnesh @NatashaExelby I fainted twice and said "fuck" once. To paraphrase @billybragg reading live news is an Accident Waiting To Happen. #putyourbloopersout

— Tracey Spicer (@TraceySpicer) April 10, 2017

I once said "sadly we lost Simon Townsend from Wonder World a few years back" only for people to email me Wikipedia pointing out he's alive. https://t.co/9cximjLLDQ

— BenFordham (@BenFordham) 10 April 2017

Exelby’s blooper capturing her fiddling with a pen and daydreaming while unaware she was on-air has gone viral since it was posted on the ABC’s Media Watch website.

The newsreader said she could understand why people found it funny.

“It was certainly me at my most raw,” she said. “But I also have to take some responsibility here. I’m a professional and what happened was far from professional.”

However, she took to Twitter yesterday afternoon to thank her colleagues for their show of support.

Thank U all for ur generous support. Not my finest hour. Myself and my mesmerising pen honourably salute you!

— Natasha Exelby (@NatashaExelby) 10 April 2017

The ABC has denied it stood down Natasha Exelby after the blooper.

Despite the howls of outrage against the ABC for reportedly taking disciplinary action, the national broadcaster has denied the contracted newsreader was stood down over the incident.

ABC News Director Gavin Morris, issued a statement this morning saying reports that Exelby had been “banned”, “barred” or “fired” were untrue.

“Live television is a demanding art and slip-ups will happen — our presenters are humans, not robots,” he said.

“We take on-air standards extremely seriously, but we don’t expect perfection. No one would ever be punished for a blooper and, while it isn’t appropriate to publicly discuss confidential details of people’s personal work arrangements, this has not happened to Natasha.”

Morris said Exelby was a freelance journalist who worked as an ABC contributor.

“She has been rostered for various shifts and has been assured since yesterday at we want that to continue,” he said.

“While she is not currently doing any on-air shifts, this will be subject to normal performance management. I have spoken to Natasha and conveyed our regret that this has attracted such attention.”

Natasha Exelby caught day dreaming.

The moment just before she realises she’s on air.

The shock of realisation.

Originally published as Bill Shorten shares the outrage over Natasha Exelby’s ‘axing’