ABC Media Watch host Paul Barry and reporter Louise Milligan in Twitter spat

The high-profile ABC journalists engaged in a savage Twitter spat on Monday evening, concluding only when many of the tweets were deleted.

ABC journalists Louise Milligan and Paul Barry failed to see eye-to-eye on Twitter last night. Pictures: File

Two ABC journalists, Paul Barry and Louise Milligan, engaged in a savage Twitter spat on Monday evening, concluding only when many of the tweets were deleted.

 

The exchange began when Media Watch host Paul Barry was criticised by an audience member on Twitter for lacking female representation in a segment on the Parliament House rape allegations.

Barry quickly defended himself, saying he quoted both news.com.au journalist Samantha Maiden and The Guardian’s Katherine Murphy, and had reached out to ABC journalist Louise Milligan for further comment to which she “didn’t reply”.

Milligan, however, responded by saying she never received the request, calling out Barry’s behaviour as “poor form”.

“You didn’t seek comment. I had no idea,” she wrote in response.

Some of the tweets between Louise Milligan and Paul Barry on Monday night.

“You sent Twitter DM asking if you could have a word. I worked night & day all weekend & appeared at a literary festival, received countless DMs. I thought you, a colleague, wanted a chat & I’d get back to you when I had a minute. Poor form.”

She then attached a screenshot of the original Twitter message from Barry which said “Got time for a chat?”

However, when Milligan fired back at him, Barry doubled down on his claims that he had tried to reach her and said he went as far as to seek a response through her partner.

“I sent you a DM on Twitter, which you did receive,” he wrote. “I followed up with a phone call, and left a long voice message yesterday laying out what we wanted. My EP contacted your partner last night and repeated the request.”

 

 

Milligan then tried to wrap up the dispute with a series of short sentences requesting Barry try another method of contacting her next time.

 

“Anyway. Whatever. Send email/detailed text next time saying you want comment. That’s what I do. Always happy if I can. Avoids confusion. Night.”

She then deleted her tweets.

Barry’s replies to Milligan’s deleted tweets remain in his “Tweets & replies” field on his profile.

On Tuesday morning, Milligan reflected on the stoush with Barry posting on Twitter: “For those overstating minor disagreement between @TheRealPBarry & I, put popcorn away. I didn’t receive a voicemail, he didn’t email. It’s fine. The @ABCmediawatch story, which I hadn’t seen bc I have an eye-bleeding amount of work, was fine. Let’s get back to important work’’.

For those overstating minor disagreement between @TheRealPBarry & I, put popcorn away. I didn’t receive a voicemail , he didn’t email. It’s fine. The @ABCmediawatch story, which I hadn’t seen bc I have an eye-bleeding amount of work, was fine. Let’s get back to important work.

— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) March 2, 2021