Block around the clock tonight, she’s gonna block block block ’til broad daylight

Headline and standfirst on a piece by Van Badham in The Guardian Australia yesterday:

Twitter, the barbarian country, or how I learned to love the block button — I’ve banished 10,000 accounts from my feed to render the medium as exciting as I once imagined that it could be.

Badham hitting her straps:

Beyond blocking outright Nazis and haters, I’ve now permitted myself to block the petty, the hostile, nasty, monomaniacal … even the merely tiresome … Ten thousand accounts I’ve banished from my feed to render the medium as exciting as I once imagined that it could be. Affirmed here is not only my right to select my own company, but also to return to the standards I once applied to reading newspapers …

She’s a lot more welcoming away from Twitter. Van Badham on Twitter, July 17, 2018:

If you’re undecided on (Bill) Shorten, come see him speak in front of a union crowd. He just got a standing ovation at the #ACTUcongress18 dinner and he damn well deserved it. #auspol

But what if you’re, ahem, blocked? Amanda Meade in The Guardian Australia the next day:

The journalists’ union has lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Council of Trade Unions after reporters covering the union congress in Brisbane were banned from a dinner that included an address by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten. The peak union body has refused to explain why it barred industrial relations reporters from the event for the first time. The (Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance) media section president, Marcus Strom, said it was the first time anyone could recall journalists being excluded from the congress dinner. “It is particularly absurd as journalists are being locked out while attendees are inside live-tweeting and posting to social media,” Strom said.

“The ACTU is an important organisation. A speech to the ACTU delivered by the alternative prime minister is an important event. The exclusion of journalists trying to do their job should not have happened and it shouldn’t happen ever again.”

One of the Victorian listings in the media section on the MEAA’s federal council page:

Van Badham (vice-president).

Back to Meade’s story:

Sally McManus became the first female secretary of the ACTU in March last year. The congress is held every three years. Sources said McManus wanted delegates to be able to relax. “It came across as a two-fingered salute to the working media credentialed to report on congress,” one journalist told Guardian Australia. “ … we had a job to report on the alternative prime minister’s speech. At least we should have been allowed access to hear him speak. Farcically the speech was being live-tweeted on social media by delegates but reporters couldn’t write on it until Shorten’s office released the speech at the worker-unfriendly time of 10.30pm.” According to the transcript, Shorten used the speech to say that a Labor government would stop the exploitation of permanent casual workers.

The Australian’s Rick Morton on Twitter yesterday:

Van, an MEAA media vice-pres in Victoria, has blocked more journalists than anyone I reckon … Muting someone is way more fun than blocking anyway.

At least she’s gentle. Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun on August 22, 2013:

I took a dip in Twitter this week, and understand even better how Labor got flushed away in a sewer of hate.