Nero’s Slacker: The Anonymous BBC News Snark Account That Got An Entire Newsroom Talking
Just when Twitter appeared to be losing its lustre for the mainstream media elite, along comes an account that has got Britain’s biggest newsroom talking.
Enter Nero’s Slacker, an anonymous sh*tposter who is roasting BBC News bosses and presenters one X update at a time — and getting a flurry of attention.
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“I thought the days of good old-fashioned snark accounts were dead until Nero’s Slacker,” laughed one BBC News journalist, the 94th person to point out the account to Deadline this week.
Set up in October, Nero’s Slacker is a reference to the Caffè Nero coffee shop that overlooks the revolving doors of New Broadcasting House, the BBC’s London headquarters.
Sipping on a black Americano and wreathed in cigarette smoke, they are posting acerbic observations about colleagues and newsroom skulduggery.
Nero’s Slacker’s identity remains a mystery for now. Deadline’s attempt to slide into the account’s DMs was met with the riposte: “Nice try. But you bat for the other side Jake.”
Some think it’s one person at the controls, others suspect a group of staff — discontented at the endless treadmill of job losses and service cuts — have gone rogue.
Either way, BBC News insiders will tell you that Nero’s Slacker’s posts, although often fictionalized for comedy effect, contain enough truth to suggest they are well-versed in newsroom gossip.
Let’s run through a few recent examples.
Marking the news of Mishal Husain’s shock departure from the BBC, Nero’s Slacker wrote: “That @Emmabarnett just walked into the @BBCr4today office wearing a black armband, weeping. ‘I am so sorry to see you go Mishal,’ she sobbed. I love Emma. Such warmth and sincerity. I don’t know why she had an onion in her handbag though.”
Now, we don’t really know if Husain and Emma Barnett are on unfriendly terms after the latter’s arrival on Today in May, but it’s fair to say that their supposedly frosty relationship has been a source of fevered gossip in the New Broadcasting House “news pit.”
Here’s a couple more. Nero’s Slacker today called former BBC North America editor Jon Sopel “The Olympic Torch,” a reference to an old (and rather unfair) joke that the journalist liked the comforts of the Washington D.C. bureau so much he “never went out.”
Then there’s the playful accusation that BBC News CEO Deborah Turness had a “heavy night on the Aperol” earlier this week, which insiders speculate could be a nod to the apéritif that was on tap at the Foreign Press Association Awards in London. The only trouble with this line of thinking is that Turness did not attend the FPAs.
And if you can’t beat them, join them. BBC correspondent Jon Donnison saw the funny side when dubbed the “Milk Tray Man” by Nero’s Slacker.
Anonymous BBC social media posters are nothing new (the frequently bizarre @Futuremice is a fun follow), but UK media has not had a sh*tposter this compelling since the acidic @TheTVController.
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