A Fox Sports executive ran a secret social media account that attacked current and former colleagues, rivals, journalists, athletes and political figures, and posted crass, sexist and racist content.
Foxtel’s general manager of Fox Cricket Matthew Weiss used an X account, with the handle @RealRagingBull, to call Australian sports and media industry figures names including “toothless ice head”, “spastic” and “mediawhore”. The account also requested women start OnlyFans accounts and compared multiple Black women’s appearance to Chewbacca.
Crikey understands that it was an open secret among some Fox Sports staff that Weiss was behind the account. Weiss deleted the account in 2021, but remains in a high-profile position in spite of the companies’ policies around social media use.
Foxtel declined to answer questions about when the company first became aware of the account but gave a statement saying Foxtel does not “condone racist, sexist, or abusive behaviour in our workplace”. Weiss did not respond to inquiries by email, phone and LinkedIn, but did delete his personal Instagram account hours after being contacted by Crikey.
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Weiss has worked for Fox Sports and Foxtel since 2011 according to his LinkedIn, and has headed up the company’s cricket programming since 2017.
In 2014, Weiss started an X, formerly Twitter, account called @RealRagingBull, originally as a parody of former rugby league player Gorden Tallis. While some people tweeted at the account as if it was Tallis, it soon became an anonymous account for Weiss to post freely until it was deleted in 2021. Tallis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Multiple sources in the Australian cricket media, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity due to fear of speaking out in a close-knit industry, told Crikey that it was Weiss who started and operated the account. The account was registered to Weiss’ work email address and shared content from inside the Fox Sports offices. At one point a Fox Sports colleague replied to a post from the account by using Weiss’ name. The account also tweeted content in line with Weiss’ biography and with social media posts on other accounts.
As well as posting content relating to his employment at Fox Sports, Weiss used the account to post vitriolic and offensive messages aimed at many other individuals in the Australian sporting media.
The @RealRagingBull account repeatedly targeted current and former Fox Sports employees. Fox Sports commentator Andrew Voss was taunted with questions about whether he had been sacked (“you still work at Fox or got the Rissole ?”) and criticism of his game calling.
The account also abused former Fox Sports commentator Simon Hill shortly after the company laid him off by ridiculing his new job, calling him an “oxygen thief”, saying he dressed like a “homeless man” and more.
Other prominent cricket figures were also in the firing line. The Fox Sports cricket lead repeatedly criticised Australian men’s cricket coach Justin Langer, telling him to “stick to yoga” when Langer weighed in to the cricket broadcast rights dispute. He sarcastically called Shane Watson a “great leader” for playing in the Indian Premier League rather than the Big Bash, and called the Marsh cricketing family a “whole generation of spastics”. Weiss also repeatedly replied to a tweet from news.com.au sharing an article about cricketer Michael Clarke’s former wife Kyly Clarke, calling her “such a tool” and adding “Without Him You Are No one”.
Weiss’ account also frequently attacked rival networks’ journalists including the ABC’s Jim Maxwell, The Australian’s Gideon Haigh, Rohan Connolly, Seven’s Tom Browne, Richard Hinds and others. When contacted by Crikey, Haigh called it “the behaviour of a rather sad little man”. Connolly said Weiss’ comments were “pretty gutless”.
Weiss repeatedly told AFLW players Tayla Harris and Georgie Parker, who was also a Hockeyroo, to “shut up” after they criticised Richmond over its 2020 groping scandal, and subsequently called Harris “irevevant” [sic] and Parker a “PC out of touch twit”.
Parker said that it was “shameful” that this abuse came from a high-level Fox Sports executive who is expected to create a safe work environment. “It is already a tough place for women in a very male dominated environment, and when you find out things like this it just forever makes you double guess what the suits above you (who are doing a majority of the hiring) are saying,” she told Crikey.
Outside of sport, the account waged a campaign against comedian Dave Hughes, tweeting abuse at him several times, as well as TV presenter Karl Stefanovic, television host and comedian Charlie Pickering, and journalist Osman Faruqi.
Pickering, who hadn’t seen Weiss’ tweets at him, said “I think if he’d had the guts to put his name to his work I might have noticed it.”
The @RealRagingBull weighed in on politics, too, jumping on a 2020 post questioning Scott Morrison’s approval rating to accuse then opposition leader Anthony Albanese of being a dork and having a lower approval rating than serial killer Ivan Milat.
Some of the account’s abuse was directed at companies and leagues, too. Weiss’ account tweeted critically multiple times about Telstra, which owns 35% of Foxtel, saying that he was cancelling his subscription because of their service and their advertisements. He also mocked the A-League’s viewership numbers while the soccer competition was still being broadcast on Fox Sports.
When not attacking others, Weiss’ account also frequently tweeted offensive content. He shared a photograph of a Fox Sports camera shot taken during a cricket match of a Black woman that appeared to compare her appearance with Chewbacca, captioning it “Great [to] see my cousin Sharonda Bacca at the cricket!!!”. Another post about having Chinese food included the hashtags #Remonchicken and #unrool, seemingly mocking a Chinese accent.
Weiss also tweeted at former sex worker and media personality Samantha X asking if she had any “hairy ladies” who might be keen to start an OnlyFans account with him.
The account argued against cricket star Chris Gayle getting banned after Gayle made inappropriate comments to reporter Mel McLaughlin, declaring “if Chris Gayle gets barred we are kidding…… Have [to] cancel every work christmas party ever.” He responded to X user @deathinvogue who complained that it was sexist when sports television personality Jason Richardson called former Australian cricket captain Lisa Sthalekar “toots” by telling her to “lighten up shags”.
The revelations about Weiss come after Crikey broke the story of Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany giving a Nazi salute on set at Fox Sports. After initially denying that this happened, Delany then suggested that his pose was him comparing an A-League fan chant gesture to the Sieg Heil. This was later refuted by a video obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age which appeared to show him imitating a famous Nazi salute by former Socceroo Mark Bosnich, who was on set with Delany the time.
When horse trainer Mitchell Beer, who Weiss often tweeted back and forth with, posted about receiving some Twitter abuse, @RealRagingBull replied with advice.
“You’ll never stop it or police it…. It is out of control. Best bet … delete App.”
