Tony Armstrong has shared the appalling racial attacks he has received online in the wake of a Media Watch report which scrutinised his external voiceover work while employed at the ABC.
On Monday, the ABC aired an episode of Media Watch in which the host, Janine Perrett, revealed that Armstrong had lent his voice to an ad campaign for NRMA Insurance.
The campaign, as discovered by Media Watch, was rolled out during Nine’s coverage of the Olympics in July, sparking questions as to whether Armstrong had breached the ABC’s strict rules around employees pursuing work outside of the national broadcaster.
Under ABC guidelines, high-profile employees must seek approval for external work, especially for commercial ventures. “We were stunned to learn that Armstrong was selling an insurance company,” Perrett said during the Media Watch episode.
The host went on to say that for on-screen talent like Armstrong — whom she described as “one of the ABC’s biggest stars” — the rules around doing external work “get tighter the more famous you are”.
Perrett said employees’ pursuit of external commercial work is considered “problematic” among ABC journalists, and that the broadcaster deems such ventures as “very high risk.”
In a statement, ABC confirmed that Armstrong did not receive approval to undertake the voiceover gig, and claimed that the NRMA ad was done without its knowledge.
“How any ABC reporter can voice a commercial for one of the biggest brands in Australia and not think that is a conflict is beyond us,” Perrett said.
While Armstrong did not respond to Media Watch’s request for comment, the two-time Logie-winner took to social media to share the hateful messages he has received in the days since the episode aired.
Sharing screenshots of the awful comments to his Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Armstrong prefaced the posts with a selfie and the caption: “How’s your day been going?”.
The presenter then said he’d been called two racist slurs “before 8am”. He then shared screenshots of direct messages and comments he’d received on three separate Instagram posts, all of which were incredibly vulgar and shockingly racist.
Armstrong has yet to comment any further on the vitriol he has received, but it is unfortunately not the first time he has been subject to this kind of abuse online.
In 2022, the presenter shared a screenshot of a similarly racist attack sent to his work email, which was later referred by the ABC to police.
In a statement provided to PEDESTRIAN.TV on Wednesday, ABC News Director Justin Stevens condemned the “despicable” abuse levelled against Armstrong, particularly in light of the independent review into racism at the ABC which was released earlier this week.
“I am dismayed that within 24 hours of that important report I’m issuing a statement to publicly call out more racist abuse by members of the public directed at one of the ABC’s highly valued staff members, who also happens to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander,” Stevens said.
“Tony Armstrong is one of the ABC’s best and most talented presenters. This week he has again been targeted on social media and in public comments on news websites in a despicable way. The ABC stands by Tony and will not tolerate any racist abuse.”
Stevens said the details of the racist comments have been “logged” by the ABC, and that the broadcaster has “made a complaint regarding the moderation of the comments”.
Stevens went on to address the media’s role in some ABC employees being on the receiving end of abuse. “This sort of behaviour in the community is often fed by the inflammatory nature of mainstream media coverage,” he said.
“The prominence of stories, tone of headlines and copy, photos run and selection of story angles can foster division and outright hate… As the ABC strives to ensure our workplaces are safe and inclusive we also call on all media organisations to reflect on whether their own behaviour is meeting the highest standards.”
Both the Media Watch episode and the subsequent racial attacks come shortly after Armstrong announced that he is leaving the ABC, with his final day on the News Breakfast couch being this Friday, October 4.
Lead image: Tony Armstrong/ Instagram and ABC
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