Tony Armstrong: Ex-ABC News breakfast presenter exposes racist attacks on Instagram after Media Watch report
Popular presenter Tony Armstrong has exposed shocking racist attacks he has received online in the wake of a Media Watch report into his work with an insurance company.
The report, which scrutinised his involvement with insurer NRMA, aired on Monday night.
In its wake, the footballer-turned-ABC News Breakfast presenter was the target of appalling online racial attacks.
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In an Instagram story, Armstrong wrote: “How’s your day going? Been called a c… and a n….. before 8am?”
The post was accompanied by two other slides featuring the disgusting comments.
Armstrong is yet to comment further on the hateful comments he has received. However, it is not the first time he has received such hate.
Earlier this week, the ABC called him out after he began working with the insurance company NRMA and accused him of “moonlighting at the expense of their integrity.”
Armstrong recently worked with Insurance Australia Group (IAG) owned NRMA Insurance, providing voiceovers for advertisements and sponsorship promos.
Media Watch, the ABC’s flagship program, alleged that Armstrong failed to seek approval from his employer before taking on the work.
Camera IconArmstrong shared the horrific remarks via his Instagram story. Credit: Instagram
As a taxpayer-funded broadcaster, the ABC has strict guidelines on how staff can engage in external work.
Armstrong announced last week that he would be stepping away from News Breakfast, vowing to continue working with the broadcaster on “other projects.” His final show will be on Friday.
Instead of receiving praise and celebration from his colleagues, he has been called out.
“It’s a shame this moonlighting at the expense of the ABC’s integrity is what we’re talking about in his final week on News Breakfast,” said Media Watch host Janine Perrett.
“Tony’s arguably one of the ABC’s biggest stars,” Perrett said on Media Watch on Monday.
“He’s not only on the breakfast TV couch, he’s appeared at night on a new sports show, he’s one of many appearing in ABC News promos and is the face of a new five-part series.
“So we were stunned when we got confirmation that Tony was also selling an insurance company”.
Although commercial work is not blatantly banned in the broadcaster’s guidelines, staff are told to carefully “quantify the risk” of engaging in it.
“Any work that involves endorsing a commercial product or service is extremely high risk,” the guidelines state.
“For all external work, you must obtain approval from your manager”.
Perrett claimed: “Voicing commercials is a whole different game.”
Media Watch asked ABC if it was aware of Armstrong’s work with IAG-owned NRMA Insurance and asked for clarification over whether he sought approval from management.
“Astonishingly, he did not,” Perrett said.
“The voiceover was done without the ABC’s knowledge,” the taxpayer-funded broadcaster said in a statement.
“This was due to a misunderstanding with Tony’s external representation.”
Perrett questioned how any misunderstanding could overtake commercial work for one of Australia’s largest companies.
“They have been provided a copy of the external work guidelines and reminded all ABC employees are required to meet them,” the statement continued.
“Tony is a highly valued employee with the ABC’s full support.”
Media Watch approached Armstrong for comment; however, he did not respond.
The Nightly have approached Armstrong for comment.
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