As controversy swirls around ‘s dramatic exit as Q+A host he joins a list of other ABC personalities who have gone public about the personal toll extracted by relentless online bullies and trolls.
Leigh Sales, Lisa Millar, , Sami Shah and Patricia Karvelas are just some of the on-air talent who have spoken out about the constant sexist or racist abuse directed at them.
Grant made a tearful exit from Q+A on Monday night with a heartfelt speech that directly addressed those he accused of delivering online bile.
‘To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say – if your aim was to hurt me, well, you’ve succeeded,’ he said.
‘And I’m sorry.I’m sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me so much, to target me and my family, to make threats against me.’
Former Q+A host Stan Grant is the latest ABC personality to go public about being the constant target of online hatred
Radio National host Patricia Karvelas says she is also targeted by online trolls because of her identity
Grant previously said the lack of institutional support he received from the ABC over the abuse prompted him to quit although in his farewell statement he denied walking away because of online hatred.
‘I need a break from the media.I feel like I’m part of the problem,’ he said.
Hundreds of ABC staff on Monday walked out of their offices to stage protests supporting Grant in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra while prominent employees at the broadcaster posted the hashtags #IstandwithStan and #Werejectracism.
Radio National presenter Patricia Karvelas tweeted she had also received abuse because of her identity, although it is unclear whether this was directed at her Greek heritage or her public acknowledgement of being in a same-sex relationship.
‘Stan and I have often talked about how hostile it is to be identified publicly through the lens of your diversity,’ she tweeted.
‘The hate has to stop.’
Comedian Sami Shah, whose family emigrated from Pakistan, claimed the ABC failed to support him over the racial abuse he received when it employed him to do the high-profile Melbourne radio breakfast slot.
‘I remember asking, again and again, for support, when I was being targeted for racial abuse,’ Shah writes in a blog post posted on Sunday.
Tony Armstrong (above) shared one of the racist messages he’s received after wading into the row over Gina Rinehart’s sponsorship of the Australian netball team
Armstrong wrote alongside a hateful message he received (above) that ‘this s*** needs to stop’ and said the slur-ridden message was sent to his work email
‘Every request I made was ignored.I was also told I could not reply or retaliate to that abuse in any way.
‘The one time I did, calling a neo-Nazi stalker a ‘a sad incel wank pigeon’, Human Resources tried to get me to apologise to him and put a ‘notice on my file’.
‘This, after I’d warned them I’d be targeted by right wing press for being the only non-white presenter, which I was endlessly.’
He accused the ABC of ‘being indifferent at best and hostile at worst to the problems its non-white staff experience’.
ABC breakfast sports presenter Tony Armstrong went public in November with racist abuse he received for speaking out about the Australian netball team’s split with sponsor Gina Rinehart over comments her father made about Indigenous people.
‘This s*** has gotta stop,’ Armstrong posted on Twitter above a screenshot of the offending message.
‘One thing is for certain though, this isn’t guna stop us speaking up or stepping up.Sent to my work email, no less.’
The posted email was littered with racial slurs and referred to the former AFL player as ‘filthy scum’ and an ‘uneducated dog’.
After Armstrong went public, ABC management referred the email to police.
Female staff at the national broadcaster have also revealed the amount of sexist backlash they receive.
After interviewing former prime minister Scott Morrison in April, 2022, former 7.30 presenter Leigh Sales deleted her Twitter account.
Former ABC Melbourne radio breakfast host Sami Shah claimed the ABC failed to support him over the racist abuse he received
In a previous article for the ABC Sales described the abuse she received on the platform as ‘non-stop, personal, often vile, frequently unhinged and regularly based on fabrications’.
When she quit the prime-time TV job last June, depo HOKIVIP (rededesaberes.org) she again revealed her weariness of social media abuse and the implied threat it might carry.
‘There’s a rabid group of bullies who just use any excuse to pretty much pile on,’ she said.
‘The problem is this kind of online ripping up of people can translate into real-life violence.
‘I have two protective violence orders on me from random people who’ve made threats against me.’
Former 7.30 host Leigh Sales said that the online abuse she received for doing her job was unrelenting
ABC News Breakfast presenter Lisa Millar hit back at the trolls who made disgusting remarks about a skirt she had worn on the program
In March ABC New Breakfast presenter Lisa Millar was the subject of trolls who made putrid remarks about a skirt she wore during a broadcast that the haters claimed was too revealing.
Millar hit back saying she was sickened by the comments especially given they were made so close to International Women’s Day.
‘The fact that what I wore on Monday attracted obnoxious commentary on Twitter, foul disgusting personal abuse that I wouldn’t and couldn’t repeat here – it was upsetting,’ she said.
‘I am angry, on this International Women’s Day.Angry on behalf of myself and also on behalf of other women, young women, who see those stories and see someone like me being violently abused day after day, for whatever reason bullies can find.
‘I worry it might make you think that no progress is being made and it’s not worth it being a woman in the public arena.’
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