ABC boss Kim Williams said he received direct messages from Elon Musk and Kanye West amid a ‘vile’ social media pile-on after he criticised Joe Rogan last year.
An emotional Mr Williams addressed the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday, recalling the severe backlash when he attacked the US podcaster.
In November, Mr Williams had been giving a speech at the National Press Club when an ABC reporter asked him how the national broadcaster could capture an audience similar to that of Rogan, whose long-form interviews regularly attract tens of millions of downloads and views.
‘I am not a consumer or enthusiast about Mr Rogan and his work,’ Williams replied.
‘People like Mr Rogan prey on people’s vulnerabilities. They prey on fear. They prey on anxiety.’
In the wake of his comments, Mr Williams received thousands of angry messages, he recalled on Thursday.
‘I learnt a lot about pile-ons. I had every device in my life consumed with thousands of messages of varying vocabulary.
‘It took over my life. I cannot begin to describe to you how vile some of those messages were. It paralysed my phone.’
Mr Williams later choked back tears while reading out messages from people who were battered by ex-Cyclone Alfred last month and heaped praise on ABC staff for their dedication.
The ABC chair apologised to the audience for being a ‘bit of a sook’.
He did not specify what Musk or West had said in their messages. Musk would go on to take a key role in the Trump administration as the head of its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), though he is now set to step away from the position.
The rapper West has also expressed support for Trump in the past.
In November, Mr Williams had gone so far as to say he found Rogan’s reach in the US ‘deeply repulsive’.
‘I’m also absolutely in dismay that this can be a source of public entertainment, when it’s really treating the public as plunder for purposes that are really quite malevolent.’
A clip of Williams’ comments was shared to social media platform X, where Rogan replied ‘LOL WUT’ in a post seen more than 8.4million times.
Musk, who owns X, publicly denounced Mr Williams as well as sending a private message.
‘From the head of n government-funded media, their Pravda,’ he said.
Pravda is the former official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, whose name became a byword for any media that acts as a mouthpiece for a repressive or authoritarian regime.
Williams then issued a rejoinder in the war of words, saying on ABC radio that his main issue with Rogan was the podcaster’s scepticism towards the Covid-19 vaccines.
‘I mean, Joe Rogan did an enormous, in my view, an enormous amount of damage back in 2020 and 2021, when he was particularly virulent in many of his remarks about vaccinations,’ he said.
Rogan advocated the use of unapproved medicines, including Ivermectin, as a treatment for Covid and used them himself when he contracted the virus, crediting his quick recovery to them.
The Joe Rogan Experience is the third-most popular podcast on Spotify with 14.5million followers.
Rogan signed a $200million deal with the streaming giant in 2020.
His interview with Donald Trump was cited as a key factor in deciding last year’s US election, with the Republican candidate’s vote among young men – the core of Rogan’s audience – reaching new highs.