The Project is being accused of “leftist bullying” after an online petition claims panellist Steve Price was disrespected by host Carrie Bickmore and guest Jamila Rizvi following Donald Trump’s presidential win.
The change.org petition, which has thus far received more than 30,000 signatures claims that “a friendly discussion quickly turned nasty” when Steve Price was interrupted by fellow journalist Rizvi who called his notion of a ‘real America’ voting Trump in “bullsh-t”.
The miffed conservative commentator responded by then ~~mansplaing~~ telling Rizvi, a vocal Clinton supporter, “This is the reason why Donald Trump won, because people like you lecture and hector people.”
Carrie Bickmore then interjected to tell “Pricey” to not “keep that tone”.
And that incident has outraged one individual, Thomas Nicholls, so much that they have called for the panel show to “recognise that what happened on The Project is unacceptable and should be condemned.” The petition then added: “Wether [sic] you are on the left, right, or somewhere in between, nobody should experience what Steve experienced.”
It’s not just those on the petition who don’t think Steve was given a fair go. Ben Fordham also chimed in on Twitter to defend the regular Project panellist.
“Pricey was allowed to speak for approx 4 seconds before being interrupted,” Fordham tweeted.
Rizvi replied saying she “was the one being interviewed,” not Price.
That drew a sarcastic retort from Fordham which read: “Oh. I thought it was a panel show where people chip in their opinions. My mistake.”
While she mightn’t have any support from Steve’s fellow 2GB presenter Rizvi did reportedly reach out to feminist commentator Clementine Ford who said that the only thing Bickmore and Rizvi are getting slammed over by the internet’s “Angry Men” is appearing like they’re a pair of women “colluding together”.
In an opinion piece for Fairfax media Ford wrote that Rizvi, a friend of her’s, wrote to ask advice about men trying to find out her home address following the post-election episode.
Ford likened Price’s “tantrum” to an analogy that drew comparison to the Trump vs Clinton race, which in many respects was the male vs female race.
Basically Ford said that being interrupted was something women have had to deal with since… forever! Just see the first 2016 presidential debate when Trump interrupted Clinton a whopping 51 times (full disclosure: she interrupted him 17 times in the same debate).
“It’s funny how sensitive some men become when they are exposed to the same kind of treatment women are always being instructed to tolerate with good humour,” wrote Ford.
In closing the columnist wrote “Grow up and get over it ‘Pricey’” and told his supporters to stop “drowning” in their tears.
Earlier this year Price was on the receiving end of widespread condemnation when he appeared on Q&A and during a discussion about domestic violence he continually interrupted fellow guest and columnist, Van Badham before finally labelling her “hysterical”. Interestingly she was literally explaining how contemptuous attitudes toward women fuel gender-based violence.
As far as we can tell, Steve never apologised to Van.
3AW’s Neil Mitchell has also weighed in on the “bullying” talk saying the petition is an overreaction and told everybody to “grow up”.
“For heaven’s sake, it’s a debate program,” Neil said on his 3AW Mornings.
“If you’re going to worry about that – who’s bullying who – then you’re not going to have robust debate.
“She was holding her own, he was standing up for himself, where’s the problem?”
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