Steve Price: As a panellist on The Project, attacks on the show and its stars are personal
Those baying for the blood of The Project stars and trying to kill off the show should be careful what they wish for, because it can’t be matched.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
This is personal.
Twelve years ago, on January 12, I first appeared on the Network Ten news and current affairs show The Project.
I was a 55-year-old white conservative male, and to my eye, a very odd choice to add to a shiny, new ‘do-it-differently’ type news program.
Added to that, I had limited television experience and had just left a long stint at Sydney’s talkback radio station 2UE, after replacing first Alan Jones and then John Laws.
In 2010, The Project had only been on the air for a year and went for a half-hour, not the full hour it now runs. The concept was the same as now, however, to do news but do it differently and spice it up with some comedy.
The idea was that on a Monday night I would sit on the panel as the fourth chair and bring to the debates a more conservative view than my colleagues, who were much younger.
That first show was anchored by surviving host Carrie Bickmore, now ABC star, Charlie Pickering, and radio star and stand-up comedian Dave Hughes.
Charlie and I back then would have some almighty on-air blues, but as usual in the media, we were comfortable with each other once the cameras were turned off.
We didn’t agree on pretty much anything and I still find his leftie views annoying. I think the ABC is the perfect fit for Charlie.
Amazingly, 12 years on, that white conservative male is now 67-years-old and still sitting at the end of the desk once a week.
And why do I describe this as personal? Well it’s because a lot of half-baked media critics - many who rant about free speech on their own programs – are trying to kill off one of
the best resourced and clever TV shows in Australia.
It’s labelled ‘too woke’ and ‘too left’, and I sometimes agree with those criticisms, but the world is woke and left, so doesn’t it make sense that somewhere on TV you give an audience what it wants?
At least The Project has the guts to allow me to sometimes straighten up some of those views with an alternative viewpoint; that’s called balance.
And let’s be very clear about how many unique adventurous TV shows there have been in the last 13 years, in prime time.
Unlike its competitor, the tabloid ambulance-chasing A Current Affair, The Project, with an hour a night, six nights a week, has more room for discussion and debate.
Now, this is not meant to be a puff piece about how great the TV show I am on is, because sometimes it’s not. The current key hosts are the super talented Carrie Bickmore, the academic lawyer Waleed Aly and one of Australia’s funniest performers, Pete Helliar.
Lisa Wilkinson hosts three nights a week and Hamish McDonald is her on-air partner, and he fills in for Waleed.
The Project is a largely Melbourne-based produced and presented program, employing some of the most talented and generous young people I have ever met. It’s the friendliest place I have ever worked.
That’s why it’s personal.
Carrie Bickmore, who won a Gold Logie in 2015 and proceeded to shove a beanie on her carefully made-up hair and emotionally open up about brain cancer, is the best female TV performer in Australia.
Seven years later, the charity - born that night - has raised a whopping $18 million for brain cancer research.
That’s why it’s personal.
Waleed Aly - a devout Muslim, with a whip smart brain and a love of sport - has had to endure the most vile attacks on him personally and on his family, but still he fronts up and brings an intellectual rigour to the debates. What other TV show does that?
That’s why it’s personal.
Peter Helliar is a survivor in a brutal industry and is smart enough to pick his fights and, between jokes, bring a razor sharp focus to issues that he really feels passionate about. Including letting me know when he thinks I’m out of line.
That’s why it’s personal.
It hasn’t always been an easy ride for me personally. I referred to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a disparaging way – I was wrong and offered a genuine apology
the next night.
Famously, I clashed on air with commentator Jamila Rizvi over Donald Trump. She objected to the way I described her views and the rest of the desk that night took her side and let me know about it.
I’ve been abused on social media for my views on The Project; for every one of those shows over 12 years.
The abuse often starts before we get off air and lights up the lunatics on Twitter.
I’ve tried stand-up comedy on the show and failed, freelanced with some rap and appeared half naked to show off my tattoo of Dane Swan’s initials on my bicep.
The Project also allowed me to interview an Australian defence force veteran who had fallen on hard times and tried to take his own life, in a ute, on Anzac Day.
He was rescued by the charity Wounded Heroes and his story touched me personally. We were able to get celebrity dentist Larry Benge to fit Fletch with a new set of implanted teeth, at no cost.
Fletch told me it was the thing that rescued him from a life of depression and misery.
The Project let me do that – so it’s personal.
Sometimes we don’t realise how good things are until they’ve gone.
The critics should be careful what they wish for because Australia needs alternative voices not echo chambers.
Here’s to a few more years in that chair as an old white male, with a view.
* Footnote…they don’t know I’m writing this.
DISLIKES
The endless debate around the naming of the Margaret Court arena; just please leave it alone.
Reality TV at its worst: Married At First Sight.
The estimated 80,000 Australians in aged care not provided with their booster shots.
Novak Djokovic might now actually get vaccinated.
LIKES
Even with the risks, face-to-face learning back at school.
Dustin Martin back to his playing weight and looking dangerous.
Renewed debate about opening our international borders.
Scott Morrison, the PM, being quizzed about the price of bread and petrol.
Australia Today with Steve Price can be heard live from 7am weekdays via the LiSTNR app.
More Coverage
Originally published as Steve Price: As a panellist on The Project, attacks on the show and its stars are personal
Maiden: Three words Lidia Thorpe haters suddenly forgot
If all Australian MPs were held to the standards some want applied to Thorpe, Republicans would be kicked out of Canberra, writes Samantha Maiden.
Bolt: Politicians cannot let Thorpe get away with breaking her oath
It’s time for the politicians wittering their dismay and issuing futile calls for Lidia Thorpe to resign from parliament to get serious about kicking the race-baiting Senator out.