If you didn’t tune into The Project on Wednesday night, you missed an epic showdown between One Nation Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts and the panel comprising of Peter Helliar, Hamish Macdonald, Carrie Bickmore and Gretel Killeen.
Let’s just say things got a little bit feisty when Roberts’ party’s position towards Muslim immigration was broached.
The panel took issue with some of the Senator’s sweeping statements about the globe’s second largest religion, which included “[Islam] disrespects women.”
Guest host Hamish Macdonald set the tone of the interview, posing the question many at odds with One Nation want answered.
“Senator, your party has said that we’re being ‘swamped by Muslims’. What does that mean? What are the numbers?”
Top Comments
Okay the project is poor journalism at the best of time - But the fact that you know have a senator openly attacking a presenter on it for his religion, demanding that he to "condemned" acts of terrorism he has nothing to do with less he be smeared by the senator is a disgrace. I do not recall high profile catholics including both the former and current Prime Minister's Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull being asked to condemn the child sex abuse scandal or be accused condoning it. One Nation is a stain on the Parliament and on the commonwealth of Australia.
Conservatism is shameful.
Whilst I would love to high-five the panel, they are meant to be impartial journalists and news presenters. They create one-nation supporters when they flout their professional obligations to present a fair representation. I switched off from Kochy years ago in anger at how he grilled interviewees based on his own personal beliefs. Journalists across our entire media sector, including on this site, need a refresher on the ethics governing their responsibilities for fair reporting. Leave the opinion-forming to us, just give us the facts please.
They generally were impartial until he made very serious slanderous remarks against their work colleague and friend.
There's a difference between being impartial and being placid - if a guest of any political persuasion comes onto the show and starts spouting random, mostly irrelevant nonsense, they should rip them apart, it's still impartial.
Not to mention there's a level of professionalism that's expected from their guests as well, a politician who has gained as much media attention as Roberts should not be allowed to make a statement as slanderous as he did on national television and get away with it.