#steveprice

Dear Steve Price

It’s time for you to step down from your self-imposed Talkback throne and resign.

You have failed.

Last Monday night On Q & A you bullied your opinion onto journalist Van Badham. When you felt you were backed into a corner you used uneducated language and judgemental tones in an attempt to claw you way out. This is pathetic. This is just poor form.

Badham – “We can make jokes and it’s all jokes and oh yeah, they apologised and that’s fine but on the receiving end is the ludicrous proportion of women who do endure violence”.

Price – “I think you’re just being hysterical”.

You’ve already been made accountable in the media last week for those comments on the ABC. I don’t agree with your actions last Monday.  That is my opinion.  You are entitled to yours.

Yes, you’ve made an obvious career in forcing your right winged views across print and radio, and at times being a grumpy old bastard on TV.  Occasionally I’ve even laughed out loud when “Dorky Dad Steve” fumbled his way through understanding a Gen Y story on The Project. The tech world is not your area of expertise.

However, it was your response on The Project on the Tuesday night that infuriated me. You’re 61 years old and have spent over half of those years as a journalist and a broadcaster.  I’ve been in radio for 13 years. 7 of those years on air. In comparison, a fraction of your time in the media landscape.

This is what we need to address.

You’re an embarrassment to the radio and broadcast industry. The industry I have dedicated my career and my life too. The industry I believe in and one our listeners rely on. Daily. We are taught from the very beginning that we’re responsible for being the voice of the community and allowing the community to have a voice. This goes for anyone given the privilege to turn on a microphone or stand in front of a camera. You failed at both.

It is Radio 101. Interview with your ears, not your mouth.

Price – “The way I was ambushed last night was the producer said that question would be asked, (and) didn’t tell me that the person asking the question would be the victim of such horrific family violence”.

You’re telling me, your audience, the public that you are unable to adapt to the change in the conversation on Q & A?

Let’s be honest.  You couldn’t adjust to the tone of the conversation because it didn’t fit with your answer.  The answer you prepared hours earlier when you only had “some” of the information.  That’s selfish.  

You can be steadfast to an opinion, however, this cannot be at the mercy of your own arrogance and inability to be present in the moment.  A man had brutally lost his sister. Listen. Address the mood and the sympathy in the room.  Then add your opinion as an extension to the answer without detracting from the serious nature of the question.  Tarang Chawla added the Ice Challenge story as one example of the overall concern he has with addressing domestic violence in Australia.  You made the answer about Eddie McGuire and company. And when it all unravelled you decided to play the blame game.  You made it them against you. Us against you. You played the victim.

It was your clear need to get your pre prepared point across that revealed you as an unfit broadcaster. An unfit interviewer. An unfit voice for our community and its 2016 standards.  Perhaps age doesn’t mean experience.  Maybe, just maybe, we’ve outgrown you.

Please leave the keys at reception and show yourself out.