Kay Kennedy

I have watched The Project since it first started and when Carrie Bickmore and Charlie Pickering were the main hosts it was a great show. News delivered differently, as you proclaim. These days it seems to have a much darker attitude and last week's interview by Waleed Aly of our Prime Minister was an absolute disgrace. News delivered viciously if you ask me. I watched the interview, although I would think it more honest to call it and interrogation or attack, in a state of shock. Why was Waleed so angry? Does he have some personal agenda? I was wondering if my feelings about it were out of place so I was very pleased to read in Sunday's Telegraph three articles that were written about it and also shared the feelings I had. I totally agreed with the things that Peta Credlin said in her report such as "Waleed Aly is a propagandist, not a journalist. That much is abundantly clear from his aggressive, and insinuating, interview with the Prime Minister last Thursday night." Also "Whatever Scott Morrison's faults and mistakes may be, despite Aly's disdain, he was courteous, forbearing and decent." The article by Miranda Devine was also right on with the headline "PM walked straight into Aly's ambush". Piers Akerman's article regarding the massacre in Christchurch stated "To his credit, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison highlighted the disgraceful drive to conflate the shootings with widespread Islamophobia in Australia by sections of the Islamic community and the politically-correct media's go-to-commentator Waleed Aly. In an editorial on Ten's The Project last week, Aly cited a 2011 report from the Sydney Morning Herald which falsely claimed Mr Morrison had urged colleagues in shadow cabinet to capitalise on growing community concerns about "Muslim immigration". Aly, who claims it is offensive to be labelled a "moderate" Muslim, has a dishonourable history of downplaying the threat of Islamist terrorism, notoriously declaring after the 2013 Boston marathon bombing the need for "pragmatic recognition that terrorism is a perpetual irritant" and that terrorists "kill relatively few people". That would be little comfort to the families of the 50 killed nine days ago in Christchurch." It seems many people were offended by Waleed's attitude to the PM in this "interview". He talked over the PM constantly and did not give him opportunity to even answer the questions. I hope many people read those articles from the Sunday Telegraph, especially Waleed himself. I don't think Waleed is the right person to head the team on the Project. Bring back Charlie, or let Hamish take over permanently. I, for one, will certainly not be watching The Project on any night that Waleed takes part. I don't really want to stop watching altogether because I usually enjoy the show but if it can't go back to the warm and caring presentation it had when Carrie and Charlie were on, I prefer to give it a miss. I would love to see Waleed apologise the the Prime Minister, and possibly to the viewers for the unnecessary outburst of angry emotion he displayed.