Much as it pains me to say so, I'm with Steve Price on this one.
For those who missed it, he was shouted down by a fellow panellist on The Project last Wednesday night, and it was an utterly unedifying spectacle that has prompted a massive outpouring of support on social media. At time of writing, a petition on change.org, demanding an apology, has attracted nearly 30,000 signatories.
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Steve Price clashes with Jamila Rizvi
Steve Price goes head to head with Jamila Rizvi as the world reels from Donald Trump's shock presidential win. Courtesy The Project, 6.30pm weekdays on Ten.
You might say guest panellist Jamila Rizvi was "womansplaining" - if it weren't such a sexist term - when she leapt on Price's claim that the US election result showed there was a disconnect between Washington insiders and "the real America". "All America is real," she helpfully pointed out, thus blithely denying a point that has been made repeatedly by commentators on the left and right alike since the shock result last week.
You may also suggest Rizvi was attempting to shut Price out of the conversation when she insisted "the question, I believe, was to me", given that there had in fact been no question at all, only the sharing of some statistics about how women in America had voted.
You might conclude, too, that Carrie Bickmore was playing to the gallery, which oohed and aahed as Price claimed "This is the reason why Donald Trump won – because people like you lecture and hector people".
"We were talking to Jamila," host Bickmore said, "and you don't need to keep that tone".
It pains me to say I'm with Price on this one because, like so many in the media, he makes his living by talking over or talking down to others. It pains me because it casts him as the victim. It pains me because so much (though by no means all) of the sympathy and protest the moment has generated is purely opportunistic.
Never mind that Price doesn't want anyone's sympathy, telling The Project viewers: "I don't feel I was bullied at all. No one on The Project owes me an apology for anything. I'm a big boy and I can look after myself."
Above all, it pains me because this silly little blow-up feeds the lie that there is a left-wing elite dominating this country's media.
That is utter rubbish, so easily debunked by an examination of who controls what in our media, or of which voices ring loudest, clearest and furthest. You can number Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and Steve Price among the absolute top tier, and their paymasters at News Corp and Macquarie and, yes, even Fairfax with them.
If there is a media elite in this country, it is avowedly right-wing. But performances such as this one allow it to seem otherwise. They allow opponents of what is cack-handedly referred to as "political correctness" to swiftly and effectively mobilise against an ideological straw man that would surely blow over at the onset of the slightest gust of scrutiny.
Moments such as this feed the campaign against section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. That's a law designed to protect the vulnerable from being made to feel even more so, though its opponents want you to believe it is a blight on democracy and free speech. Never mind that those opponents invariably have deep pockets and access to the sort of lawyers the vulnerable could only dream of.
Moments such as this feed the perception that to speak out against an ideologically pure line is to risk being burnt at the stake of public opprobrium. The sight of a cowed and soft-spoken Price being told to watch "that tone" while his attackers rounded on him with all the tolerance of an enraged mob was almost enough to convince me breaking ranks really is to take that risk. He must have been rubbing his hands in glee even as it was happening.
In the past few days, a video featuring English television reporter Jonathan Pie has gone viral. In it, he delivers an apparently off-the-cuff rant on the topic of who is really to blame for the election of Donald Trump. The answer? The Left.
Pie identifies the unwillingness of "people like me" (that is, him) to listen to opposing views, the belief that shutting down a debate is the same as winning it, the intolerance of the intolerant as factors in the shock result.
He suggests the pollsters got it so dreadfully wrong because people now felt afraid to voice their true opinions lest they be shouted down. Instead, they only let their true thoughts be known in the ballot box.
Convincing as the rant is, it shouldn't be taken at face value. Pie is a construct, the creation of English comedian Tom Walker. He has in the past worked with the Russian-owned media organisation RT (though this video appears to have been produced independently). His motivations are unclear.
Nonetheless, there's something worth thinking about in what he says. They may be unpleasant truths, they may not be true at all, but if we're to learn anything from the fiasco of the US election, our ears must stay open.
Even, though it pains me to say it, to the likes of Steve Price.
Karl Quinn is on facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on twitter @karlkwin
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