The Project slammed over ‘disgraceful’ segment

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THE Project has been slammed on social media after a “disgraceful” segment saw the show’s hosts mock the way a man spoke.

On Monday night’s episode of The Project, Tommy Little introduced a sound bite of mining CEO Geoff Summers speaking in Tasmania.

“First I want you to have a look at him right? Here’s a picture, he’s tough, I reckon he looks rich, he looks mean and he’s a miner, that’s the information we know about,” the comedian explained as an image of Mr Summers was shown on screen.

“He’s a man’s man, talking about the mines,” guest panellist Rove McManus quipped in a mock deep voice.

“So see if this is how you were expecting him to sound,” Little said, before playing a clip of Mr Summers speaking to workers.

After the segment played amid laughter from the studio audience, Little joked that Mr Summers “sounds like the first mining minor”.

“Hey question — were they mining for helium?” McManus added.

But while their remarks were meant to be lighthearted, the segment didn’t sit well with viewers who took to Twitter and The Project’s Facebook page to accuse Little of “bullying” and the show of having “double standards”.

“Really poor form making fun of a person’s voice … wasn’t it only last week you were talking about bullying? Practice what you preach,” one person wrote on Facebook.

“The Project is supposed to stand for good news. The snippet of the miner where you made fun of his voice was not nice at all and you should say sorry. Very disappointing,” another commented.