Saturday 6 August 2022 11:10 PM Neil Mitchell calls Steve Price 'irrelevant' after The Project host joins Eddie ... trends now
Melbourne's airwaves have erupted in an unusually brutal war of words, with some of its biggest radio and television stars hurling savage insults at each other.
In the latest salvo, top-rating 3AW morning presenter Neil Mitchell has labelled The Project panellist Steve Price an 'irrelevant' self-promoter for trying to capitalise on a stoush between him and Eddie McGuire.
'I really think it's just him trying to insert himself into something to get some attention,' Mitchell told Daily Mail Australia.
Mitchell then apologised to Melbourne for giving Price a start on radio in the late 1980s when the pair left the city's now defunct afternoon newspaper The Herald.
Those barbs follow Price describing Mitchell as 'pompous', Mitchell calling McGuire 'a nasty bastard' and McGuire accusing Mitchell of being a liar.
Melbourne's top-rating morning breakfast host Neil Mitchell has called The Project presenter Steve Price 'irrelevant' and accused him of trying to capitalise on a stoush between him and Eddie McGuire. Price is pictured with former partner Kim Dennis in 2019
Neil Mitchell (above) recently called Eddie McGuire a 'nasty bastard' when they clashed on Mitchell's 3AW program about the mental health of Collingwood football Jordan De Goey. Steve Price followed that by calling Mitchell 'pompous' and 'self-righteous'
Mitchell has now also accused McGuire of having a 'glass jaw' and described Sky News presenter and Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt as 'boring'.
Mitchell and McGuire have been sparring for years but the 3AW star said in a broadcast on June 23 the Millionaire Hot Seat presenter had 'crossed the line'.
A day earlier, Mitchell had blasted Collingwood footballer Jordan De Goey after footage emerged of the 26-year-old cavorting with a young female friend while on a mid-season break in Bali.
De Goey tried to link his behaviour to being diagnosed with ADHD after copping a $25,000 suspended fine.
'Does ADHD turn you into a misogynistic, anti-social Bali boofhead?' Mitchell asked on his program.
Mitchell and McGuire have been sparring for years but the 3AW star said in a broadcast on June 23 the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presenter had 'crossed the line'. He accused McGuire of having a 'glass jaw' and blurring the lines 'between journalist and participant'
McGuire, who was president of Collingwood from 1998 to 2021, hit back at Mitchell on his Channel 9 show Footy Classified that night, saying he had 'made a mockery' of De Goey's ADHD diagnosis.
The next morning the former Triple M host appeared on Mitchell's program and two of Melbourne's best-known media figures engaged in a protracted verbal brawl.
Mitchell had begun his show by stating he would not be lectured about controversial remarks by a person with a track record like McGuire's.
'Remember this is the same Eddie who called Adam Goodes "King Kong" and wanted to drown [AFL writer] Caroline Wilson at the Big Freeze,' he told his audience.
McGuire, who has repeatedly apologised for both those comments, fired back that Mitchell had driven people to 'very dark places' but would not elaborate on that slur.
In a fiery 20-minute clash Mitchell denied he had been mocking a person with mental health issues and took umbrage at McGuire calling him a liar.
Mitchell had blasted Collingwood's Jordan De Goey after footage emerged of the 26-year-old cavorting with a young female friend on a mid-season break in Bali (above). De Goey tried to link his behaviour to being diagnosed with ADHD after copping a $25,000 suspended fine
McGuire, 57, had alleged Mitchell invited him on his show under false pretences and suggested he was out of touch with the TikTok generation 'as a 70-year-old person'.
Mitchell responded: 'Geez you're a nasty bastard sometimes. You really are.'
Price penned a piece for the Herald Sun the next day in which he called Mitchell 'the pompous self-righteous and self-appointed judge and jury of what's right and wrong about Melbourne.'
The 67-year-old claimed Mitchell and McGuire 'don't like each other and never really have' and it was 'a bit rich' for the former to call the latter a nasty bastard.
When Daily Mail Australia put Price's comments to Mitchell he described him as 'somebody who's irrelevant trying to insert themselves into a relevant debate.'
'What the hell's it got to do with Steve?' he said. 'He's tyring to use what happened between Eddie and myself to promote himself.
'I don't worry about that. I don't take it seriously. I'll admit to being pompous at times, but by geez to be lectured about those attributes by Steve is a bit rich.'
Mitchell, McGuire and Price go back decades, having all worked at The Herald when Mitchell was editor, Price chief-of-staff and McGuire a young sports reporter.
'I know Steve very well and I apologise to the people of Melbourne for imposing him on them,' Mitchell said.
'He was chief-of-staff at the Herald when I was editor and I brought him across to radio.
'As many people around the business often say to me whenever Steve goes off, "It's your fault, you know" and I plead guilty, it is my fault. I should have left him there.'
Mitchell, McGuire and Price go back decades, having all worked at The Herald when Mitchell was editor, Price chief-of-staff and McGuire a young sports reporter. Mitchell (left) took Price (right) with him to 3AW where he became his producer and later program director
In his column, Price also stated Mitchell was the best editor he had ever worked for and Mitchell partly returned the compliment.
'Look, you know, Steven was a very good producer and at times he was a very good program director as well but this sort of stuff is just nonsense from him,' he said.
Mitchell said he had not spoken to Price, who as well as appearing on The Project hosts a national morning radio program on the LiSTNER app, for 'ages'.
'I have opinions and I express them and I assume Steve does as well -
