Beloved author slams Carrie Bickmore for “schoolyard bullying”
New Zealand author and poet Jessica Urlichs has voiced her extreme displeasure with Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little for her radio program "Carrie & Tommy", claiming that she experienced what amounted to "schoolyard bullying" during a recent segment.
Bickmore read one of Urlichs’ poems on air recently while speaking to her co-host, Tommy Little. Urlichs, who has nearly half-a-million followers on Instagram, felt that her work was shamefully mocked during the broadcast.
"I don’t have any words left to truly articulate the schoolyard bullying you displayed in your recent segment across multiple radio stations," Urlichs wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday.
She continued, "You used my heartfelt poem (without permission) as your very weak punchline. Your co-host wasn’t allowing a voice for post-partum women, nor you for that matter, and as a woman who was once post-partum it was very disappointing to see you reduce yourself to his childlike behaviour on such an important topic."
In her caption, Urlichs explained she wrote the poem for herself and for mothers who might be offended by the radio segment. She also mentioned that her requests to have the content removed had been ignored.
During the radio segment, Bickmore explained to Little that the poems, written from the perspective of a baby to its mother, frequently appeared in her social media feed. Little responded with skepticism and humour, questioning the premise that a baby could write such a poem.
Bickmore defended the work, identifying Urlichs as the author and stressing the poem's emotional significance for mothers dealing with sleepless nights. Despite this, Little continued to mock the poem, suggesting it was written by a middle-aged man pretending to be a baby.
The segment continued with Bickmore reading the poem aloud, accompanied by background music, while Little laughed and interjected. This tone persisted throughout the reading, leading to further comments from Little that questioned the poem's authenticity and meaning.
Following the broadcast, a video clip of the segment was posted on Instagram, where Urlichs expressed her disappointment in the comments. "If you’d asked for my permission to post this and I’d seen how it was mocked throughout I would have said no," she wrote on the post that has now been removed. She added that while she appreciates people sharing her work to support other mothers, she felt her writing was treated as a punchline in this instance.
The full text of the remarkable poem can be read below.