Chris Kenny has accused ABC Media Watch host Paul Barry of employing ‘disgusting smears’ by ‘insinuating’ the Sky News host has criticised US presidential candidate Kamala Harris because she is a woman of Indian heritage.

Kenny used his show to return fire at Barry, who took aim at Sky News presenters on Monday night over their negative coverage of Ms Harris after she took over as the Democrat candidate for the upcoming US election when President Joe Biden stood aside.

‘He deliberately leaves that odious suggestion (that Kenny and other News Corp commentators target Ms Harris because of her gender and ethnicity) out there,’ Kenny fumed on Tuesday night.

‘As the daughter of an Indian immigrant, Kamala Harris shares not just the gender but a significant part of her ethnic heritage with my wife and therefore my two children, so Barry ought to be ashamed of his smears.’

‘But he won’t be, he takes a salary from taxpayers, taxpayers like you and I, and he uses it to run an ideological program, that attempts to demonize those who disagree with him.

‘You thought it was your ABC, they think it’s their ABC but for Paul Barry, well he runs amok like it’s his ABC, because nobody is in charge over there.’

Kenny is married to Sydney lawyer Sunita Kenny and the couple have two sons.

On this week’s episode of Media Watch, Barry accused Kenny of following the lead of Republican contender Donald Trump by painting Ms Harris as ‘crazy, cackling Kamala’, ignoring her record as a prosecutor and attorney-general in California.

Sky News host Chris Kenny has hit back at what he labelled ‘disgusting smears’ made against him by Media Watch host Paul Barry

On Media Watch, Paul Barry speculated that Sky News commentators were getting their cues from Donald Trump

Kenny returned serve to accuse Barry of being ‘deliberately deceptive’ by ‘selectively’ using clips to create create misleading impressions.

‘Paul Barry is supposed to be an objective observer but he just uses the weekly program to promote his green left political causes and slam his perceived ideological enemies at News Corp and especially here at Sky News,’ Kenny said.

‘He does it every week and to start with in this latest piece of publicly funded fake news he pretended people like me were taking our cues to criticize Harris now from Donald Trump or from Fox News.

‘When in fact Barry must know, because he and his team watch us closely, they must know that plenty of us have criticized Harris for four years since she was first chosen by Joe Biden.’

Kenny played old clips of him criticising Ms Harris and saying she was picked on ‘identity grounds’ and backed this contention up by showing clips of Mr Biden saying how inspiring Ms Harris would be to ‘little black and brown girls’.

‘Paul Barry seems to recognize Harris as an identity pick but he verbals others doing the same,’ Kenny said.

He played a clip from Media Watch where Barry said  ‘before choosing Harris to be his running mate Joe Biden said he would pick a woman and would prefer a person of color cue Chris Kenny on Sky to imply that is her only qualification.

Kenny said while he maintained Ms Harris was a diversity pick, what Barry failed to mention were the numerous criticisms he had made of her behaviour and performance as vice president.

The Sky News host accused Barry and the ABC of ‘censoring’ the failures and awkward inappropriate giggling that Ms Harris used to disguise her lack of substance.

‘The ABC have censored all these (embarrassing incidents) over the years, just like they also failed to show their viewers the inane set piece speeches from the vice president,’ he said.

Kenny and Barry were in war of words over the way Sky News has portrayed Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris

Kenny claimed that the ABC was running protection for Ms Harris and ‘riding shotgun for her’.

‘We all know how dishonest this leftist media is because they all tried to hide the feebleness of Joe Biden,’ Kenny said.

‘They either didn’t show you his brain fades and embarrassing episodes, they deliberately censored them or they made excuses for them.’

‘Just as they ran protection for President Joe Biden they’re now running protection for Kamala Harris.