There has been a torrent of words about Alan Jones since police arrested the one-time Liberal kingmaker and broadcaster in his apartment overlooking Sydney Harbour 48 hours ago and charged him with sex offences dating back decades.
Much has been said of Jones’ rule-by-fear approach. A wider reckoning now awaits those who went along with the ride.
Jones looked shell-shocked as he was taken from his palace to the police station. It was a monumental reversal of fortune for a man who for years has been spitting vitriol against his enemies via the biggest media pulpits in the land. Jones developed his shrill, venomous act on Sydney commercial radio where he became beloved of advertising guru John Singleton and the gang. He had a regular spot on Channel Ten. Channel Nine’s Today followed. He had a column in The Daily Telegraph and his own show on Sky News.
Jones was famously inexhaustible and he was everywhere, including — shamefully — the ABC, which gave him a slot on its prime Monday night program Q+A.
Fair — and foul
Investigative journalist Chris Masters, author of Jonestown, wondered yesterday about what those who supported Jones must be thinking. The question is particularly pointed for the national broadcaster which gave him the kind of cachet he could never get from commercial radio and television, no matter how large the fortune he amassed.
It’s important to stress here that this has nothing to do with the charges Jones faces and which we can’t canvass for risk of prejudicing a fair trial.
The ABC’s embrace of Jones was particularly egregious because it was its Media Watch which had revealed Jones’ practice of using his 2UE radio program to spruik for major Australian brands such as Qantas and Telstra without telling his listeners he was being paid millions of dollars by those companies. The cash-for-comment scandal (which also engulfed arch-rival John Laws) demonstrated Jones’ deep ethical void when it came to public affairs. How could a listener trust him if they didn’t know who was paying him?
Despite this — and a host of other incendiary Jones’ attacks, particularly on female political leaders Jullia Gillard and Jacinda Ardern — the ABC persisted in giving Jones one of its most valuable platforms. Here he was free to pontificate on his range of conservative hobby horses, including an “Oh my god” moment in 2019 as Jones held forth on climate change.
Damaged goods
The ABC’s sin was to give Jones a chunk of its credibility. It succeeded only in damaging its own product.
As recently as 18 months ago on the ABC’s website, Q+A lauded Jones as “one of Australia’s most influential broadcasters”, who “formerly hosted the number one breakfast radio program in Australia for more than 30 years”. The gush continued (notwithstanding what the ABC knew of Jones better than anyone):
“He is regarded as one of the most successful Wallabies coaches, leading the Australian national team to 89 victories in 103 matches, including a European Grand Slam.”
The ABC’s embrace of Jones via Q+A has not occurred in isolation. It has been part of a wider strategy for dealing with relentless attacks from conservatives in the government and the media. If you invite the enemy into the room, the thinking goes, then that would neutralise the hostility — a version of late US president LBJ’s famous dictum: “Better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
The problem for the ABC though is that its enemies keep pissing all over the ABC tent, no matter how many times they’ve been invited in and shared tea and biscuits in the green room.
Alan Jones is now 83 and walks with the aid of a stick. His power is gone. He may yet be cleared of the charges against him. That’s now up to the courts. But whatever the verdict, the ABC should seriously reconsider its judgment on how it deals with conservative enemies, with Jones is exhibit number one.
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In defense of the ABC you have to remember that for some time, especially during the Howard era and the the subsequent Abott-Turnbull-Morrison debacle the ABC board has been overtaken by conservative right-wing plants to stymie the unpalatable left-wing liberalism of the ABC of the 70’s. And I can’t say that the current incumbent into the chair at the Board of the ABC is, so far, much of an improvement.