Democracy: It has its downsides - Alan Jones is One of Them

Democracy is a wonderful thing. It allows people to live their lives as they want to live them. It provides opportunities for those that want to partake of them. It gives people the ability to be who and what they want to be. It provides the foundations for freedom and generally paints a picture full of hope and prospect.

As with everything in life, there is always two sides to the one coin and democracy is no different. It comes with responsibilities, at the individual and group level. Responsibilities such as the need to consider others, the need to treat people fairly, the need to ensure individual freedom and the need to improve the society that we live in.

Enter Alan Jones with his latest rant that truly goes beyond belief. Mr. Jones is obviously a lonely chap for unless he is at the center of the news, unless he is the focus of attention, be it negative or positive, he is not happy. And so it comes to pass that as a 'shock jock' the only thing to do is to constantly come up with raves and rants with the only intention of drawing attention to the one most important person in Sydney - HIMSELF.

His latest murmurings re-appeared on page 10 of this morning's Sydney Morning Herald where he is now attempting to connect the unfortunate bombings in Boston - where Mr. Jones, people actually died and were maimed for life - with student activism and accordingly we in Australia need to be ever vigilant as to the students that we bring into this country. What a complete load of diatribe. I suggest that we start drawing conclusions now as to the Boston culprits and in that manner we can get ahead of the truth - remember what the truth is Mr. Jones?

Alan Jones is, and never has been interested in the truth. He has always, and forever will be, interested in the headlines and him being on them, or part of them.

I seem to recall when living in Melbourne back in the 80's that the Alan Jones road show came to town and he succeeded in getting a television version of his talk-show on one of the commercial channels. Thankfully it failed, quite quickly after first launching. He left town and was never heard from again. And that's the beauty of democracy. In Melbourne, people voted with their feet and realised what Mr. Jones actually stood for and what his central focus was.

So democracy does work and works quite well. For some reason, New South Welshman and their Qld counterparts still actively listen and encourage Mr. Jones - and so it is we continue to put up with the 'shock jocks" of his ilk. It is well known that Mr. Jones is a protected species in this State, but why?

So back to democracy. It is a great system and our country and many like us has prospered as a result. But as I said, their are individual responsibilities regarding those things that Mr. Jones loves to ignore - because it gets him headlines. Maybe we should do what the Victorians did so successfully many years ago - ignore him and he may eventually go away.

In the interim, how about we continue to support the US in their hour of despair, wait for the outcome of their investigations and not point fingers where they should not be pointed just for a story. The letters to the editor on page 18 of the SMH sum it up quite well regarding Alan Jones' comments. So lets all enjoy the fruits of democracy and put Alan's selfish, egocentric and totally illogical views where they belong - in the waste.

The Alan Jones Debacle– What responsibilities do we all share as intelligent people?

There are a number of issues in this sad and sorry tale that disappoint me in the context of seeing myself as a reasonably intelligent Australian.

Firstly, there is the ridiculous notion expressed by Alan Jones that if he was aware of the fact that the event he was speaking at was not private, he would have not made the comments that he had made. At the same time he indicates that his 58 minute tirade was unscripted and unplanned and entirely off the cuff. On that basis how does he now indicate what he would have planned to say or not? 

Everyone knows what he thinks of the ALP and its leadership. He has expressed this openly for the last 2 years and used similar language in different contexts throughout that period.

This leads me to the second issue. Alan Jones is a very intelligent man and has maneuvered his way around public life for many a decade. He knows what to say and when to say it. As a very effective opportunist, he knows when to strike and when to pull back – swordsmanship is his forte. The time-frame hear was exquisite. Make the comment, feel the temperature and then quickly apologise. As evidence of this approach, see the amount of airtime this has and will get over the next few days and beyond. And what does that add up to? – AUDIENCE. And what does audience add up to? – RATINGS. And what do ratings add up to? – ADVERTISING DOLLARS. Even his apology was actually designed to add fuel rather than to portray a meaningful heartfelt apology from a man who knew exactly what he was saying, where he was saying it and why he was saying it. The apology was qualified (as all superficial apologies are!)

This leads me to the third issue. As intelligent people what do we do? Not listen to his radio rants? Ignore his radio station? Don’t give him oxygen? Don’t advertise on his station? Reject the shock-jock approach to public discourse? 

All Australians, especially in New South Wales (as Alan appears to have less of a following in other Australian States) need to have a serious look at themselves with regard this issue. The death of a parent is not an avenue for political advantage. We should ALL denigrate this. It is un-Australian and not in the public interest. Everyone should be speaking out and putting an end to this ongoing, unintelligent garbage that appears on our public airwaves and perpetrated by shock-jocks who rely on such public opportunities to pursue their own very self-centered interests.

All leaders in this country, political, commercial and religious need to support a return to values based discourse – unless, it is of course, in their interests not to, for whatever reasons they may have!