It is extremely risky trying to fight defenceless defamation cases which Alan Jones and Fairfax Media shareholders are finding out now. 2GB radio announcer Alan Jones and the Fairfax Media owned 2GB are being sued for defamation in Brisbane by the Wagner family who are seeking $4.8 million in damages.

Mr Jones is being sued by the Wagner family, who claim they were defamed when the broadcaster implied they were responsible for the deaths of 12 people when one of their quarry walls collapsed during the Grantham floods in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley in 2011. (Click here to read more)

“and that they carried out “corruptive processes” to gain approval to build their Wellcamp airport in Toowoomba.” (Click here to read more)

Over the last few days Alan Jones has been in the witness stand and on Friday (18-5-18) he accused the Wagner family of bribing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce which is a bit rich given Jones himself has in the past taken bribes from Qantas and others.

Alan Jones has a long history of lying and deceiving his audience by taking bribes from large corporations in what was known as the “cash for comment scandal“.

Wikipedia says:

“The cash for comment affair was an Australian scandal that broke in 1999, concerning paid advertising in radio that is presented to the audience in such a way as to sound like editorial commentary.”

“In 1999, reporters Richard Ackland, Deborah Richards and Ann Connelly from the public broadcaster’s Media Watch TV program revealed that 2UE talk radio hosts John Laws and Alan Jones had been paid to give favourable comment to companies including Qantas, Optus, Foxtel, Mirvac and major Australian banks, without disclosing this arrangement to listeners. Prior to giving favourable commentary to a group of banks, Laws had repeatedly criticised them for imposing unjustified fees on customers while cutting back on services.”

“Though both initially vehemently denied any wrongdoing, when the controversy gained sufficient momentum, they defended the practice by claiming that they were not employed as journalists, but as “entertainers” and thus had no duty of disclosure or of journalistic integrity.” (Click here to read more)

It makes me wonder if Alan Jones motivation for accusing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce of taking bribes from the Wagner family is because Qantas is no longer bribing him. And if Jones continues with the claim he is not a journalist but an “entertainer” then he probably has no defence whatsoever in the Wagner matter.

Jones also has a history of using his radio show to defend criminals including former corrupt police officer and murder Roger Rogerson. (Click here to read more)

One of the biggest mistakes by Fairfax Media’s management was buying radio station 2GB with Alan Jones working there as he will end up costing them a fortune. Not only will they likely have to pay millions in compensation in the Wagner defamation case but also likely lose millions of dollars in advertising from Qantas.

Alan Jones and Qantas go back a long way

In 1988, only a matter of hours after getting off a Qantas plane in London, Alan Jones was arrested in a toilet for “Outraging Public Decency”.

Front page The Daily Mirror December 6, 1988

Alan Jones is the lowest of the low and Fairfax Media have known this for years

I wrote an article in May 2015 titled: “2GB’s Alan Jones sent love letters to a school boy. Why has he never been charged with grooming?” which started off:

Sydney radio station 2GB’s Alan Jones sent love letters to school boys, had boys in his room late at night and perved on them in the shower when he was a teacher at The King’s School in Sydney in the early 1970’s. This behaviour led to Alan Jones’ forced resignation in 1973.

That type of conduct would be considered grooming today and the police would be called for sure. And if it was anyone but Alan Jones the matter of the forced resignation by The King’s School would have been given a start at the current Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. (Click here to read more)

In June 2016 I wrote the below email to the Fairfax management, ABC Directors and the Minister Malcolm Turnbull and published it in an article.

From: SHANE DOWLING 
Sent: Friday, 24 June 2016 2:10 PM
To: ghywood@fairfaxmedia.com.au; ghambly@fairfaxmedia.com.au; bhatch@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Subject: Alan Jones being investigated by NSW Police for statutory rape of school boys in the 1980’s – media request

Dear Mr Hywood, Ms Hambly and Mr Hatch

I am a journalist and publish a website and have some questions for an article that I will publish on Saturday 25th June 2016 so it would be grateful if you could answer the questions today. The questions relate to Alan Jones who works for Fairfax Media as a radio announcer on Fairfax’s 2gb radio station.

1. Are you aware that the NSW Police are currently investigating Alan Jones, Fairfax Media and 2gb radio announcer, for statutory rape of school boys in the 1980’s?
2. Are you aware that Alan Jones is a known paedophile who groomed school boys when he was a teacher at The King’s School in Parramatta Sydney in the 1970’s?
3. Are you aware that documented evidence against Alan Jones for child grooming is well-known and freely available in the book Jonestown (2006) with extracts detailing the child grooming easily accessible on the internet including on Fairfax Media’s websites?
4. Are you aware that the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is currently investigating abuse at The King’s School which includes the time when Alan Jones was a teacher there?
5. Are you aware that Alan Jones is good friends with corrupt former police officers Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara who have both recently been convicted of the death of Jamie Gao?
6. Given the uncontested evidence and allegations against Alan Jones do you plan on sacking Alan Jones or at the very least standing him down from further duties until the NSW Police and Royal Commission have completed their investigations?

Can you please respond ASAP so I can publish your response in my article.

Regards

Shane Dowling

Email to the ABC Board of Directors (Click here to read)

Email to the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Click here to read)

I never received a response to the email although it must be noted that Fairfax did publish a story in 2017 suggesting that I should be jailed for standing up for free speech which might have been payback to some degree.

Alan Jones always hated Fairfax Media and when Fairfax Radio Network merged with 2GB’s owner John Singleton’s Macquarie Radio Network in December 2014 it was only a matter of time before Jones did untold damage to Fairfax’s reputation. But Fairfax’s management knew who and what Jones is and should have known better.

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