By Situation Theatre 4/9/2018
Host of Jones and Co on Sky News, who has a long history of racial slurs, finally given a chance to share fresh insights about woodpiles on a TV show with an audience of more than 12 people.
When German sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas dreamed of a deliberative democracy in which those in the public sphere could participate in ideal speech situations and reach a rational consensus, he couldn’t have guessed that would live to see his dreams come true on Q&A in 2018.
Within eight days the popular panel show has featured Pauline Hanson, who called for a ban on Muslim immigration, Bob Katter, who defended Fraser Anning’s comments about a final solution to the immigration problem, George Christensen, who gave an interview to a white supremacist podcast, and Alan Jones, who repeatedly invokes the most racist language imaginable.
The show’s producers defend the choice of guests by talking about balance, which is fair enough because I distinctly remember all those panels balancing out the plethora of far-right voices with an abundance of anarcho-syndicalist panellists.
Ever reliable for his insights into sexual politics, Jones offered some sage advice on last night's episode to female Liberal MPs experiencing bullying:
“I would recommend some of them saying they’re being bullied – they need to take a teaspoon of cement and toughen up.”
That was very much this squealer's approach when he threatened to sue journalist Chris Masters, arguing that descriptions of the 2GB presenter's homosexuality in the biography Jonestown were defamatory.
Masters’ book was released in 2006 not 1956, when according to legal experts “to say someone is homosexual would not cause reasonable people to think less of that person, and that is the test as to whether something is defamatory”, so the author didn't have much of a case to answer.
Unfortunately for the tinpot political commentator, many in the community, unlike Jones, are reasonable.