2GB boss says Alan Jones detractors are ‘left wingers’ with ‘bugger all’ commitment
The CEO of Macquarie Radio Network has said the people who last year pressured advertisers to suspend business with the radio station because of comments by broadcaster Alan Jones were “hard-left wingers” who “didn’t have jobs” and had “bugger all commitment.”
Russell Tate made the comments on a Mumbrella360 panel discussion today while talking about the social media backlash to radio shock jock Alan Jones’s saying Julia Gillard’s father had “died of shame” in September last year on 2GB, which is owned by Macquarie Radio Network.
Tate said: “The first thing we did, and fortunately we were able to do it pretty quickly because we have access to the database, was to make sure Alan’s audience was okay. Because if they were going, it was going to be a serious problem.”“After we had that established, it wasn’t a big jump to make and come to the conclusion that pretty much all the people who were making all this noise never had, and probably never will, listened to 2GB. But that didn’t matter because they were still driving the advertisers who chose to talk to the audience of Alan Jones,” he said.
“They were mostly, you know, leaning hard-left wingers who probably listened to the ABC when they listened to anything and didn’t have a job – they seemed to be spending a lot of time on Facebook.”
The event saw the station pull advertising from the Alan Jones Breakfast Show for a number of weeks.
Tate said the backlash was like a “tsunami” and that while it took the station unawares, it faded away as quickly as it arose.
“Nobody was ready for what was a massive tsunami. The thing that stuck in my mind was how quickly this thing grew and they didn’t discriminate in the advertisers they targeted. Rightly or wrongly, we decided to just stop all advertising, which turned out to be the right thing to do. The thing about social media, is that while it can be a tidal wave in a second, it can equally die off, just like a normal wave. It thrives on momentum and if you take away the momentum, you can stop it because the commitment level is bugger all.”
This afternoon Destroy the Joint spokeswoman Jenna Price told Mumbrella: “(Tate) is talking about whether people are Alan Jones listeners, but the thing is advertisers are Alan Jones listeners, and they need to know that he is in line with community values.”
“What Destroy The Joint did was to get advertisers to concentrate on what Alan Jones was doing and the fact that they withdrew shows they didn’t like what he was saying,” said Price.
“It shows that what Alan Jones was saying wasn’t in line with their values.”
Cameron Boon
Obviously if you are offended by someone saying that our elected Prime Minister’s dead father died of shame over her policies, then clearly you must be a left-winger who listens to the ABC, smokes bongs and collects centrelink.
User ID not verified.
I’m not hard-left, I have a job and I’m 100% committed to my disapproval of Alan Jones. He is an unashamed twat.
User ID not verified.
‘we have access to the database’. Wow. Cutting edge. Is it in a filing cabinet?
In relation to commitment, I disagree. I think the ‘protestors’ were as committed as they needed to be to make a dent. And they did. A fairly substantial one in commercial terms. Did they get Jones off air? Of course not. But that was never going to happen.
User ID not verified.
If there were only left-wingers turning against Alan Jones and 2GB over his comments then the 2GB would not have noticed anyone was complaining. The problem Jones and 2GB had was it was everyone with a decent bone in their body who was revolted. What is disappointing is the number of people who have forgiven Jone for saying what should never have been said. But nobody has ever accused 2GB listeners of being big thinkers.
User ID not verified.
Hardly unexpected comments from the dinosaur media.
User ID not verified.
As the money keeps pouring into 2GB because of Jones’ and Hadley’s ratings it has become one of the few newsrooms that is not under financial pressure.
This is a problem for journalism in Australia. The home of the right wing rant is financially secure. This is the same newsroom that did not report on Alan’s comments on the Sunday morning after he made them.
User ID not verified.
And yet there are no Oz talkback radio stations catering to the “left-wing bugger all” audience. Odd that.
User ID not verified.
The radios of Alan Jones’s listeners – when they’ve got their hearing aids turned up and can hear, that is – are rusted on 2GB. Jones and Hadley can be counted upon to reinforce their white picket fences and happy little housewives view every day and in every way. Why would they ever turn the dial to find another point of view? They know it’s a big, bad, nasty world out there, full of shifty looking foreign types who think different stuff to them. Alan and Ray can be counted upon to keep these barbarians away from the castle gate – never mind that most of the audience will be dead of old age within ten years.
User ID not verified.
Ouch!!
Seems a few truth bullets have got the lefties, even those in denial (all of the above), all fired up today.
User ID not verified.
I find it amusing that the people that wine about Jones are always listening just in case they hear something, I am visiting Melbourne and to listen to the vanilla, nothing radio here! all is forgiven 2GB.
You may not like what Jones says, but it very difficult to disagree with 93% truth.
User ID not verified.
I think it’s time for another backlash.
User ID not verified.
Strange. Most of my friends would consider me to be somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan. But I still found his comments offensive. Elizabeth is right. And we all know what happened to the dinosaurs. Can’t happen fast enough!
User ID not verified.
A better example of daubing ones own mural I have never come across.
[quote] “The first thing we did, and fortunately we were able to do it pretty quickly because we have access to the database, was to make sure Alan’s audience was okay. Because if they were going, it was going to be a serious problem.” [unquote]
Yes, first check that the master hasn’t scuttled the ship, then go about painting the hull white.
Tate blabs away about the detractors, identifying them as “leaning hard-left wingers” and then supposes that they “probably” listen to ABC, if they listen to anything, before branding them jobless Facebook addicts.
Very much like an angry child who after announcing “you’re not my friend anymore” rears up like a Meerkat and demands of his/her companion “Get off our property”
I personally believe that there is much more human dignity in a CEO making an announcement of real purpose and humility in the light of one of his company having made such an uncouth and disrespectful comment.
User ID not verified.
I’m not a “hard-left winger” or a hard left whinger, but I am cheerfully employed & also on the board of two businesses, one of which is a community volunteer position. I do my best to make a contribution to society without being po-faced about it. It’s highly debatable as to whether Alan Jones, Ray Hadley or their enablers, could say the same from their noise-some,tawdry & divisive ivory tower.
User ID not verified.
I attended this session and I found his comments in general extremely backwards.
A highlight included, complaining he doesn’t get enough ad revenue because media buyers were all young, therefore had no connection to the station and ” had never even read a real newspaper”.
I wonder what will happen when their listeners die in the next decade?
User ID not verified.
why is it that my comment, the only one not completely slamming 2UE didn’t get through the moderation process when all these pinko lefties get to extol the view of the great unwashed?
User ID not verified.
I am still amazed hat Messrs. Jones and Hadley are paid significant salaries to be little more than bullies. Conversely,concerned elements of society are trying to eliminate bullying from schools and the workplace. Who is out of step?
User ID not verified.
I come from a liberal voting family, although I no longer vote liberal, because it has become too right wing, and was horrified by Jones’s comments. I am 99% sure that all of my Liberal family would have been horrified too, if they had have been around to hear it.
It really is such a common way to handle complaints, attack the complainer.
If he wants me to continue writing to Mr Jones’ advertisers asking them to refrain from advertising on his show, I am more than happy to do so.
User ID not verified.
Love @B’s comment above!!!
User ID not verified.
Easy to come across as a hard left winger, when 2GB is far over to the EXTREME right, topped of with a [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
User ID not verified.
Very easy for Russell Tate to stereotype the response to 2GB and Alan Jones, and try to avoid any self-scrutiny.
I am a professional, on a higher than average income. I believe that Alan Jones is a nasty and self-serving. 2GB by extension has shown that they too value profit above all else.
Grow some morals, Russell Tate.
User ID not verified.
I receive e mails from 2gb as a supporter….not any more….NO MORE e mails now accepted. I am 71…worked all my life, but have been brought up to respect any leader of a nation. Alan Jones is from the dickension times, or perhaps he [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] and is a well known woman hater….no more 2GB and no more Alan Jones…..rude, arrogant….and this from a so called [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] ….such disrespect from his boss…no wonder the radio station only appeals to the red necks.
User ID not verified.
What a [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] . Typical right winger. Head up his arse and oblivious of anything outside his local yacht club.
User ID not verified.
To all you X, Y Genners…I have one thing to say. Youth is wasted on the young. Only in a Western society would one find such disrespect for our Elderly. AJ speaks to an audience with real Life experiences and should more of them engage in Niagara Therapy, they will keep 2GB humming along for a further decade.
User ID not verified.
Obviously having empathy and being a decent human being is too hard for 2GB and their listeners. It is OK, as others have pointed out, I am young and can just wait for such hatred to be taken to the grave over the next couple of decades.
User ID not verified.
Hmmm, left wing … Yep (I think therefore I am), listen to ABC … yep, uncommitted … No. Unemployed … No (good job, 3 tertiary quals). This guy has his head in the sand & shows his lack of intelligence by trying to demean those who think differently to him. Lets do it again just to show him our committment – oh thats right. I do it everyday by STILL boycotting those advertisers.
User ID not verified.
Tate you are arrogant just like Jones and Hadley. DTJ followers are savvy, educated and fair-minded and that is why they will not tolerate such rubbish from the likes of 2GB talkback radio. The lack of backlash against Eddie McGuire for his racist comments suggests its time for another round of action from DTJ, as these sort of ignorant comments should not be tolerated in the media.
User ID not verified.
Yes, I must be a left winger unemployed ABC listener because I don’t like abusive and deliberately misleading radio. It’s a pity for Russell Tate to learn that I live in blue ribbon liberal electorate and earn a pretty good living.
He’s right that I don’t listen to 2GB and that I contacted the advertisers directly. NRMA insurance lost $6k from me alone after they failed to respond adequately. I’ve stopped buying from any of the advertisers on his show.
User ID not verified.
Is there anyone at 2GB who isn’t a twat ??
User ID not verified.
Am I sorry Mr Tate and Mr Jones for being one of those Australians disgusted by the types of comments Mr Jones makes, we’ll no I’m not.
I am employed, but that should not matter, I have a degree in education, but that should not be relevant either. Most importantly I am a mother and grandmother, now that IS important and fighting for a better future for them is why I reacted. Australia deserves much better than the sexist hate speech and factual inaccuracies dished up by Jones and his ilk
User ID not verified.
Those type just need to have some sort of justification for the “people” disagreeing with their opinions (which by the way are so very biased). I believe the campaign to get that self opinionated, ego centric maniac off the air ways was legitimate, too bad it didn’t work for good!
User ID not verified.
I am a hard working nurse, wife mother and grandmother. I have never taken welfare and always pay my taxes. I can see why 2GB is the way it is the decay goes all the way to the top.
User ID not verified.
Russell Tate clearly needs to denigrate those who do not share his station’s bottom of the barrel values. I am a self-employed company director, run three businesses, and am in the band of the “very well off” financially. Yet I consider Alan Jones’s comments about the Prime Minister’s father to be in extremely poor taste and personally affronting to any individual, not just a PM. His comments about women are not much better. And no, I never listen to 2GB unless its in a taxi and then I ask the driver to turn it off. So because of Russell’s bizarre values, his advertisers never get to sell to me.
User ID not verified.
Fortunately, AJ will shuffle off the mortal coil along with his audience, and none too soon
User ID not verified.
How would he know anything about anyone who has had the moral courage to take a stand against bullying, misogyny, bigotry and ignorance as displayed by someone who mishandles the responsible position his network has given him . I happen to vote Liberal from time to time, run my own business, and AM very committed… to the respectful and courteous treatment of others. What ARE the Board of Macquarie Radio Network thinking employing this guy and letting him voice more ill thought through opinions?
User ID not verified.
Aan Jones clearly hates sucessful women like the PM – he is basically just a nasty [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
User ID not verified.
Haha, what a knob. Full time, educated, not even a card carrying communist… and 100 percent committed to shunning any advertiser who supports Alan. He should be put out to pasture.
User ID not verified.
With reference to Mr Tate’s comments against we people who protested against Mr Jones’s disrespectful and shameful comments against our Prime Minister, on top of his abusive attitudes against anyone who disagreed with his views, I want to put on record, that yes I rarely listened to Mr Jones’s program and yes again I am an ABC listener and viewer, and yes my views could be consisted ‘Left Wing’. The reason for my views are in part could be summed up with the likes of Mr Jones and his cohorts such as Ray Hadley and their cohort. They espouse views of which they have very little or no evidence, their views and opinions are mostly shallow and every day they abuse their power as broadcaster. Their jobs are to rate their programs more highly than their competitors and, in doing so, attract as many advertisers in greater numbers than their competitors – In turn all they have to do is be a loud and ‘shocking’ as the regulators will allow them. It’s a very simply game plan actually.
User ID not verified.
Dear Mr Tate, comments like this reflect more about you and your attitude to the wonderful diversity in the Australian community. You have a right to your opinion as do your detractors. Perhaps it’s time you listened to the vast majority of Australians who find negative agendas distasteful regardless of political persuasion or corporate affiliation.
User ID not verified.
Tate is so last century…left wing indeed, perhaps he means they have a brain and don’t appreciate the world thinking we are a bunch of rude, racist illiterates.
User ID not verified.
It was such a lame, tame thing to say in the first place it is hard to imagine why anyone would be so upset about such a remark. But we all know the left wingers live by two sets of rules – one for themselves and another one for supporters of the right. All the moral indignation comes out if anyone on the right says anything at all- but if one of their own says something, no one says a word- just like the Labor MP who two weeks later called Tony Abbott a “douchebag” and Julie Bishop “a bimbo etc” .. but that’s ok. As for poot ol Richard here, who says the left doesn’t get a gurnsey on the media – he seems to forget good ol Auntie ABC who is so left these days it hardly matters.
User ID not verified.
What sort of person would support a man who called an entire race of immigrants to Australia “vermin”, who was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and violence (quote: get down to Cronulla for Leb and wog bashing day), has faced numerous defamation and contempt of court cases, has regularly breached radio standards, and been charged with committing an indecent act in a public toilet?
I suppose someone whose livelihood depends on that person.
User ID not verified.
They got a good shake up when their sponsors dumped them. Alan Jones days of political power are over. The public won on this one, it was a landmark victory, thanks to social media the shock jocks are now forced to listen to public opinion. This guy is living in the past if he believes his own rhetoric. It’s over.
User ID not verified.
Jones and Tate, what can you say about these 2 gentlemen, maybe that’s not the right word for them…. Think about that one…..any decent person would have put Jones out on his ++++ , but no Tate just let’s him prance around with that silly tongue hanging out, I keep thinking he needs a drink of water !!!!, what a horrible sight. The show has got no intelligence whatsoever, and the statement he made about a women and her father oh so bad !! Anyway the real problem is the people who are paying this village idiot there is the problem, thanking you for my time…….
User ID not verified.
Well Alan I think [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] , or have you just forgotten how to to do it……lol
User ID not verified.
Within ten years China will have taken over Australia. The first ones [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
User ID not verified.