Alan Jones, 2GB and 4BC ordered to pay $3.4m in damages as defamation case concludes
Alan Jones, 2GB and 4BC have been ordered to pay $3.4m in damages plus interest, to the four Wagner brothers he suggested were responsible for the deaths of 12 people.
The Supreme Court of Queensland found broadcaster Jones, who operates on radio stations Sydney’s 2GB and Brisbane’s 4BC, defamed the Wagner family in a series of radio broadcasts between 2014 and 2015.
Jones lost the defamation case this morning
The Toowoomba-based Wagner family launched legal action against Jones and journalist Nick Cater, after Jones suggested the family was responsible for the deaths of 12 people in the 2011 Grantham floods, when a quarry wall owned by the family collapsed.
“The Supreme Court of Queensland has determined that the plaintiffs – Denis, John, Neill and Joe Wagner – have succeeded in their claims for damages for defamation against 2GB, 4BC and Alan Jones,” the court said today.
Supreme Court of QLD found that Wagner brothers have succeeded in their defamation claim against Alan Jones, 2GB, and 4BC . Awarded a total of $3.754m. Read summary and judgment here, https://t.co/zze75fWRnn
— Supreme Court of QLD (@SupremeCourtQLD) September 11, 2018
The court ruled that between October 28, 2014, and August 20, 2015, Jones has published 30 broadcasts, of which 27 can conveyed 76 defamatory imputations relating to the plaintiffs. It described the imputations as “extremely serious” and “of the gravest kind”.
“In the result, Mr Jones, 2GB and 4BC have failed to establish any defence to the defamatory matters published,” a summary said.
The Court has awarded each brother $750,000 worth of damages, plus $78,102.74 in interest, in relation to 27 matters concerning 2GB and Jones. In relation to the two matters concerning Jones and 4BC, the court awarded each brother damages in the sum of $100,000, with interest of $10,643.84.
“Mr Jones, 2GB and 4BC are permanently restrained from publishing or causing to be published any of the matters complained of,” the summary said.
Claims against journalist Cater have been dismissed: “Mr Cater was interviewed by Mr Jones on Radio 2GB on 17 March 2015 (the Eleventh Matter). Neither by his own words nor by his conduct did Mr Cater seek to conduce Mr Jones to convey the defamatory imputation that each plaintiff caused the deaths of 12 people by constructing a massive wall at his quarry that collapsed under the weight of water, causing the 2011 Grantham flood.”
In this year’s financial results, Macquarie Media had left $3m worth of provisions aside for claims, relating to potential liabilities for defamation settlements. The provisions were made with counsel’s opinion and extensive legal advice.
In August this year, Jones came under fire for using the word, ‘n-word’ on air. At the time, CEO of Macquarie Media Adam Lang said Jones was not a liability.
Mumbrella has approached Macquarie Media for comment.
Just out of interest, with Radio Shock Jocks, do the employers factor in defamation in the expected costs?
Also does the panic button not work anymore? Is that still a thing?
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The sad thing is very few people have the money to pursue him (and the rest of them) like this. If only we had a media watchdog…..
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He probably called them the N word too. It’s the kind of thing he does.
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Alan Jones is a racist [edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] .
It is a disgraceful reflection of Australian culture that he has been allowed to continue in broadcasting.
(The above verdict, combined with all his previous convictions, should this comment safe to publish).
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If only politicians could sue him for defamation – Malcolm could make an extra few million.
And Julia would be one of the richest people in Australia.
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Alan goes hard every day.
The bloke helps more people in this country than any other commentator and occasionally, out of passion or a sense of injustice, he goes too hard.
Bravo Al, keep turning up and giving it too them!
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Seriously?
We can’t call him “corrupt” or a “liar” despite his unspent convictions for both charges?
What does a defamation conviction make him if not a liar?
Have some guts and/or check your media law books.
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Help based on self-interest more likely. Seems you have fallen for the pea and thimble trick.
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The judge observed that it was rare for a defendant in defamation to offer no factual or expert defence. Jones offered none. Not even a vague suggestion of a defence of truth. Rather, he alleged that the plaintiffs were greedy in seeking damages.
There was a time when any employee of Fairfax who so gravely misused his or her role would be sacked. But not in Greg Hywood’s Fairfax. This sort of garbage will be the Hywood legacy.
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Next step, Australian Taxpayers should sue 2GB for the cost of a federal election. It is not in the interest of taxpayers for media to abuse their power and initiate the unseating of an elected PM. What is the cost, about 260 million? They must now share that burden with Syke News and refund us, taxpayers.
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Why is Jones feared by so many in public life, be they useless politicians, money bags bizoids, or Z grade celebs etc? Less than one percent of the Australian population bothers to listen to his same old rantings and the vast majority of them are waiting around to die geriatrics or far right hillbillies. Indeed, the Australian media is over-run with endless insufferable rent-a-quotes, be they rightest ravers like Jones or leftist bores like Peter “does my head look stupid in this red bandana?’ Fitzsimons. Isn’t there anybody out there who can look at an issue from however many sides and give a balanced view on it? No? Oh, that’s right it’s all about creating a reaction – any reaction, the more outrage it creates the better. Boring.
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Why do the media keep calling Alan Jones/ Ray Hadley etc “shock jocks”? Kyle Sandilands is a shock jock. So is Howard Stern. Jones is a commentator or presenter.
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The Guy is a highly paid bully and a bigot – and all the more dangerous because he has a high profile pulpit from which to spread his poison (although I agree with @zumabeach that his influence is completely disproportionate to his actual audience, which is tiny in the grand scheme of things). Bullies thrive if they’re not stood up to, and until now he has been able to rely on the fact that most people don’t have the means to take it to him in a way that will have any meaningful consequences (ie to sue him). That changed today, and we are better for it.
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If the racist card is tossed around as readily as it is to describe anyone with a view that doesn’t suit their own, the meaning of the word will soon be so diluted it’ll have absolutely no relevance to anything.
Current definition from the Cambridge Dictionary :- Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
So you have the evidence anon1 ?
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Alan Jones has gone to bat and helped more people than anyone else in the radio industry. e.g. the farmers battling drought and the shopkeepers in George Street, Sydney losing the businesses they had spent a lifetime building because of the light rail debacle. He doesn’t just sit in the studio talking into a mic. He gets out there and helps hands on. I personally know people he has helped but has never talked about. Some were on the brink of suicide. Anybody who calls him a bigot and a bully has obviously never actually listened to him for any length of time.
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For those who want to get upset with Alan, go listen to the ABC and see what racism and far left leanings they convey everyday. People suck it up like sponges because they know no better.
Alan fights for this country on a daily basis. Yes the Oldies will be dead and the great unwashed lot of you will be left with what you create. Good luck with that.
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Sure , he gets in behind causes and people whose beliefs mirror his own. BUt anyone who uses his priveliged position to mount a sustained campaign (over 30 broadcasts) to ruin peoples’ reputations by accusing them of actions which resulted in deaths of 12 people — only to admit in court there was no defence for these allegations — is a bully by any definition, so-called good deeds nothwithstanding
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One of the saddest aspects of the Jones phenomenon is his ability to attract fawning desperates.
The man is a shocking bully who intimidates for a living. He gets away with it because politicians let him. In fact Turnbull was the first in living memory to stand up to his vile behaviour.
If the broadcast regulator was not a waste of space the guy would not be on air.
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So these (supposed) acts of kindness cancel out the other acts of bigotry, misogyny and general hatred he spews out?
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Is the fact that he’s said the n-word multiple times on air not enough evidence?
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No question the guy will go into bat for causes and people that exactly mirror his own world view. But he has zero tolerance for those that don’t or for those that don’t bow down at the Altar of Alan Jones. Worse still, there are numerous occasions where he has misused his position as a public figure to hector, bully and intimidate some of these non-acolytes. In this case, as the court has found, he out and out lied about the Wagners. By his own legal team’s admission, there was no defence for the things he said about them, and the damage he did to their reputuation. For once, he has come up against someone willing and able to stand up to him.
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Could you give me an actual example of where he has indulged in bigotry, misogyny or general hatred?
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Jones fights for Jones. He is a foghorn of self interest. And you’ve only got to experience his little soirées of sycophancy to get a bead on how desperately he craves and feeds on the weakness of others.
Above all he’s a bully and a nasty one at that.
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