Alan Jones breached decency requirements by using ‘n-word’ on air: ACMA
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (AMCA) has ruled that Harbour Radio Pty Ltd, licensee of radio station 2GB, breached the Commercial Radio Code of Practice in the Alan Jones Breakfast Show segment in which Jones used the n-word on air.
“The phrase used by Mr Jones has not been acceptable as part of everyday speech in Australia for some time and does not belong on our airwaves,” said ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin.
ACMA ruled that the segment, which broadcast on 23 August 2018, used a racially charged phrase and offended against generally accepted standards of decency.
Jones used the term as he was discussing last year’s battle for the Prime Ministership between Malcolm Turnbull and challenger Peter Dutton, when he said Mathias Cormann was the “n***** in the woodpile”.
The audio can be heard on news.com.au, where Jones says: :“The n****r in the woodpile here, if I can use that expression, and I’m not going to yield to certain people who tell us that words in the language are forbidden, the person who’s playing hard to get, is Mathias Cormann.”
The phrase can be traced back to times of slavery in the USA, when it was used to describe African-American slaves who escaped their captors.
Several complaints were made to ACMA about the broadcast at the time, particularly referencing the fact it was not the first time Jones had used the phrase.
After the broadcast, Jones took to Twitter to say he ‘regretted’ the choice of words.
Within hours of the broadcast, 2GB released an apology and Jones apologised on-air the next day.
2GB has said the phrase will not be used on-air again as a result of the ACMA investigation.
At the time of using the offensive slur on air, Jones said he would not “yield to people who tell us that words in the language are forbidden”.
Macquarie Media said it had comment on the ruling.
This man is a germ. How is he still given a public voice?!
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This modern-day equivalent of the old cultural cringe is getting so far out of hand as to be ludicrous. Alan Jones is certainly old enough to be attached to a time when licorice tablets, stove black, brown paint, and just about every other black puppy dog was named in this way. The old US political jibe about the problematic slave in the woodpile was ever after a common expression for a problem one didn’t care to acknowledge.
Othello, when he first suspects his white wife of infidelity says
“Her name, that was as fresh as Dian’s visage, is now begrimed and black as mine own face” This does not mean that he is, or even thinks himself to be inferior; like the choice of hat for the cowboy characters, it simply refers to the age-old good and evil colour depiction of Black and White.
Does anyone remember when “Wogs” was a forbidden word in this country? It is used with a smile these days because of “Wogs out of work,” a comedy play that changed the cringing suspicions of millions, and defused the word.
Latin: Negro = Black. Southern drawl = Niggra extended to N***er
We hear it in the movies as one African American calls out to another, but no non-African American is allowed to say it. Time to disarm it.
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Odious little goblin.
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He got off Scott free again. More proof the right has wrecked our country. The only people that must abide by the rules are the poor. The rich are above the law and have no consequence.
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