Alan Jones’ legal threat against Nine over ‘sexual violence’ accusation
A furious Alan Jones is understood to be considering taking legal action against his employers at Nine over an editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald accusing him of encouraging “sexual violence”.
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A furious Alan Jones is understood to be considering taking legal action against his employers at Nine over an editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.
Bosses at Nine are believed to be furious at the misstep in the week before Jones signs off from his record ratings breakfast slot on the Nine-owned 2GB.
The editorial in today’s newspaper by editor Lisa Davies accused him of encouraging “sexual violence”.
The Nine newspaper has now changed that to encouraging “violence against women” in the online version of the editorial and issued a correction.
“A previous version of this story referred to encouragement of sexual violence,” the correction said.
“This was intended to refer to “violence against women”, examples of which were stated in the story. There is no suggestion that Alan Jones encouraged violence in a sexual context.”
But that may not be enough to appease Jones.
The print edition of the Herald still has the offending text which says: “Certainly the Herald has disagreed with him on many issues but the problems in his behaviour go beyond any differences of opinion.
“His encouragement of racism and sexual violence should be unacceptable to all sides of politics,” he said.
The editorial also said he had no choice but to resign.
Jones made the unexpected announcement to quit the airwaves on doctors orders last week but will continue to be paid until his $4 million a year contract ends in June next year.
He told listeners he was turning off the microphone because doctors had told him to “stop or drop”.
“I’ve listened to the experts and I’m taking this opportunity to indicate to my radio family that I will be retiring from radio at the end of this month, May 29,” the 79-year-old told his listeners, who represent almost 18 per cent of the Sydney breakfast radio market.
The news was greeted with an influx of callers wishing him well including Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
He is being replaced by popular Drive show host Ben Fordham and will continue to write for The Daily Telegraph and appear on Sky.
Both Nine and Jones declined to comment.
Originally published as Alan Jones’ legal threat against Nine over ‘sexual violence’ accusation