Andrew Bolt hits back at ‘coward’ Ray Hadley after his serve at Alan Jones over Covid-19

A war of words has erupted between Ray Hadley and Andrew Bolt, sparked by a verbal spray at Alan Jones over his Covid comments.

Broadcaster Andrew Bolt.

A brawl between two of Australia’s biggest conservative media personalities has burst into the public domain, with Andrew Bolt calling Ray Hadley a “weak and ignorant man who panders to an ugly pack”.

The war of words erupted after Hadley used his regular 2GB morning show on Tuesday to ­deliver a ferocious serve against former stablemate Alan Jones, accusing him of doing himself and the Australian public a “great disservice”, before he took aim at Bolt. “His disciple and lapdog, ­Andrew Bolt, will no doubt disagree,” Hadley said.

“But Andrew, I couldn’t care less what you think.”

But the Sky News presenter fired back, labelling Hadley a “coward” who hadn’t forgiven him for “calling out his despicable behaviour”.

Ray Hadley and Alan Jones in happier times.

“His true character was revealed when he accused me of “creepy behaviour” and being “soft on paedophiles” for defending the innocent Cardinal George Pell, who was later cleared by the High Court, seven judges to nil,” Bolt said on Tuesday afternoon.

“Hadley just ran with the mob and is also such a coward that he refused to let me come on air to defend myself and explain why Pell was innocent.”

Despite previously working together on the radio station, Hadley fired off multiple salvos against Jones, railing against the “ridiculous stance” Jones had taken throughout the pandemic.

Jones has continually repeated the Prime Minister’s comments in March last year that the virus is “a more severe version than the flu” and for eight in 10 people “will be a mild illness and will pass”.

Jones has also taken aim at politicians and bureaucrats who have implemented public health orders.

“According to him, they’ve made mistake after mistake after mistake,” Hadley said.

“If you look at the figures worldwide, as opposed to our figures, even in the middle of this pandemic problem we have in Sydney at the moment, we are top of the world in terms of controlling the virus.

“I think he’s doing himself, Sky News, and the Australian public at the moment a great disservice.”

Bolt, however, pointed out that his views on the virus were different to that of fellow Sky presenter Alan Jones.

“Alan’s views on the virus differ somewhat from mine, as anyone bothering to check before ranting would know,” he said.

Bolt has said vaccinations are critical and Premier Berejiklian has responded well to the virus outbreak in Sydney.

Earlier, Hadley had referred to an email from a listener who asked him to “address the ravings of Alan Jones” and “quash this rubbish he’s raving about at the moment”.

“Well, I think I’m doing exactly that right now. And I’ll continue to do it,” he said.