Four months after Alan Jones left breakfast radio his replacement at 2GB has proved just as strong as the former king of radio in the key slot, shattering the myth that he was irreplaceable.
Now in his new headline role at Sky News Jones is playing second fiddle to fellow rightwingers Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin and Paul Murray. Since he began his new gig on Sky After Dark the Alan Jones show consistently finishes behind the other personalities. The days of being number one are over.
“With a connection to his audience like no other, we are delighted Alan joins Sky News Australia exclusively as anchor of new weeknight prime time program Alan Jones, the only place to watch and listen to Australia’s most successful broadcaster,” Sky boss Paul Whittaker said of his biggest hire in his two years at the helm of Sky.
Sky News host Alan Jones says US President @realDonaldTrump is “the hope of the side” and without him both the United States and Australia “are gone”.https://t.co/swLyZhmPdJ
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) October 1, 2020
He may be spearheading the channel’s attempt to be an Australian Fox News, but Jones has settled into a mediocre average of 69,500 viewers each night. Most nights he finishes fourth on the Sky line-up, behind Bolt, Credlin and Murray. There’s one consolation: he always beats Chris Kenny, whose Kenny Report manages about half his numbers.
Sky says it is happy with Jones, as the 8pm time slot is up by 60% on last year: “Alan Jones has also been the #1 program launch on Sky News Australia ever.”
Jones audience going nowhere
The release of the first post-Covid radio ratings this week was eagerly anticipated as it would reveal the impact of Jones’ departure. He famously won an unrivalled 226 radio ratings surveys. Would his absence spell disaster for Nine Radio?
The veteran broadcaster survived in radio despite a history of misogyny largely on the strength of his audience. Holding the No 1 spot on breakfast radio seemed to protect him even when advertisers deserted after his suggestion that Scott Morrison should “shove a sock down the throat” of his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern.
Jones’s replacement, Ben Fordham, was to find out if he had held on to that loyal audience. The Australian predicted doom, reporting that 2GB expected Fordham to “rate a 12 – about a third below Jones’ towering 17.9 in his last survey before leaving”.
The Daily Telegraph questioned whether Fordham should command the same price tag of $3,000 a live read. Annette Sharp wondered if 2GB’s “17-year run as Sydney’s No 1 radio station is over”.
Well Jones’ so-called loyal audience hung around for Fordham, who had an easy win in the Sydney breakfast ratings and retained the top spot. 2GB breakfast dropped a mere 0.6 percentage points to a share of 17.3.
The closest rival was the ABC breakfast show, hosted by Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck, on 12.5%.
Fuel on the flames in Townsville
The ABC’s system of editorial checks and balances failed to stop the publication of an article this week about crime in Townsville, which managed to be sympathetic to a vigilante and normalise the bashing of young, presumably Indigenous, offenders.
Honestly ashamed and angry this article got through several layers of editorial oversight and was then finally splashed across the front page of ABC News. Wtf https://t.co/ZkEMxTa2E3
— JamesPurtill (@JamesPurtill) September 29, 2020
An anonymous man who called himself a “patriot” told the ABC he cruised the street looking for troublemakers. He had a theory that “if you look suss you are suss” and he liked to give kids “a good flogging”.
“Robbie [not his real name] hides behind a bandana emblazoned with the face of a leering clown and listens to a scratchy police scanner as he trawls the streets of Townsville in the dead of night,” the article by a young Queensland reporter began.
The backlash online was immediate. “So adult men are admitting that they wear masks to beat up children – and somehow they aren’t the criminals this article is about,” one commenter said.
After at least two staff publicly condemned the article, the ABC made several changes to the piece, finally adding an editor’s note hours after publication.
I am more than curious. Upset, in fact, by many of the elements Jason points out. Above all, that Elder Russell Butler appears only in a few words at the end of the piece. https://t.co/DPsgQ5ir9P
— Ariel Bogle (@arielbogle) September 29, 2020
“This article has been amended to include context on some underlying factors in youth offending and additional comments from members of the Townsville community,” the note said.
Comments from Griffith University criminologist Ross Homel – who said violence did not work on recidivist offenders – were added, as was a new crime victim who was opposed to vigilantism.
Weekly Beast understands the story was published by the regional division without the usual level of oversight needed for a sensitive, complex story.
“There were several editorial issues that we became aware of at time of publication and these were corrected,” an ABC spokesman said. “An editorial note was then added to the updated report online.”
SBS veteran Brockie calls it a day
There is a real changing of the guard at SBS news, in front of and behind the camera. Insight host and SBS veteran Jenny Brockie announced her retirement on Thursday, 20 years after joining the multicultural broadcaster.
“After a break this year and a lot of thought I’ve decided it’s time for a change,” Brockie said.
The announcement came in the same week Mandi Wicks took over as the head of news, and weeks after two senior news executives, Andrew Clark and Sally Roberts, resigned.
ABC staff on the move, under attack
As the last of the 250 staff made redundant after ABC budget cuts closed the door behind them, News Corp outlets and the prime minister criticised remaining staff for voting to keep their modest 2% pay rise.
This week former foreign correspondent Dominique Schwartz was one of the last of the more than 80 journalists from the news division to make a teary exit.
Thanks for such a fine & generous farewell @abcbrisbane I’m not looking as chipper today! While I’m sorry to be leaving @abcnews due to #abccuts I’m looking forward to new adventures! @markwillacy @leoniemellor @alexblucher @jrojourno pic.twitter.com/qOB27s1Djv
— dominique schwartz (@DSchwartzOz) October 1, 2020
“ABC staff have been branded ‘self-indulgent’ for insisting on a pay rise when other public sector workers on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic have had their wages frozen,” the Telegraph reported on page one.
“Chair Ita Buttrose proposed a six-month delay, however 80% of staff voted to demand a 2% rise immediately.”
Who was it that said the staff were self-indulgent? Evan Mulholland, director of communications at the Institute of Public Affairs, who is the go-to guy when the Tele wants someone to badmouth Aunty.
FRONT PAGE 📰
— The Daily Telegraph (@dailytelegraph) September 30, 2020
Read today's paper: https://t.co/H9DzehmZVI#sydney #NSW #newspaper #frontpage #news pic.twitter.com/khX7Gv1Nlr
ABC News Radio lost three of its biggest personalities last week when national breakfast presenter Sandy Aloisi, sports presenter Chris Glassock and presenter Tracey Holmes signed off for the last time.
After 14 years at the ABC as a Sports presenter, news journo & coffee boy I’m off for new adventures. TV done, Finish up Friday on NewsRadio. My choice. Hopefully I’ve brought some joy to listeners mornings & even encouraged a few to support Sunderland AFC. It’s been emotional!” pic.twitter.com/JJ53IMqMmU
— Chris Glassock (@glassockclassic) September 29, 2020
Aloisi joined the ABC in 2008 after a long career in commercial radio including co-hosting with Mike Carlton at 2UE. Holmes is one of the lucky ones to have been redeployed and is moving to the newly created created sports hub, headed by sports editor James Coventry.
Shame revisited – again
Psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed has made a name for himself – not so much as a writer but as a serial plagiarist. The practising Sydney shrink and failed Liberal candidate was dropped as a columnist not once but twice by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age for plagiarism.
In 2012 ABC TV’s Media Watch found “plenty of examples” of plagiarism in his work for the Herald. But incredibly he did it again in the Spectator in 2017 in an article critical of transgenderism. Ahmed is a regular guest on Sky News, where his conservative attitude is a good fit. Since 2017 he has also found a home on the Australian Financial Review as a monthly columnist under editor Michael Stutchbury.
Good to laugh about it now, but was pretty embarrassed being the subject of a TV fail and blooper. pic.twitter.com/XZLKYjzfbR
— Tanveer Ahmed (@drtahmed) June 28, 2020
But the last place we expected him to pop up was on the ABC – on a program about ethics no less. Ahmed has a new book, In Defence of Shame, and he was interviewed at length about it on RN’s Religion and Ethics Report.
“He has worked hard to redeem himself but wonders if he will ever live down his literary lapse,” RN said.
A “literary lapse” may be underplaying it a tad.
