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The arrest of Alan Jones · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, November nineteen. Shishin Being is facing his biggest
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  Speaker 1: trade challenge in more than a decade, and he's aiming
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  Speaker 1: to counter Donald Trump's taraf by getting Australia on side.
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  Speaker 1: In his third bilateral meeting with Anthony Alberonizi at the
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  Speaker 1: G twenty somewhat on Tuesday, the Chinese president will seek
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  Speaker 1: support for open trade. That story's live right now at
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com. Dou One of the most influential
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  Speaker 1: figures in the history of Australian media, Alan Jones, will
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  Speaker 1: face court on December eighteen, charged with twenty four offenses
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  Speaker 1: including indecent assault and sexual touching. His lawyer says he'll
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  Speaker 1: be defending the chargers today. The remarkable power of the
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  Speaker 1: loved and loathed Alan Jones and what happens to the
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  Speaker 1: eighty three year old Now, long before there was Kyle
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  Speaker 1: and Jackie.
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  Speaker 2: Oh guys, guys, this morning I'm masturbated right and I'm
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  Speaker 2: so lazy.
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  Speaker 1: This morning there was Alan Jones.
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  Speaker 3: She's a clown, just Cinderada in a complete clown. I
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  Speaker 3: just wonder whether Scott Morrison's going to be fully brief
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  Speaker 3: to shove a sock down the throat. I mean, she
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  Speaker 3: is a joke, this woman, and an absolute and utter lightweight.
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  Speaker 4: What about this brain dead Sarah Hansoon Young from the Greens.
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  Speaker 4: Your dope, clever or you died in the world dope?
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  Speaker 1: The all powerful king of Sydney Breakfast Radio, who turned
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  Speaker 1: his daily AM slot into a platform to terrify politicians,
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  Speaker 1: hector hapless bureaucrats and demand results for his army of
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  Speaker 1: devoted listeners. Here he is in twenty fourteen, demanding then
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  Speaker 1: Minister Malcolm Turnbull show loyalty to Prime Tony Abbott.
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  Speaker 5: Can I begin by asking you if you could say
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  Speaker 5: after me this As a senior member of the Abbot government,
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  Speaker 5: I want to say here, I am totally supportive of
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  Speaker 5: the Abbot Hockey strategy for budget repair Allan.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to take dictation from you. I am
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  Speaker 2: a cabinet minister. I support unreservedly and wholeheartedly every element
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  Speaker 2: in the budget, every single one.
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  Speaker 1: Jones's power came from his audience, Sydney Siders who loved
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: hearing him rip in, but were also charmed by his
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: moments of quirky, warmth enthusing about passions like opera.
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  Speaker 3: The music critic, writing for The New York That described
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  Speaker 3: Terrasini's performance as quote smoldering, explosive, shrieking, whispering, singing.
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  Speaker 1: Jones had risen international prominence via rugby union. He was
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  Speaker 1: a teacher, then a coach at elite boys schools who
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  Speaker 1: rose to steer the Wallabies back in their glory days.
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  Speaker 1: Jones and made numerous unsuccessful attempts to stand for politics
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  Speaker 1: with the Liberal and Country parties, but in the end,
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  Speaker 1: Jones proved he didn't need a seat in Parliament to
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  Speaker 1: have a say in running the country. Politicians jumped to
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  Speaker 1: his command and sponsors flocked to the show. It was
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  Speaker 1: those commercial relationships that caused Jones's first brush with national controversy,
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  Speaker 1: when an inquiry by the Australian Broadcasting Authority found he
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  Speaker 1: had failed to properly disclose commercial relationships with the brands
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  Speaker 1: he was sprooking on air. And then in twenty twelve
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  Speaker 1: at a Young Liberal function, the Sunday Telegraph recorded Jones
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  Speaker 1: saying this when he thought no journalists were present.
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  Speaker 2: The cause of the Labor Party, Julia Alive everybody.
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  Speaker 1: Shame if you didn't catch that, Joones said the then
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  Speaker 1: Prime Minister, Julia Gillard's recently deceased father had died of
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  Speaker 1: shame because of what Joanes said were his daughter's lies.
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  Speaker 1: It prompted a wave of condemnation and a rare expression
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  Speaker 1: of regret.
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  Speaker 6: Jones's apology press conference when for forty five minutes, but
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  Speaker 6: the word sorry didn't feature.
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  Speaker 5: I owe her an apology, and I hope I'll be
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  Speaker 5: able to make that to her, not to.
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  Speaker 3: Her through you.
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  Speaker 4: You just have to concede and man up and say
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  Speaker 4: you got it wrong.
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  Speaker 1: I was the deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph at
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  Speaker 1: the time we published that story, and I've got to
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  Speaker 1: tell you it was hair raising for editor Neil Breen
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  Speaker 1: and me to publish such a story about a figure
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  Speaker 1: so powerful and so ruthless. But that moment was a
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  Speaker 1: small insight into how Jones regarded women. He is lecturing Gillard,
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  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister, for being late to his show.
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  Speaker 7: Alan, I believe I am a very courteous person. I'm
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  Speaker 7: also very busy. If I can finish my sentence, Alan, also,
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  Speaker 7: I'm also a very busy Rawson and Alan, if I
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  Speaker 7: can finish my sentence uninterrupted. I've had media commitments this morning, late.
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  Speaker 3: This morning at ten past seven. Would your staff agreed
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  Speaker 3: on this program?
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  Speaker 7: Well, Allan, I am happy to apologize to you for
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  Speaker 7: being late. I am now here. If you have a
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  Speaker 7: question in the nation's interest, then please feel free to
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  Speaker 7: put it.
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  Speaker 1: And suggesting what he'd really like to do with Gillard
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  Speaker 1: and the then Greens leader.
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  Speaker 4: The woman's offer tree and quite frankly, they should show
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  Speaker 4: her and Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take
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  Speaker 4: them a star out to see as they can and
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  Speaker 4: tell him to swim home.
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  Speaker 1: At the top of this episode, you heard Jones talking
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  Speaker 1: about former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda R.
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  Speaker 5: Dern.
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  Speaker 1: Here's another moment.
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand Prime Minister Jasinda Dern is challenging Scott Morrison
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  Speaker 3: overclimate change. Now, I hope Scott Morrison gets tough here
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  Speaker 3: with a few backhanders. Hasn't got a clue this woman.
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  Speaker 8: There's no question that there has been a lot of
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  Speaker 8: misogyny in the kinds of things that Jones has said
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  Speaker 8: over the years.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Rice is The Australian's New South Wales editor and.
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  Speaker 8: I think when he made that comment about dern It
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  Speaker 8: coalesced there were a lot of things happening at the
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  Speaker 8: time as well. It wasn't just that this was a
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  Speaker 8: reminder of those things that he'd said, the quite disgraceful
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  Speaker 8: thing sometimes about women. It was also right at the
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  Speaker 8: point where listeners were already starting to abandon the show,
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  Speaker 8: but more importantly, advertisers were starting to abandon the show,
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  Speaker 8: and not just abandon the show, abandoned two GB as
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  Speaker 8: a station, as a radio station. So you had all
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  Speaker 8: this background where his influence is fading because he's a
• 7:02
  Speaker 8: dinosaur and he's not reading the room. Other broadcasters are
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  Speaker 8: moving with the times. Jones just doesn't seem to be
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  Speaker 8: able to do that. He's really stuck on certain lines.
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  Speaker 8: And maybe you could get away with that and your
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  Speaker 8: audience would just dwindle a bit, but you'd hang around.
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  Speaker 8: But when you're saying stuff like chuff bag and chuck
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  Speaker 8: them in the sea, advertisers will abandon you, and that's
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  Speaker 8: what they were doing.
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  Speaker 1: Jones retired from radio in twenty twenty and tried television
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  Speaker 1: with Sky News, but the audience didn't follow him, and
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  Speaker 1: Jones left in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty three nine,
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  Speaker 1: newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald published a series of allegations
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  Speaker 1: by men that Jones had indecently assaulted them, including claims
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  Speaker 1: he'd put his hands down two young men's pants, passionately
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  Speaker 1: kissed a then schoolboy without his consent, and sexually touched
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  Speaker 1: an employee who was driving him to work from his
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  Speaker 1: apartment at Sydney's Circular Key. Jones denied all the allegations.
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  Speaker 1: On Monday morning, police raided that Circular Key apartment and
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  Speaker 1: took Jones away.
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  Speaker 9: Alan Jones, once one of the most influential media identities
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  Speaker 9: in Australia, is now under arrest over allegations he and
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  Speaker 9: decently assaulted multiple young men.
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  Speaker 1: Police executed a warrant at the eighty three year old's
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  Speaker 1: luxury Sydney apartment at Circular Key this morning. He has
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  Speaker 1: been charged with twenty four offenses spanning two decades, including
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  Speaker 1: eleven charges of aggravated in decent assault, nine charges relating
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  Speaker 1: to assault with active indecency, two charges of sexual touching
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  Speaker 1: and two charges of common assault. The police will allege
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  Speaker 1: Jones's youngest victim was seventeen years old when me alleged
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  Speaker 1: offense occurred. His Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald from New South
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  Speaker 1: Wales Police, giving a media conference on Monday.
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  Speaker 6: I wish to commend the investigators of Strikeforce Bonavan for
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  Speaker 6: their tenacity and their hard work and bringing this matter
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  Speaker 6: before the courts. Historical matters such as this are incredibly
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  Speaker 6: hard to investigate and bring before the courts. I wish
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  Speaker 6: to commend the victims and their bravery in coming forward.
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  Speaker 6: They fully are aware, as are the investigators, that the
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  Speaker 6: hard work is just beginning, and they have given their
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  Speaker 6: statements fully aware that they will go before the courts.
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  Speaker 1: Jones has not yet been required to enter a plea,
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  Speaker 1: but he's consistently denied any wrongdoing. On Monday, his lawyer
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  Speaker 1: Chris Murphy said the charges would be defended and attacked
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  Speaker 1: Michael Fitzgerald for describing the witnesses as victims, saying that
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  Speaker 1: was a matter for the courts coming up. After the
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  Speaker 1: Break Southwales editor Stephen Rice on what we can expect
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  Speaker 1: from the King versus Alan Jones when this matter goes
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  Speaker 1: to trial. Stephen Rice spoke to the Front's Christen amyot Rice.
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  Speaker 1: He says Jones is.
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  Speaker 8: Probably the best broadcast of the country he's ever seen.
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  Speaker 8: I love him or hate him. He is just a
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  Speaker 8: force of nature and yes he's bombastic, Hill Harangue, Prime
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  Speaker 8: minister's businessman, you name it. Alan Jones will be in there,
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  Speaker 8: taking absolutely no prisoners. A lot of our younger listeners
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  Speaker 8: may have difficulty just grasping the kind of power that
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  Speaker 8: he wielded, especially today in the age of social media
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  Speaker 8: in a very fragmented media. But in the eighty and
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  Speaker 8: nineties and early two thousands, radio was the way to
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  Speaker 8: reach the hearts and minds of people in Sydney. It
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  Speaker 8: had that immediacy that social media does now. Before Alan
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  Speaker 8: Jones came along, it was a cheerful kind of round
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  Speaker 8: that early morning radio shift, and Jones just turned that
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  Speaker 8: around and made it into a really serious, I will
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  Speaker 8: break your neck kind of style of radio. And he
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  Speaker 8: took politicians to task and people responded to that.
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  Speaker 10: Alan Jones has of course denied any wrongdoing and we
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  Speaker 10: will need to wait to see for this to play
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  Speaker 10: out in court. But if and when this does come
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  Speaker 10: to trial, what do you think we can expect to see?
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  Speaker 8: From everything we know, Jones will plead not guilty. He's
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  Speaker 8: said very clearly on a number of occasions since The
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  Speaker 8: Sydney Morning Herald came out with its allegations that he
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  Speaker 8: is not guilty, that those allegations are false.
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  Speaker 10: You mentioned just now that Alan Jones is likely to
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  Speaker 10: plead not guilty. He's vehemently denied these allegations in the past.
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  Speaker 10: Who do you think we can expect to see representing
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  Speaker 10: him if and when this does go to trial.
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  Speaker 8: Look, I expect we'll see a phalanx of Australia's best
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  Speaker 8: cases lining up to represent Jones. Behind the scenes, He's
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  Speaker 8: still got plenty of friends, plenty of supporters. Alan Jones
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  Speaker 8: famously has a what he calls a pick and stick club.
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  Speaker 8: They are the rusted on friends and supporters who he
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  Speaker 8: will never abandon and who he thinks and hopes will
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  Speaker 8: never abandon him. He'll have plenty of friends working to
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  Speaker 8: ensure that he gets a fair trial.
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  Speaker 1: Alan Jones has been granted conditional bail to appear before
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  Speaker 1: the Downing Center Local Court on Decemi about eighteen. Stephen
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Rice is The Australian's Sydney bureau chief. We've got the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: full inside story of how this arrest transpired and what
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: precipitated the drama live right now at the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: com dot au