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The trial of Alan Jones · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the Front. I'm Christinamio.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, August three, twenty six. Post World War II
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: migration to Australia was a resounding success and one nation's
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: push for a so called monoculture is pointless. That's according
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to former Prime Minister John Howard, who's long advocated for
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a conservative approach to Australian multiculturalism. More than a third
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of people purchasing properties through the government's expanded First Home
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: by Guarantee scheme would have been ineligible for the five
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: percent deposit scheme in the past. Experts say the lack
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of means testing is sending the housing market haywire for
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  Speaker 1: buyers and renters. Those stories alive right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. He was once the most
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  Speaker 1: powerful man in Australian broadcasting. Now, Alan Jones will defend
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  Speaker 1: himself in court against accusations of indecent assault and sexual
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  Speaker 1: touching dating back decades, allegations he strenuously denies. Today, The
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Australian's editorial director and regular host of The Front, Claire
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  Speaker 1: Harvey and media diarist Steve Jackson discussed the trial two
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  Speaker 1: years in the making. Plus they'll delve into the millions
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of dollars left on the table by newly independent broadcaster
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  Speaker 1: Kyle sandlans Claire and Jacko are here in just a moment,
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  Speaker 1: Alan Jones, once the king of talkback radio. Today walking
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  Speaker 1: out of a police station. Veteran broadcaster Alan Jones has
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: been arrested.
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  Speaker 2: Allan Jones's world is in pieces tonight.
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  Speaker 1: Detectives today raiding Jones's Harveside apartment.
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  Speaker 3: Former broadcaster Alan Jones has been charged with indecent assault
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  Speaker 3: and sexual touching offenses spanning two decades.
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  Speaker 4: Steve Jackson edits The Australian's Media Diary and I've brought
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  Speaker 4: him in because it's Monday and I always talk to
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  Speaker 4: Jacko on a Monday if I can, but also because
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  Speaker 4: one of the biggest stories in media is finally about
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  Speaker 4: to hit.
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  Speaker 2: The courts today.
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  Speaker 4: It's the trial of former broadcaster Alan Jones in the
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  Speaker 4: local court in Sydney, Jacko. This is going to be
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  Speaker 4: a massive trial. Really too big for a local court,
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  Speaker 4: isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think we've seen a case that has this
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  Speaker 3: much interest and intrigue around it, potentially since Ben Robert
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  Speaker 3: Smith and his defamation case. But in terms of someone
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: in the media taking the stand to defend themselves, it's
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  Speaker 3: sort of unprecedented at this level. It's been two years
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  Speaker 3: in the making and we're finally getting to court today. Obviously,
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  Speaker 3: mister Jones, he's had the opportunity to try to push
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: it back last week. His legal team said no, he
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  Speaker 3: wants to go to court, so he's home, got raided,
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  Speaker 3: he got arrested back in November twenty twenty four, two
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  Speaker 3: years on. He said no, enough's enough. I want to
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  Speaker 3: go out there and try to fight to clean my name.
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  Speaker 3: So he will start doing that from today.
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  Speaker 4: He's got some heavyweight legal representation. Gabrielle Basher sc one
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  Speaker 4: of the best. Yes, and of course you would get
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  Speaker 4: a silk if you were Alan Jones and you were
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  Speaker 4: appearing in court on any kind of matter. The Crowns
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  Speaker 4: charge Alan Jones with twenty two counts.
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  Speaker 3: What are they There's twenty of indecent assault and there's
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  Speaker 3: two of sexual touching and now these charges they over
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  Speaker 3: a long period of time. We're talking from two thousand
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  Speaker 3: and three through to twenty twenty in various locations. There's
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  Speaker 3: six alleged victims who are going to be called to
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  Speaker 3: give evidence about their interactions with Alan Jones. So it's
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  Speaker 3: going to take weeks to play out. Obviously, he's expected
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  Speaker 3: to take the stand in his defense and say, look,
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  Speaker 3: I did nothing wrong. It's one of those ones that
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: look thank God for the judicial system, because there's multiple
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  Speaker 3: sides to every story. Obviously from his point of view
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  Speaker 3: is his interactions with these people was always either consensual
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  Speaker 3: or nonexistent in some cases potentially we'll find out in
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  Speaker 3: the days ahead, but he has always said from the outset,
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  Speaker 3: I've done nothing wrong. I'm going to fight to clear
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  Speaker 3: my name.
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  Speaker 1: I am certainly not guilty, and I'll be presenting my
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  Speaker 1: account to a jury.
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  Speaker 3: As you heard the wing, he's done that the whole
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  Speaker 3: way along. He's and as you say, he's got a
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  Speaker 3: very experienced legal team, one of the best in the
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  Speaker 3: country coming up to defend him. Even though it's in
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  Speaker 3: the local court and even though it's judge alone. So
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  Speaker 3: what we're going to see with that, obviously clear is
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  Speaker 3: because it's a judge alone, a few more used the
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  Speaker 3: term liberties, but a little bit more freedom taken with
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  Speaker 3: the way the matter is covered, because there's no fear
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  Speaker 3: that a jury could be swayed by the media's coverage,
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  Speaker 3: so all the ugly twists and turns, expect to see
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  Speaker 3: them coming out on a daily basis.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's an interesting part of the way trials unfold
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  Speaker 4: when they're in the public domain, isn't it. When there's
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  Speaker 4: a jury, the media are of course extremely careful and
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  Speaker 4: nothing is reported that's not.
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  Speaker 2: Been put before the jury in court while.
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  Speaker 4: The jury are actually present in the room, and that
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  Speaker 4: leaves out quite a lot of stuff that leads you
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  Speaker 4: to the stories after the trial where you.
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  Speaker 2: Can report what the jury didn't hear.
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  Speaker 4: Indeed, legal argument that happens when the jury is sent
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  Speaker 4: out of the room, and often.
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  Speaker 2: They are the great stories.
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  Speaker 4: When it's a judge alone, there's the assumption that a
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  Speaker 4: judge could not possibly be influenced by anything he or
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  Speaker 4: she reads or sees in the media.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's right, because the differentiation is they
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  Speaker 3: understand it the technical points of law. You know, it's
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  Speaker 3: so technical that yeah, like reading the tawdry accounts in
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  Speaker 3: some of the tabloid press will not sway them. I
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  Speaker 3: do think that is right.
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  Speaker 4: They can't be influenced, and that then gives editors and
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  Speaker 4: journalists a little bit more liberty, as you say, in
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  Speaker 4: the way they cover it. So there will be comment pieces,
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  Speaker 4: there'll be color, there'll be analysis going on from journalists
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  Speaker 4: that will be an intriguing part of this matter.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think also no matter what happens from here,
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  Speaker 3: and some of the more serious charges have been dropped already,
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  Speaker 3: and what I've been told from the prosecutor's side, they
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  Speaker 3: haven't told me, but what I've been told from that
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  Speaker 3: side is they've wanted to reduce the riskier charges and
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  Speaker 3: prine it back to the ones that are they're the
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  Speaker 3: safest because they're really going for a conviction, so they
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  Speaker 3: want to remove anything that they think even has an
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  Speaker 3: element of doubt. So they've brought it back to the
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  Speaker 3: easiest charges to prove Alan Jones' team obviously confident they
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  Speaker 3: can well they don't have to disprove them, but they're
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  Speaker 3: confident they can show that he's not guilty of those offenses.
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  Speaker 3: But even with the more serious charges reduced, what we're
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  Speaker 3: going to see is Alan Jones is going to be embarrassed.
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  Speaker 3: No matter what happens from here. We're going to hear
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  Speaker 3: about his interactions with these men. The fact that he
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: hasn't taken a plea deal is quite interesting because we
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  Speaker 3: know that for him it will be embarrassing. These allegations
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  Speaker 3: will be aired with all the tawdry details that come
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  Speaker 3: with them, and so no matter what happens from here,
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  Speaker 3: it is going to have an influence on how people
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  Speaker 3: see him.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I mean his stances obviously are innocent and it's
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: up to the Crown to see if I can prove otherwise.
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  Speaker 4: He is a very wealthy man. He made a huge
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  Speaker 4: amount of money during his career as a broadcaster, and
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  Speaker 4: he was already relatively successful before that. He was the
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: coach of the Wallabies.
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  Speaker 3: We've been given today something really special.
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  Speaker 2: It's an opportunity, an opportunity to become a headline or
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  Speaker 2: a footnote in the history of rugby.
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  Speaker 4: Alan Jones has only been off the radio for a
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  Speaker 4: few years, but it's sort of interesting to remember how
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  Speaker 4: influential he was. He was incredibly wealthy, wasn't he, jack Well.
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  Speaker 3: One of the highest paid broadcasters in the history of
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  Speaker 3: Australian media, and for a long period of time he
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  Speaker 3: was so influential. He was such a dominant force in
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  Speaker 3: the ratings that he commanded a really high salary and
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: you know, personal sponsorships, et cetera. As this court battle
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: plays out on Monday, I hear that there is a
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  Speaker 3: second potential front that's about to open up for him.
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  Speaker 3: So all this exposure focus on Alan Jones has had
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  Speaker 3: the ATO, I hear from my sources in there having
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  Speaker 3: a look at him again and going over their books.
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  Speaker 3: Now there's no suggestion of any wrongdoing, but he's in
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  Speaker 3: the limelight. The ATO is going, hey, let's just have
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  Speaker 3: a second look at it. I think he will find
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  Speaker 3: at some point in the coming weeks he is going
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  Speaker 3: to have a second battlefront open up, and the ATO
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  Speaker 3: is going to start asking him questions as well. So again,
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  Speaker 3: no suggestion of any wrongdoing. It's just one of those
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  Speaker 3: things that when people are in the limelight, everyone starts
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  Speaker 3: scratching and oh, let's have a look as well. So
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  Speaker 3: from what I'm hearing, ATO just going over his books
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  Speaker 3: and his last few tax returns to see if everything's
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  Speaker 3: ridgie did it probably is? Probably, But it's just one
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  Speaker 3: of those things with the stress of a cookcase light
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  Speaker 3: this where you know that these allegations are going to
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  Speaker 3: be aired about you, and look, you know anyone accused
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  Speaker 3: of these matters. That is super stressful. He's now going
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  Speaker 3: to have to worry about also his personal finances being
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  Speaker 3: potentially questioned.
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  Speaker 4: It's August now, which means there's only a few sleeps.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: The countdown is on to Kyle Sandaland's life.
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  Speaker 3: I thought you were going to talk about Christmas, so
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: start doing the shopping already.
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  Speaker 4: Yet the radio show that's not really going to be
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: a radio show. It's going to be on Kyle's app
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  Speaker 4: every morning from August ten. I'm such a super fan
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  Speaker 4: that I've already been watching Pull Sandalans Live, the documentary
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  Speaker 4: he's made and released on his app.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's finally time to let everyone know what
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: actually really happened.
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  Speaker 4: And while I've had the app on my phone, JACKO,
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  Speaker 4: I've noticed that there's a kind of a chat function,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: so I get these alerts often late at night from
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: people like Gronk saying something about Kyle.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: It's quite odd.
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  Speaker 4: I feel like I've stepped into Kyle's world. Are you
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: looking forward to the show?
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Look? I like Kyle. I always have. In my twenties,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I listened to Kyle and Jackie O. That was the
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: station I listened to. I loved the banter.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: Really the formative years of s.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Jackson.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, look, you know, and that's where all my
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: bad puns and toilet humor come from. But I've probably
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: graduated into nowadays. I listened to Ben Fordham a little
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: bit more often.
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  Speaker 4: Because you're very sophisticated, urbane gentleman.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and I feel like I've grown out of
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: it a little bit.
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  Speaker 4: You know.
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  Speaker 3: It's one of those things. As you start paying more taxes,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you're really interested in how that money's being spent, whether
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: or not it's being spent on inappropriate jokes about Gina Reinhart,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: for example. And I'm finding myself getting more outraged by that,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: and so I've sort of not as much of a
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: listener now. He is without a doubt of talent. The
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: thing that amazes me is the launch of Kyle Sandland's
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: show could not be any starker from Karl Stefanovic. So
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: carls of this, you know, sort of bumbling around knocking
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: into things production, whereas Kylie's got like team mugs and
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: team shirts and team photos, and he's got a platform
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: that you've got to subscribe to. Somehow He's commenced the
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: editorial director of The Australian to part with one hundred
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: dollars to watch his content. So he's got a really
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: great strategy. He also has a big payout from arn
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: behind him to help fund this massive, like really professional setup.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately for Kyle, I also know that he could have
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: had even more funds to set this up, because as
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: people will read in the Diary today, he left a
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: whole heap of money on the table.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: He said in his behind the scenes documentary, and he
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: also said this in an interview with Lisa Mayo in
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: The Daily Telegraph a weekend ago, that he decided not
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: to fight too hard because he didn't want to go
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: through the grief basically of putting his family through the
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: uncertainty of a drawn out legal battle. That is something
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: that Jackie I was persisting with. She's certainly having a
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: drawn out legal battle. But Kyle kind of made a
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: virtue of not having got all the money. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think he's done the sensible thing right, Like he
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: wants to be back on air. He doesn't want to
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: spend two years fighting his former employer in court and
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: them saying he's a nasty man who picked on his
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: co host doesn't want that, doesn't need it. He wants
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: to get on. He's clearly, as I say, to convince
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: so many people to subscribe already. He's a very smart,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: sophisticated operator, he said, in those stories you're talking about,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: we accentuate elements of our personality. What you hear on
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: the radio is Kyle up to eleven out of ten,
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: you know. So he's done a very sensible thing and
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: take a small one out. What I have heard from
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: my sources within ARN is that they had budgeted thirty
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: five million dollars for a payout. That's how much they
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: were prepared to pay him. He has I.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Don't think they have thirty five million dollars just quietly
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: down the.
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  Speaker 3: Back of the couch. They're going to pass the hat around.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Can everyone chip in? But that's what they were budgeting,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: and I think from Kyle's legal team they hoping for
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: at least forty He's negotiated behind all the legal legals
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: backs his own deal with Aaran's former CEO Kiaran Davis
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: for twelve million and some contra advertising. And for him
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: it's weird. He's left potentially twenty million dollars on the table,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: but he wants a plan moving forward. It's interesting, like,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: if that had consumed his life for two years, what
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: do you think, given he wants to cure in the media,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: is that the right call.
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  Speaker 4: He would have spent five million on legal fees during
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: that time, and if he'd lost, he would have ended
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: up having to pay Arn's legal costs as well.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: This is the Prince Harry nightmare.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, where you end up in a really potentially awful situation.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Kyle talks a lot.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: About having been a homeless kid, and I think that
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: has shaped him, that scarcity and fear of not having
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: an income. I mean, he's also of the generation like
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: you and I who entered the workforce when we had
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: ten percent unemployment, when there was a recession that we
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: had to have.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: And so these are the good old days boy talking about.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: But it has created I think a mentality in this
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: generation of young gen x's or elder millennials, whatever you
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: want to call us, that we want jobs. We want
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: to be employed, and an ongoing source of income, even
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: if you are actually the employer, which he is, is
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: better than a lump of cash in the hand because
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: that can get fritted away really quickly.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: And also I think had he gone to court, the
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: damage to his reputation would have probably meant there's a
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: chance that he may never have recovered from that, because,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: as we're talking about with Alan Jones, no matter what
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: the outcome is, some of that you know, what seeks
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: the tars sticks or what is.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: It like a tar baby is something that you touch
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: that you just can't let go of, you know.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: It's one of the rare rabbit stories, all right, yeah, yeah.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: And also you become a nobody very quickly in media.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: The stress of being the employer. That's something I admire
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: in Kyle. He has spoken about feeling the responsibility to
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: employ all the people who had been hunted by arn
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: because he really was responsible and employed them all straight away.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: That also gave a sense of urgency. He had a
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: wages bill.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: To meet every week. He couldn't let that cootcase drag on.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: It's one of the interesting things about Kyle, and I
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: think a lot of people think, you know, buff head, buffoonery,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: toilet humor, talking about very explicit content some of the times,
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: but he is such a mature guy and the level
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: of responsibility he's taken so from that team folty. You
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: can see he's employed like more than half a dozen
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: people because he feels this and people people who know
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Kyle always say, you know, he has a team view,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: even though he's Kyle. It's us versus them, it's us,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: it's the team project. And the fact that he hasn't
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: just gone all right, I've lost my job and I've
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: lost my income. All right, you guys were all out
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: for ourselves. Now he has made a deal. Probably part
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: of his reasoning to get this twelve million rather than
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: fight for an extra twenty over two years, is he's
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: not just going all right, I've got my twelve million.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: I'm going to use that on my mortgage and make
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: sure I'm set. He's used that to employ a whole
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: host of people that he feels a loyalty to. It
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: is very rare in media to see someone who takes
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: that responsibility seriously, and I think it speaks volumes to
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: his character to an extent that I don't think a
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: lot of people were aware of just how loyal this
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: guy is and how when you're in the trenches with Kyle,
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: he's got your back, right, He's got your back, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: he's got your bank account.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Well, I'll be expecting you to continue paying my wage
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: if we ever get.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Punted, Jack all right, we'll find out next week. Thanks Jack,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: all right, thank you.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Steve Jackson is The Australian's Media Diary editor and Claire
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Harvey is editorial director and the regular host of the Front.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: For all the latest from around the media, visit the
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au