Another petition you can sign, this one recommended to me by Bruce Everett. It’s to put some heat on Alan “destroying the joint” Jones. Formally it’s to urge advertisers to get him to apologize, but really I think it’s to get him to take some heat. (I mean who cares if he apologizes, really? What good is that? But some heat might décourager les autres.
Butterflies and Wheels
Gnu atheism, women's rights, internationalism, universalism, and gossip
I am in no way in favour of censorship, but it does really depress me that people like Alan Jones are commercially viable. It implies that there are an awful lot of people who agree with him.
Les flics grammaire Française en trois, deux, …
Mr Jones has a close relationship with advertisers, so it’s certainly an avenue he’d feel pressure through. He doesn’t come across as the kind of guy who’d apologise though, although he’s stated in interviews that sometimes he goes a little far – nothing unequivocal as a ‘sorry’, of course.
I suspect he’d take it as feedback for his ongoing balancing act between the edge of extremism, and stuffy, respectable conservatism. I’m not sure I can emphasise the word ‘act’ nearly enough.
It is clear that Alan Jones is a cock – but I can’t sign this petition. Freedom of speech is important and it’s not worth tearing it down in order to address a cock like Alan Jones. I would defend his right to be a cock, in the same way that I will defend my right to call him a cock.
Whilst our visceral reaction is to take offense at such comments, it is important that we do not act like a religious institution playing the ‘offense’ card. We do not have any right to not be offended.
As a ‘shock jock’ he is merely doing what he is paid to do. Courting controversy is precisely his role in the media. He accepts money for being a cock. To try to make him apologise for an opinion that he clearly holds is patently ludicrous.
Now if the petition was against 2GB, requesting that they apologise for employing a cock like Alan Jones… then that I would sign.