Jones's off-stage rant at reporter
Broadcaster Alan Jones verbally attacks SMH journalist Jacqueline Maley for asking whether he was paid to appear at the Rally of No Confidence in Canberra. He says he wasn't paid.
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''Someone has instructed the federal police from stopping them going where they want to go. This is shameful. Here are the people in their trucks, this is the most disgraceful thing that has ever been done to democracy.''
Ordinarily, one wouldn't be drawn to such comments. Life is, after all, too short. But the preceding really takes the cake. Not only does it take the cake, it then pulverises said cake with a jackhammer set to high dudgeon and wounded pique.Could it have been merely hyperbole? No, in the black-and-white world of commercial broadcasting, there is no room for literary devices. The first and best weapon for a shockjock is the line-'em-up-and-shoot-'em-down philosophy. All else flows from that. Hyperbole? Wasn't that a racehorse?
The event that gave rise to comment ''the most disgraceful thing that has ever been done to democracy'' was a gathering of truck drivers from around the country, and assorted politicians, outside Parliament House in Canberra. They met to protest against the carbon tax; other federal issues such as live exports and debt came into play. It was dubbed the Convoy of No Confidence. Tony Abbott addressed the truckies. Calls were made for a federal election. Alan Jones, the broadcaster and author of the introductory quote, was master of ceremonies. He is known for his forthright views. Here, however, his sense of history and the facts would appear to have failed him.
Police said the ACT border had not been closed, but it had been agreed between organisers and police that for safety reasons trucks would not be allowed on to Parliament Drive. Hardly the Berlin Wall.
I'm sorry truckies but you have not been the hapless victims of ''the most disgraceful thing that has ever been done to democracy''. You have, however, been thrown a line that feeds into your grievances. By casting your treatment in such a manner it fans the flames of your outrage, but it does so without foundation. Some commentators are very good at this type of thing. For their purposes, it actually doesn't matter what the shadings of a story are. It's all mono, cause and effect, action and reaction, through a megaphone or a microphone.
The strength of democracy is its great arc of accommodation. In its housing of all manner of people and opinion it actually grows more resilient and robust. But, like all shared houses, there's always one type who abuse the privilege. Everyone tolerates him or her because that's the way the house works.
But still it's a stretch — ''the most disgraceful thing that has ever been done to democracy''. Notice there's no theory of relativity there; It's THE MOST and HAS EVER BEEN DONE. It's a pronouncement of absolute certainty, much like a king might give to his subjects.
Those truckies must surely feel the weight of history upon them. They went to Parliament to protest at the government and ended up as the pawns of persecution.
Oh but sorry, they weren't. Never mind, it wouldn't be in the interests of democracy to shout that, would it?
For the record, here's a few examples of worse things that have happened to democracy other than something that didn't happen in Canberra this week.
1) The Third Reich
In the space of four years, from the 1928 election, the Nazi Party went from a dozen seats in Parliament to the biggest party. Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933, and from that point on, the lights went out. Hitler used intimidation, violence, fear and murder to turn Germany into a one-party state. Opposition was crushed and then banned. For the next 12 years, millions of people were eliminated under the yoke of a dictatorship. Democracy was restored after the war.
2) Fascism, courtesy of Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco.
Democracy was ground into the dust in Italy and Spain in the 1930s. Mussolini, leader of the National Fascist Party, obliterated democratic structures while building his power base. With WWII going badly, he tried to flee to Switzerland, was caught by partisans and hanged. Following the Spanish Civil War, which ended the Republican government, General Franco ruled the country as a dictatorship. It was only after his death in 1975 that democracy flowered.
3) Burma
The military junta has strangled democracy in Burma, but hope lives in the struggles and example of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Now in her late 60s, the pro-democracy fighter continues her mission, despite spending years in prison or under house arrest.
4) Chile
Salvador Allende was a socialist senator who won office in 1970. General Augusto Pinochet, helped by American clandestine activities, led a military coup that overthrew the government.
The American writer H. L. Mencken believed that under democracy one party spent most of its time and energy trying to prove that the other party was unfit to rule and that both usually succeeded.
A compatriot, the writer Ambrose Bierce, believed politics was ''a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles''.
What cynical fellows.
Democracy, self-evidently, is the trumpet upon which anyone can make a noise. You can listen or tune out. As to Mr Jones, maybe something was happening, and he thought we didn't know what it was.
Those notes on the trumpet may really have been a dog whistle.
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