Paul McIntyre: Jones book furore makes for torrid week

What a torrid week for Alan Jones, the one-time coach of the Wallabies, speechwriter for former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and the undisputed king of commercial radio in Sydney.

On Tuesday, rival broadcaster Mike Carlton cut through intense media speculation and innuendo which for five days had been circling around Jones and an unauthorised biography, Jonestown, which public broadcaster the ABC had suddenly cancelled last week. With the backdown came allegations of political interference and a board veto spearheaded by ABC board members aligned to the Howard Government.

"Jones is now wealthy, influential, powerful ... a close friend of the Prime Minister [John Howard] and the late Kerry Packer and so on," Carlton said during his morning shift on radio station 2UE, a rival to Jones' 2GB.

"So what is there to hide?"

Carlton speculated it might be further coverage of Jones' role in the cash-for-comment affair a few years back, which involved Australia's major banks buying favourable on-air opinion from Jones.

"Or is it that Jonestown alleges that Alan Jones is gay or has had gay relationships?" Carlton asked.

"Jonestown also, I understand, touches on an incident some time ago in a public toilet in London where Alan Jones was charged with an offence but was later found to have no case to answer. It's not a crime to be gay, any more than it's a crime to be rich and powerful."

Pow. Carlton had broken the silence on one of the reasons most journalists believed there was so much resistance from Jones to this book, written by award-winning ABC investigative reporter Chris Masters.

But the intrigue went further. The controversy over the past week has been as much about why the ABC's commercial division, ABC Enterprises, had suddenly backed out of publishing the book after last week's ABC board meeting.

On Thursday June 29, Masters was quoted in a newspaper saying the book was finally going ahead after four years of research and serious legal work. But that afternoon the head of ABC Enterprises, Robyn Watts, told Masters the project was dead, despite advice to the board recommending its publication and extensive legal advice backing up the decision.

"ABC Enterprises has a clear responsibility to deliver a commercial return to the ABC," she said. "To proceed with publication will almost certainly result in a commercial loss, which would be irresponsible."

Masters said a letter from Jones' lawyer two weeks earlier "made it clear that Jones was prepared to spend money and this would become a game of deep pockets, and that's where the ABC would be exposed".

But last Friday some of the ABC's biggest on-air names accused the board of "caving in" to political pressure and called for a full explanation. "The sight of the ABC caving in ... invites the powerful and wealthy to believe threats can deter the ABC from producing controversial material through any of its outlets," they said in a statement.

This week ABC broadcaster Phillip Adams wrote in the Australian newspaper that conservative-leaning ABC board members were behind the scuttling of the book.

"Two years ago I warned Masters that his Jones book would never escape the ABC lawyers, that Jones would have retired before his employer would publish it," Adams wrote. "I begged Masters to go with a commercial publisher. But Masters remained loyal to the ABC. He couldn't believe the book, so long in the writing, would be pigeonholed.

"And I suspect Jones has got more friends on the present board than Masters. My information is that board members Keith Windschuttle, Ron Brunton and Janet Albrechtsen vetoed the book's publication, despite a recommendation to proceed from ABC Enterprises.

"Masters' decision to write the book was a consequence of his story on Jones for Four Corners in 2002.

"While Sydney's air was thick with rumours and allegations, no one had the guts to go on the programme. Masters told me he'd never had an experience like it: so much running for cover and cowardice. It was a preview of the present situation."

Windschuttle has since rejected Adams' claims although an editorial in the Australian on Thursday fired-up the speculation again - Albrechtsen is also a columnist for the paper.

The Australian claimed the decision to ping the book "showed that after a decade in office John Howard has finally begun to make a dent in the left-wing collectivist culture of the national broadcaster. The fight over Jonestown was bound to happen in some form or other. The ABC has for too long been run by left-wing newsroom collectives insulated from the consequences of their decisions.

"That the board is finally exercising some control ... is a good thing, though the situation could have been handled a lot less clumsily."

The grand irony is that other publishers are falling over themselves to gain the rights to the book, which the ABC has told Masters he is free to sell. So much so that Masters has not yet been able to return all the calls.

Alan Jones may well need far deeper pockets to fight commercial publishers in the courts.

Paul McIntyre is a Sydney-based journalist.