Lessons from history for Alan Jones and 2GB

There are several learnings from history which 2GB seems not to understand. Boycotts are legitimate. There have been many over the millennia since homo sapiens along the Danube refused to buy from flint vendors who charged too many clams. The difference is that participants now use the internet rather than cave drawings to gain support.

They have been used by the right and the left, by the religious and nonreligious, and by individuals, groups and nations. They frequently work. The world is generally a safer, cleaner, better place for their implementation.

History suggests it is unwise for Jones to mischaracterise the response as merely "bullying" or "harassment" or "intimidation".

Then again, as Mike Carlton observed last weekend, wisdom is not Jones' strength:

Something to know about Alan Jones – the key thing, really – is that he's not all that bright. Far from it. Despite the artfully constructed public persona, there is no powerhouse intellect there, no vast store of wisdom ... He does not have to dumb down for his audience; he's already there.

Forty years ago Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals wrote that the boycott organiser's job is "to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a 'dangerous enemy'." This, he claimed, will "not only validate [the organizer's] credentials of competency but also ensure automatic popular invitation."

The key error Jones and his superiors at 2GB seem to be making is misunderstanding the protestors' complaints.

From the various online groups it is clear there are long-held, deep-seated concerns at Jones' activities on many levels. These include: his history of fabrications, receiving secret cash payments for on-air comments, fomenting racial hatred and violence, abuse of staff, ridiculing and censoring callers who challenge his facts, unbalanced treatment of political parties, crude sexist attacks on the Prime Minister, false accusations against political opponents, calls for the death of political enemies, public vilification of those he disagrees with, hypocritical exploitation of charities, the hypocrisy of calling for direct community action but complaining when the community acts directly against his excesses and, finally, his hollow apologies when cornered.

It is not just about one recent appalling slur against the PM. The influential facebook page Destroy The Joint was set up long before the infamous Liberal Students gathering in Sydney:

This page was started 5 weeks ago after Alan Jones accused women in leadership positions of 'destroying the joint'. We weren't to know Jones would make even more hateful and disrespectful comments about the PM & her late father.

We hoped to make a change - and a community of people who feel the same has been built.

Do we want him to lose his job? No. We want the freedom to say that this is NOT acceptable to us …

That's our freedom of speech. Respectfully, thoughtfully and passionately.

Spokesperson Jenna Price expanded on this in a robust exchange with 2GB's Chris Smith on Monday. On air, Smith asked Price to meet personally with 2GB executives.

The current cyber campaign is certainly passionate. But what will it actually achieve? At $80,000 a day, we shall soon see.