With his calls on Thursday morning for a boycott of Coles, Alan Jones has handed Peter Costello an exquisite dilemma. Does the Nine chair and Liberal Party elder continue to protect Jones from those at 2GB and Macquarie Media who reportedly want him out, or does he finally take action to bring the shock jock to heel in an effort to protect the bottom line?
The question is especially delicate because of the internal review that is supposed to be happening following Jones’ verbal assault on New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that saw dozens of advertisers, led by the Commonwealth Bank and Coles, abandon his breakfast program. Jones was forced to apologise, and was warned that a repetition of those types of comments would not be tolerated. But that didn’t stop him from complaining about activist “blackmail”, or yesterday telling his listeners to give Coles supermarkets and petrol stations “a very wide berth”.
“This is a two-way street,” he said. “We can both play the same game. It might be time I entered the ring and started playing that game. And good luck to you by the time I am finished.”
Subsequent media reports asserted there was a lot of support on social media for Coles, but the key reaction will be from the management and board of Nine. Jones is in the first year of a two-year contract, and obviously doesn’t care about the damage his comments do to company revenue. Coles is one of the country’s biggest advertisers, and spends heavily not only with 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR but with Nine’s free-to-air TV channels and newspapers as well.
If the supermarket chain were to suddenly close its wallet, it would cost Nine tens of millions of dollars (you can hear Seven and News Corp cheering silently for that to happen).
Would that be enough for Peter Costello to take action?
Peter Costello take action, are you kidding? never has there been a more gutless figure in public life than Costello.
I agree mate. To lazy to get our of his own road and a man who achieved nothing worthwhile as treasurer, but had he some bottle could have done much.
I just wish he’d made up the comedy team of Abbot and Costello.
It would make sense for Costello to side with Coles (which many people over Australia at least tolerate to use) over Jones (who has a small support base of very old people in one state) for the reasons stated above, but given the current extent to which incredibly aged and bigoted men are hero worshipped by Liberals, it is fairly likely he will side with Jones.
I always thought of Costello as terrible but not insane, but this might prove me wrong.
(Of course this assumes that Costello himself is making the decision and that Alan Jones shouldn’t have a right to say whatever he likes without corporate intervention. Both assumptions are shaky.)
Something is happening amongst the western world’s high profile bullies – they appear to be off the leash & running amok, thinking themselves invincible.
Jones’s audience is a specific, narrow, aged demographic whereas Coles’ business encompasses most Australians. Guess who will win that fight.
On my first reading of this article, I read “shock jock” as “sock jock”, and thought how appropriate!
Jones has called for a boycott of Coles? What great news! No more old white men blocking the aisles yakking. No more snail’s pace shopping because Boomers.
Can he get them to boycott the post office, too? Bill paying Boomers are a pain when all you wanna do is buy a book of stamps.
Perhaps you could get the banks to stop closing branches and the power companies to have an office?
If you are buying a book of stamps then you are most likely a boomer yourself.
Why waste print and digital space on this turkey?