What Jones said this morning

Alan Jones has returned to his 2GB breakfast show this morning and has addressed his speech, his apology and what came next. You can hear the audio of his opening break below.

"I have been astounded at the hatred & anger, and of course jealousy, that has been dished out towards me"

On advertisers pulling out from his show he said…

"so there's talk of course of black balling advertisers and headlines that advertisers are pulling out by the droves, of course if you say all this stuff often enough someone might believe you"

"if the criticism & the pressure & the headlines & the stories & the intimidation are designed to silence me in what I do on this program then I'm sorry, the bad news is, you've picked the wrong bloke."

Hear a short grab from the last part of Alan's first break…

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/Jones short.mp3
or hear it here

Hear the break in full…
https://radiotoday.com.au/music/Jones full.mp3
or hear it here

UPDATED 7.50am

Alan Jones has been taking calls on the issue all morning. Nearly all of them have been supportive, as you would expect from his 2GB core listeners, and no doubt the show producers have balanced them nicely in favour of supporting their Breakfast star. There were a few critical of his comments, but not many. 

One caller was former 60 minutes reporter Ian leslie (right) who told Jones;

'As a journalist this is a black day, our freedom of speech is being eaten away. You stand up for what you believe in, you're a good australian mate. I stand for freedom of speech and I'm right behind you."

One caller told Jones: "More power to your right arm, buddy", to which Jones replied:

"People just don't like the fact that we actually do take some of these people on."

"If we didn't, I just wonder where some of the public out there would be. That's the difficulty, that's the issue here. Long before this issue occurred there was this unbridled hatred towards me from some sections of the media and beyond."

"And indeed … a lot of it's based on jealousy, I guess. I've never taken any notice of that and I don't take any notice of it now. I'm not asking for any sympathy or support, I just get on with the job."

And another caller drew a particularly long bow, saying;

'you keep up the good work, to hell with them, what's this country becoming? North Korea?"

Callers came from a variety of locations, Pat from Geelong called up and said;

"I can't hear your program on radio here, so I listen to you online. You admitted you said the wrong thing and I'm not shopping at Woolworths anymore until they advertise on your program again."

See more coverage of the Alan Jones story…

Where it all began – click here

Advertisers walk out on 2GB – click here

Rob McCasker gives his perspective – click here

2AY & 2QN axe Alan Jones – click here

Alan Jones skit on 2UE – click here

Neil Mitchell slams Jones – click here

2GB : Alan will stay on-air – click here