ACMA Orders Alan Jones to Get Journalism Retraining for Climate Change Slip
Radio host Alan Jones played climate change expert in 2011 when he claimed "nature produces nearly all the carbon dioxide in the air," and man hardly contributed to the rising air pollution, blamed by scientists as one of the leading causes of extreme shift in global weather cycles.
The declaration, of course, was challenged by experts on the field, with climate change scientist David Karoly contending earlier this year that Australia alone was guilty of spewing out at least .45 per cent of all carbon dioxide now circulating the planet, Fairfax said on Thursday.
Prof Karoly had dismissed in May Mr Jones' insistence that "the percentage of man-made carbon dioxide Australia produces is 1 per cent of .001 per cent of carbon dioxide in the air."
"Human beings produce 0.001 per cent of the carbon dioxide in the air and Australians produce 1 per cent of that. That's 1 per cent of .001 is .00001 per cent of the air. 1/100000th," the Sydney shock jock, who lately has been proving himself as a magnet for controversy, was reported by ABC as saying.
He made the broadcast March 15 2011, the government media network added.
Experts assailed the claim as way off the mark, short by at least 25,000 times, Prof Karoly stressed.
And the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), determining at the same time that Mr Jones' irresponsible statement last year was in violation of the country's commercial radio codes of practice.
The Liberal-leaning broadcaster, ACMA said, must take up some journalism retraining on "factual accuracy and significant viewpoints," and employ a fact checker to avoid the recurrence of such mistake.
The media regulator dismissed arguments by 2GB, Mr Jones' radio network, that what was aired only pointed to "the personal opinion and comment," of the talk-back radio host.
But ACMA asserted that "the nature of the language, tenor and tone used (by Mr Jones) was unequivocal and conclusive . . . and the form of words neither indicated that it was contestable, nor qualified it as a statement of opinion."
Clearly, what were said have been dished out in a matter-of-factly manner and ordinary listeners tuned in to Mr Jones could easily take the data as the gospel.
The training required of Mr Jones "will be conducted focussing on ACMA's findings concerning factual accuracy and significant viewpoints," the regulator said, adding that compliance should take not later than the end of November this year.
His new woe with the media regulator is the latest of the problems encountered lately by Mr Jones lately following his remarks in September during a Liberal function that the father of Prime Minister Julia Gillard died of shame because of his daughter's lies.
He earned condemnation as result and lost the support of almost all major companies running ads to his breakfast radio program.