If you really are defined by the company you keep, then Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones is an ultra wealthy, well-connected, lying, corrupt, murdering drug dealer.
Of course, he’s none of those things. Well, maybe two of them (the first two). But he’s also in an increasingly awkward position, as new details emerge of Mr Jones’ association with people who allegedly kill other people over drugs.
On Tuesday, New Matilda reported that Mr Jones launched the book of Roger Rogerson – the disgraced former cop now facing murder charges – and in 2009 described the rogue detective as a cure for some of the ills of Australian society, telling 2GB listeners that Rogerson’s ‘old style policing’ was needed: “… if we had a few more of the man I’m about to speak [to]then we’d have few, fewer problems in society confronting society at the moment.”
At the time, Rogerson had already been jailed twice for corruption.
Mr Jones has denied ever promoting Rogerson, writing to New Matilda yesterday to distance himself from the corrupt cop. But it’s emerged that Mr Jones also attended the launch of Glen McNamara’s book just six months later.
McNamara is the other former cop charged along with Rogerson over the murder last week of Jamie Gao, a 20-year-old Sydney student, in an apparent drug deal gone wrong.
In March 2010, McNamara launched Dirty Work at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel. The publishers of the book feature a photo from the launch on their website of McNamara, Mr Jones and former cop Tim Priest, who formally launched the tome.
In Mr Jones’ defence, while he should have known better around Rogerson, McNamara was known at the time as a whistleblowing cop, rather than a dirty one. But with McNamara now facing murder and large scale drug charges, it’s not the best look.
Comment has been sought from Mr Jones about his attendance at McNamara’s book launch.
Meanwhile, Mr Jones provided New Matilda further comment late on Tuesday, in response to our original story.
“Further to my last response, I’ve just been advised of the publication of a book 58 Years concerning prisoner Billy Munday written, I think, by Monica Attard for a man she taught to read serving 58 years in gaol.
“I believe he died there.
“I understand that at the launch by Monica, he said to the TV and other media he wanted to get out and get people. The author and the launch were not an endorsement.
“My lawyer launched George Freeman’s book. It was widely reported. He didn’t endorse his behaviour. Lawyers appear for criminals in a courtroom. They tell their story. It doesn’t make them a criminal.
“And Jean Genet’s fabulous Thief’s Journal would never have made the libraries of great world literature if he had never been published.”
Donate To New Matilda
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
