The past seems to be catching up with Alan Jones, just when his most recent outrage has caused him more trouble than all the others put together. First, he lost an appeal against a finding that he incited racial hatred in the leadup to the Cronulla riots. Then 2GB got caught in another cash-for-comment scandal. Now he’s been told to go back to journalism school, to learn about checking his facts, in relation to his silly claim that ”The percentage of man-made carbon dioxide Australia produces is 1 per cent of .001 per cent of carbon dioxide in the air.” (Similar claims have been made by Andrew Bolt, and by some commenters at this blog.) As Lenore Taylor observes, if 2GB and Jones really want to check their facts, they’ll have a lot of work ahead of them.
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John Quiggin 
Jones has an easy out. He just gets Bolt or Davidson as his fact checker.
Nothing changes. He is still lives in a parallel world.
It would be good if the same requirements were applied to all journalists — particularly ones working for News Limited. It could be applied to Andrew Bolt for his TV rant but unfortunately the print media are largely exempt from being required to engage in rigorous journalism. Living in Brisbane means I have a choice of a local Murdoch rag and a national one. I buy neither.
So he has to learn fact checking? Not knowing what a fact is, much less the truth, it may take some time?
I suppose that we need to see how this plays out, but it surely would be a great precedent to set.
Jones must be feeling humiliated. Good, he could do with a dose of humility.
JQ – “Now he’s been told to go back to journalism school,”: I’m sorry to nitpick, but I thought that Mr Jones had never attended a journalism school.
quokka – He won’t be feeling humiliated, just hard done by. Jones is too far from reality for humility to be remotely possible.
This is loltastic: Jones will be spluttering with rage after about the first 15 seconds of his training.
Yes, I was under the impression he wasn’t a “journalist”, but I suppose for all intents and purposes, it’s a trivial difference.
Whilst on trivialities, I think he has felt humility at least once before- in 2004 he was given the honour to press the starter’s button for the main group 1 vehicle event for the opening of the Western Sydney International Dragway. Apparently he literally shit himself when they launched off the starting line.
Good that Jones is ordered to learn about checking his facts, except that it won’t make a difference if the standard of ‘facts’ is whats being presented by the Daily Telegraph and The Australian.
@paul walter
Imagine when he moves on to lesson 2 — Fact salience for Dummies: How do you know if it is relevant? What is data bias and how does it occur?.
There could then follow lesson 3: Using Salient Facts in Models to draw inferences: What models can and can’t tell us
It could be a very long time before Jones recovers from an assault on his identity like that.
if you can’t take it,don’t dish it out?
Look Fran, the Earth is flat. You can’t fool him, he’s standing on it. Ifit was round he would be falling over. You won’t get him with models either.
They are not supposed to tell us any thing. They just stand there and smile, while you are advertising a product.
And let’s not forget all that time ago – explanations and protests not believed:
http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_91098
“Mr Jones submitted:
that he did not appreciate that his contracts contained provisions relating to on-air conduct;
that his contracts had not affected the content of his programs;
…
The panel has not accepted the submissions of Mr Laws or Mr Jones”
Who gains from an incorrigible right-wing populist having a fact checker? Fact checking enhances his credibility and he will stop shooting himself in the foot.
Worst of all, people will have to engage with Jones’ rguments rather than use his sloppiness with facts to deflect debates about hot topics.
Jim, if he has to check his facts, he won’t have any arguments to debate. It’s win-win!