Oh dear, I’m not down and jiggy with it… I had to look up meh in the urban dictionary - modern equivalent of What-e-ver!

“It seems to me that Jones’ comments were very ill-considered indeed, and he certainly inflamed tensions.”

Nowhere in your entry do you quote what Jones said himself, but rather you quoted what Jones read out. Hence, “Jones’ comments” cannot refer to Jones own words, but in this sentence you make this error of apportioning his readers’ comments as his own.

meh your blog.

I agree people need to exercise caution where they have influence - that is common sense. It is also important to give exposure to peoples’ feelings, even if they are racist, so we can understand where they are coming from, and with reasonable responses, those people may see that being racist is not helpful to solving a cultural clash.

I think you need to read my post again more carefully.

I said: “On 7 December 2005, Jones read out a letter from a listener” and put the letter in italics and quotation marks to make it clear that it was not his own words (although the ACMA report was not so clear). I later said that he “mentioned a text message”. I did not say that these sentiments were his sentiments.

Of course citizens are entitled to voice their concern about pack rapists and about racist motives behind particular crimes. That is part of my point. I think the media should be able comment openly if people of a particular ethnic group are committing racist crimes.

If you read my post carefully, I said that political correctness does no one any favours:

“In the long run, it increases tension and resentment… If there is a problem with ethnic gangs in Sydney, it should be faced openly by all (police, government, Lebanese-Australians and other Australians). Gang members should be treated equally by police and the government, regardless of their ethnicity.”

Pretending there is not a problem is not the answer. Yes, I know packs of such guys stand there in a menacing fashion, leering at girls. It is scary and intimidating to walk past them if one is female (as I am). Large groups of young aggressive-looking men hanging around is not good, whatever the ethnicity of the group. I would feel equally scared if the group were Anglo-Saxon, Chinese or whatever. I think the police should ask these blokes to move along.

But the media should be responsible, and ensure that innocent people who also belong to a particular community are not all tarred with the same brush. By making generalisations, Jones ensures that a wedge is driven between the two different communities further.

Jones’ listeners may not be the ones who attended the Cronulla riot - the demographic of the listeners would be parents or grandparents of the attendees. But my point is that broadcasts such as Jones’ create an atmosphere within the families of listeners where it becomes acceptable to generalise about all people from the Middle East. The result is that some of the people who were attacked were innocent bystanders, and some were not Lebanese at all (one was a Jewish man and another was a Greek girl).

I am not saying Jones cannot make comments about such matters, but that he should exercise some caution, and not generalise. Where does one draw the line with freedom of speech? Is it okay to hold rallies saying that Jews should be killed? Is it okay to print articles saying all Muslims should be put in concentration camps? What do you think? Do you think that sometimes the line between freedom of speech and vilification and incitement to violence is a difficult one to draw?

Cheers, LE

What happened to “defending the right to speak despite disagreeing with what is spoken” principle? Do you believe Joe Citizen is not entitled to voice their concern on pack rapists? (sure - remove the broad generalisation). Have you been to any shopping centre in Parramatta and seen these 20+ thugs just stand there staring / glaring / oggling girls / menacing people? I for one was not surprised this was the response.

Also, Jones listeners demographics hardly meet the people who participated in the riot.

Funny how the media now don’t say the suspects are of “middle Eastern appearance”, when the police still do.

Tim Blair’s “men of no appearance” is so perfect.

It seems clear, also, that there was a failure by the State government to take the problem seriously until matters had escalated. If there had been more police available to patrol the beaches before the riots occurred, and to nip any fights in the bud, it may be that the riots would not have happened.

Fundamentally the Cronulla riots were a protest at a (perceived or real) breakdown in law and order in the Shire. The targets of the protest should have been State politicians and area police command, who appear to have completely understaffed and ignored an area that was suffering from increasing flare-ups between differing communities.

Unfortunately, however, uneducated, ignorant and racist elements on both sides of the fence turned it into a race issue.

Jones was one of those who managed to blur the issue into one of ‘race’ and therefore contribute to the riots that ultimately occurred.

I would certainly support someone who stood up to shock jocks. I suppose the question is how many other people out there think like we do?