After John Laws entered the scandal surrounding Alan Jones last night and argued Jones' advertisers will return despite his "cruel" comments, the Twittersphere exploded with people parodying the veteran broadcaster.
Laws was speaking last night on ABC's 7.30, talking about the current controversy which surrounds his former radio rival Alan Jones. Jones has seen public backlash and an advertiser exodus from his 2GB talk show after he made remarks that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's late father “died of shame”.
Laws argued that Jones' comments were a “mistake”. “I do believe that Alan thought that he'd made the comment in private. How he could have thought it was private with 100 people there I don't know, but that's what he said. It was careless, and I think he admits that. It was hasty, and I think he admits that. And it was cruel, I'm not sure he admits that.
“Look, we all make mistakes. I mean you're looking at one of the great mistake-makers of the world. We all make mistakes and he made a mistake there.”
When asked if people might be “milking the situation” in an attempt to undermine Jones, Laws said: “I'm sure they are. I mean, it's happened to me before - remember the alleged cash for comment garbage that went on, you know. I'm going to die with that, even though all I was accused of was being excessively loyal to my sponsors, and I'm rather proud of that.”
However, Laws also said that advertisers will return to Jones' show after the scandal dies down.
“Oh, yes, I think they probably will,” Jones said. “Because, you know, Alan Jones is a very, very competent broadcaster, and he has a lot of listeners, and he has a lot of people who accept what he says. Consequently he would have a lot of people who would buy the products that he would endorse. Of course they will come back. I mean, it's a commercial world.”
Advertisers to distance themselves from Jones have included Harvey Norman, Freedom, Dilmah Tea, ING Direct, Mercedez Benz, Woolworths, Lite n Easy, Challenger, Bing Lee, Coles, Hyundai, Honda, Virgin and Telstra.
Following the interview, Laws became a hot trending topic on Twitter, due to the attire he was wearing and the glass of drink in his hand, which many assumed was alcoholic.
One person wrote: "If you missed @leighsales' interview with John Laws last night you can watch it again by taking a lot of drugs and hallucinating."
The Age tweeted this morning: "Is that a glass of Valvoline you're drinking, John Laws, or are you just happy to be interviewed?"
The ABC's Sally Sara joked: "Enjoyed the John Laws interview tonight. Wondering if @leighsales will have a glass of rum and coke on the set tomorrow night."
Macquarie Radio Network - the owner of 2GB - has declined to comment.
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