Alan Jones argues ‘rivalry’ and ‘treachery’ but after decades wielding the sword of public opinion, he’s the one on trial

Alan Jones, centre, leaves the Downing Centre local court in Sydney on Monday. Photograph: Bianca De Marchi/AAP

Alan Jones has enjoyed decades as the centre of attention, as the wielder of power.

The booming voice, the vast radio audience, the bully pulpit of an eponymous TV show, the great and the good on speed-dial, a staffer in the prime ministerial office dubbed the “minister for Alan Jones”: these were not ancillaries peripheral to the Jones empire, they were central to it.