Numbers were well down on last Tuesday's rally against carbon pricing although Senator Joyce said some truck drivers were "out there riding round and around like Indians".

Broadcaster Alan Jones said the smaller-than-expected crowd was because "thousands" of people had been blocked from attending the rally and that "hundreds" of trucks in the convoy had been stopped at the border as they tried to enter Canberra from New South Wales.

"This is the most disgraceful thing that has ever been done to democracy," Jones told the rally.

"The people who have come here can't actually get into the precinct to be heard."

A spokeswoman for Canberra police told news.com.au and other outlets no trucks had been stopped at the border, and no people had been prevented from attending the rally.

Trucks were barred from a short section of Parliament Drive, a link road immediately in front of the building, as agreed with the rally organisers.

Talkback host Alan Jones fired up a crowd of protesters to turn on a Herald reporter today after she asked if he had been paid to appear at the rally in Canberra.

Journalist Jacqueline Maley said Jones looked outraged when she asked him if he had accepted a fee to be at the rally, made up of protesters who converged on Canberra in trucks, caravans and cars.

She said he had angrily asked her what kind of a question was that and who did she think she was.

She went on: "He said I should be ashamed of myself, that I was a 'grub' and asked me how I could look at myself in the mirror. He carried on in that vein for a while.

"I said I thought it was a legitimate question. He said 'No, of course I haven't [accepted a fee].' He continued to abuse me.

"I thanked him for answering the question and walked away."

But Maley said Jones continued to yell after her, attracting the attention of others in the crowd, who began to look at her.

"He yelled that I should go away, that I had no right to be there. A woman standing next to me started yelling at me, saying 'Get out of here! You've got no right to be here!'"

Maley said that when a journalist colleague asked the woman why, she replied: "Because she's a leftie!"

Alan Jones then yelled across the crowd for Maley to repeat her name, which she did. "Some members of the crowd yelled at me to get up on stage and explain myself, which I declined to do."

Jones then took the microphone and addressed the crowd again (listen to the audio above). He told them that Jacqueline Maley from the Sydney Morning Herald had just asked him whether he had accepted a fee to attend.

There was booing and some in the crowd yelled at Maley, who said: "I found the whole experience extremely intimidating - having your name yelled out by Alan Jones in such a hostile way, to such a hostile crowd, who had already been whipped into a frenzy, and which contained some very extremist elements was frightening."

From Tom Cummings

at unleashed/drum...

Jacqueline Maley is a journalist; she was doing her job. Alan Jones, by his own admission, is not a journalist; but he also makes a living out of asking people questions, ones that they generally don't want to answer. His reaction to Maley's question was disproportionate; it was the reaction of a coward and a bully.

It wasn't enough to simply answer the question; Jones needed to intimidate Maley, to threaten her... to make her feel not only unwelcome, but unsafe. Surrounded by hundreds of people he knew to be on his side, he was more than willing to single her out, to bring her to the attention of the mob and turn them loose.

Would he have reacted the same way had this confrontation taken place on a city street? I doubt it. Bullies don't work that way. It's much easier to be abusive when you're leading a mob.

This country abhors bullying. There are laws in place to prevent it in the workplace and in our schools. We teach our children that it is unacceptable and we do everything we can to get the message out to the community at large. So it is especially damning that Jones felt he could flex his muscles, in the form of the mob that had his back, in response to a simple question from someone who was just doing her job.

At the very least, Jones should issue a public apology to Maley. He should send a message that his behaviour towards her was unacceptable, and not an example for others to follow. And he needs to do it quickly, as those who support his views are already spreading criticism of Maley online, calling her "weak" and "girly" (cue Tim Blair).

But he won't. Bullies don't work that way.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2852120.html

Alan, Go play in a dunny somewhere.

People like Alan Jones deserve to be kicked.. So how do we do it? They would not do what they do if there was no money in it... So money is the key to their successful baloney... Whether there is money involved or not in the truckies' parade is immaterial. But in his interaction with the SMH journalist, Jones shows he is an insensitive C&^%$T when it comes to being rite (wrong rightwing) or wrong... So, money makes people like him. Where does the money comes from? ADVERTISING and cash for comments.

Let's make a list of all the people who advertise with Jones — and Andrew Bolt for good measure — and start a campaign of bullying (not buying the goods) in the same vein as Jones is trying to bully Canberra.

Jones is an idiot — a clever idiot. He believes in what he says because he makes up his mind on false premises that suits him. For example, he has no understanding on how global warming works and will (is already) affect us and the rest of the planet. He does not want to know. He is impermeable to knowledge if it does not suit him. He won't study reality... That is the trademark of an idiot. That Jones survives in his medium of dispensing populous crap means that there are far too many idiots out there listening to him — including advertisers who know they've hit the idiot jackpot... Let's ditch the lot of them.

Alan, Go find a toilet block somewhere.

Outposts between Sydney and Canberra had stocked up for the Convoy of No Confidence that never arrived, writes Rachel Olding.

THEY expected a line of hungry truckies as far as the eye could see.

Kerry Murphy, the owner of the Wallendbeen Hotel, rostered on four extra staff, hired beer glasses, bought extra kegs and purchased enough supplies for 300 bacon and egg rolls.

The fishing club and public school in Wallendbeen, a village of 200 near Wagga Wagga, set up large steel drums filled with firewood and spent hundreds on meat and bread rolls in preparation for the 1000 travelling protesters that organisers told them to expect. But the Convoy of No Confidence never came.

The organisers of the mobile protest told the Herald last week that 11 convoys carrying up to 30,000 truck drivers would line the country's roads, travelling several designated routes to Canberra, with an official overnight stop in a country town.

In Wallendbeen, however, only 10 vehicles showed up, Ms Murphy said.