At the height of the furore over the Cronulla race riots, attention turned to the events and actions that had incited some 5000 people to gather on a hot December Sunday in 2005.

Questioned at the time about the role Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones may have played, former Australian Broadcasting Authority chair David Flint told the ABC’s World Today that there was “a procedure whereby people can test this, if they wish”. Well, yes there is.

But as we have seen in the past week, that procedure counts for nought if its outcome is held in such low regard not only by the prime minister but, disturbingly, also by the leader of the Opposition.

People who objected to the blatantly irresponsible way Alan Jones discharged his duties as a broadcaster did take their complaints to the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

It in turn has found that Jones broadcast material “that was likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity’’.

Whatever he may now claim in pious self-defence of publishing views that were prevalent in the community, and about how little the ACMA understands talk-back radio, Jones cannot deny the tone of his voice or the encouraging nature of his comments.

Listen to recordings of his broadcasts at that time and you have difficulty distinguishing whether the views he is reading are his own or that of a listener, but there can be no doubt about the encouragement he gave those with clearly racist views.

Radio 2GB chief executive Angela Clarke, whose station carries the Jones program, claimed the findings were “seriously flawed and ill-founded’’ because the argument that Jones was reading listeners’ comments had been ignored” “

A broadcaster’s use of listener material does not always indicate agreement. In this case ... Alan Jones repeatedly urged listeners to refrain from acting on the calls for violence,’’ Clarke said.

And so he did. But he also played a very dangerous game dancing with the ugly undercurrent of racist Australia, and in doing so exposed himself to the censure he deserved. Prime minister John Howard, himself not unfamiliar with the art of playing to the bigot in Australian society, was not having any of the ruling.

Describing Jones as an “outstanding broadcaster”, Mr Howard attacked the ACMA finding, declaring that: “I don’t think he’s a person who encourages prejudice in the Australian community, not for one moment, but he is a person who articulates what a lot of people think.”

Just what is Mr Howard’s point? Does he mean that Jones just mirrors the racist attitudes of many Australians and articulates those views? I guess that is a concept with which the prime minister is entirely comfortable.

None of this has had any impact on alternative prime minister-in-waiting and new Labor media tart Kevin Rudd, who has declared that nothing in the ACMA’s inquiry had given him cause to reconsider appearing on Jones’s show.

It’s a position that won’t cost him votes, but will diminish him in the eyes of those looking for leadership and not just an alternative they can stomach. Rudd, despite a 2% increase in his disapproval rating, to 16%, maintains a 66% approval rating after a week in which his judgment was questioned and found wanting on a number of fronts.

Commenting on that week, in which the Opposition leader became entwined in a shabby faux-dawn service planned by Channel Seven for Anzac Day, Mr Howard had a jab at the Opposition leader’s credibility. “The Australian people will make a judgment about Mr Rudd’s credibility in the same way they’ll make a judgment about mine, and that is what public life and public advocacy is all about,’’ he said.

Judging by the latest opinion polling conducted by The Australian newspaper, the judgment of credibility is being made solely about Mr Howard, who only 36% of Australians now think would make the better Prime Minister – compared with 48% who support Mr Rudd. With an election due within the next seven months, Labor is polling 50% of the primary vote, a result that would give it a landslide victory.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that there are baseball bats on the verandahs and that the coming election will be John Howard’s day of reckoning.

But it appears that as long as there are ignorant prejudices to exploit, there will always be a place for Alan Jones and politicians anxious to cash in on his audience.