THE NEWS WRAP: Alan Jones says orchestrated social media campaign against him is “cyber bullying”

Radio broadcaster Alan Jones has hit out at the “cyber bullying” of members of the public who have used social media to put pressure on the advertisers of his show.

Jones, who has been under fire over comments made about Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s late father, has had all advertising pulled from his breakfast show by 2GB, after more than 70 businesses pulled their ad dollars.

Jones claimed that many of the businesses that don’t feel able to advertise on 2GB are on “struggle street” and will suffer from the campaign.

States to reject payroll tax hike

The state governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland are set to reject the idea of raising payroll taxes in order to bridge budgetary deficits.

The Australian Financial Review reports that the conservative-led states are unwilling to follow the suggestion of Federal Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson, who backed the raising of payroll tax in order to provide the states with more revenue.

US unemployment falls

Unemployment in the US has taken a surprise fall, dropping under 8% for the first time since Barack Obama became president.

Official figures put the jobless rate at 7.8%, down from 8.1%. The fall surprised many commentators, who were anticipating a small rise in the jobless level.

Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 34.79 points, or 0.3%, to 13,610.15 on Friday. The Australian dollar dipped to US101.6 cents.