remarks relating to Gillard's father were condemned from all sides of the political spectrum by politicians, media and social media outlets. Jones held a press conference and said he "got it wrong", and wanted to apologise to the Prime Minister both publicly and in person. Julia Gillard refused to receive a call from Jones for an apology. Both the Prime Minister's Labor colleagues and Liberal figures including Opposition Leader Tony Abbott criticised Jones for his remarks. Labor Party figures sought to associate Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party with Jones' remarks, leading to counteraccusations that they were seeking to "gain political capital" from the affair. Many sponsors pulled advertising from Jones's show, followed by lobbying campaigned through social media to have the remaining advertisers boycott the program. On 7 October Jones' employer, the Macquarie Radio Network, announced that it would suspend all advertising on the Alan Jones show on 2GB to protect its advertisers from pressure being applied through social media activism. Jones called the campaign "cyber bullying". More than 80 sponsors boycotted Jones' program, including Telstra, Woolworths, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Coles. Macquarie Radio estimated the boycott cost the station between $1 million and $1.5 million, and some advertisers said they will never return. COVID-19 During March 2020, while Australia reacted to exponentially-increasing infections from the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones played down the risk, saying "We now seem to be facing the health version of global warming. Exaggeration in almost everything. Certainly in description, and certainly in behaviour". In statements playing down the risk of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Jones concentrated on static numbers of infected and dead, omitting mention of the universally-agreed exponential increase in those numbers that is behind medical professionals' concerns about the disease. At the time, Jones was in isolation at his country estate to avoid risk of infection. Jones's radio audience consists largely of older people who are in the most severe risk group for the disease. Commentator Mike Carlton labelled Jones's COVID-19 comments as "dangerous" and "reckless". Jones backed down soon afterwards, agreeing that for "...those at greater risk, older Australians and those who are more vulnerable, particularly those with pre-existing conditions… it is a far more serious virus", but still failed to mention the exponential increase in infection and death. Jones said that "China brought this disaster on..." and raised rumours without evidence of China buying up devalued Australian assets. Court actions and tribunal