News Uk Radio Prank - Aussie Dj's

[anthony]

Ok... so who is buying into this whole political correctness nonsense that is going around the web that two DJ's making a prank call to Kate's UK hospital, have any responsibility in this call operator committing suicide?

[DLMURL]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-11/britain-reacts-to-2day-fm-interviews-on-royal-prank/4420120[/DLMURL]

Pick your news outlet at present, it will be there.

The lady who killed herself is a tragic event, no issues with that at all. She committed suicide 24hrs after a prank call went global from aussie DJ's to Kate's hospital nurse station, imitating Charles, Prince Philip and the Queen.

The lady who killed herself wasn't the nurse, she was the hospitals switchboard operator who put the call through.

Media are a bunch of whores IMHO, as they've so far blamed the DJ's, then the radio station, and now they're fixated on the hospital administration for apparent bullying within the hospital. Did anyone ask if the parents / family was also abusing this woman?

Experts have clearly stated publicly that this event could not lead that quickly to a person taking their own life, and not in the capacity of the facts surrounding this case. If it was the nurse who was on the radio... that would be different; this was the switchboard operator who wasn't even aired or publicised in any real essence... she just put call through and the nurse is the person who gave answers and fell for the prank call.

Depression doesn't occur overnight. She had to have a history prior to the event, and to be perfectly honest, this prank call event possibly was just bad timing and more likely happened when she had already made her plans to end her life. It could have been the icing on the cake, but it wasn't the cause or responsibility for her taking her life.

It seems nobody wants to ever blame the dead nowadays. Everyone else is always to blame. Tragic as it is, the woman made a decision to take her own life. Depression does that, and the person is responsible for their own actions, depressed or not. They own the act. Why is it that the media, and even public, try to find blame in the living when maybe she was just depressed and only she is to blame for her actions! Maybe the hospital had some blame, maybe the prank call was the icing, maybe her family have blame for not noticing / getting her help when they noticed change in her, and so the list goes on and on. Blame is easy... but putting it where it belongs is usually the hard part.

Media are selling advertisements, so they tell whatever is selling, not necessarily citing all the information which could taint their story and sales. People are stupid IMHO for reading news, and believing some limited scope of a story.

What is your view on this event?

 

[Shellbell]

I don't think anyone needs to be 'blamed'. No-one intended for anything that bad to happen. There must be more to why she ended her life than just the prank call. Depending on her religion and culture, there may be the issue of her bringing shame on her family. That is a big deal in some religions. Plus there could be underlying depression as well.

I feel very sorry for everyone concerned.

 

[Smushroom]

I don't think anyone is to be 'blamed' here. It was just one event that tragically pushed her over the edge.

I wonder what her private life was like? The fact that she worked 2 hours from home, and only went home on the weekends to see her family must have been a big weight on her shoulders.

There was no malice involved, and it wasn't until she committed suicide (which hasn't been 100% confirmed yet) that this blew up. Prince Charles even had a joke about it! That shows just how 'serious' they were taking it!

 

[Abrasky]

She was a switchboard operator? I thought she was the nurse like the newspapers have all said.Wow so she had even less responsibility than I thought.

I was talking about this with my husband last night. And I think that what she did is more likely to make the radio personalities commit suicide than what the radio station did to her. I think what she did is more hurtful than what they did to cause someone to commit suicide. And I think that the rest of the media and social networks are bullying the radio personalties in a mob mentality. It is very hard, if only they would think of what repercussions they are doing. In the interview, One of those media personalites is seen as so emotionally upset by this, she is really not looking great.

Nobody commits suicide over one event, and I've been through a fire-brigade event which I felt like I failed miserably and it effected me. Work can effect you a lot if you fail it a lot. But I wouldn't have felt so badly failed if I hadn't been already traumatised by my parent's. Which is why I still talk to my work collegues who partially caused that fire brigade event by sleeping through it.

People are so tunnel minded in society, can't can't realise that there there is a big picture? What happened in the two weeks before she sent a switchboard through? It isn't exactly a life-threateneing event.

That is my opinion.

 

[Ice_Fire]

I agree that it is tragic that the lady killed herself. I don't think it could have been solely due to the prank call. As you stated Anthony, she wasn't the nurse and someone just doesn't commit suicide over something like that.

I think it may have been a case of the straw that broke the camel's back, the last thing that tipped her over the edge. Should the prank callers be feeling awful? Yes, but about the prank call, not the death of the lady. It's tragic, but unintentional.

I just think that society as a whole has become insensitive

 

[Loveneverfails]

While I find media disgusting and the whole prank to be an invasion of privacy that should have been nipped in the bud by the show's producers, I honestly feel the only person at fault here is the woman who took her own life. She made the decision(no matter how ill she was) and she carried through. It is sad, heartbreaking actually, that people do take their own lives but it is a hard reality. Blaming needs to stick with the only person responsible, the radio show didn't hand her a weapon, though they did something entirely distasteful. If they face censure it should be for what they were trying to accomplish, not what is being claimed as the result. I know it's pointless, but I wish more in the media would approach suicide from a realistic perspective, the downward spiral, the statistics of who is more likely, the aftermath on the family or the long term repercussions if the attempt is unsuccessful. I wish the media would educate instead of fanatacize.

 

[KP the nut]

She was a switchboard operator? I thought she was the nurse

She was a nurse. They don't have a switchboard operator on duty at night. It is left to a nurse to take the calls. She answered and put it through to another nurse who was looking after Kate.

The call itself was not enough reason to make her commit suicide IMHO. Worse than the call itself was the media hype about the prank. Every news station and paper had it as the main story.

The nurse had a family but didn't live with them when she was working. She had a flat on her own and commuted back to her family on days off.

I saw an interview with the DJs in Sydney, they are obviously devastated, but if they are at fault, than so is the radio station management who gave the go ahead for the tapes to be made public.

 

[Whitneys story]

People are stupid IMHO for reading news, and believing some limited scope of a story.

Thank you a million times over! When will people wake up to look for the truth! Fear mongering media is all we get!
Those who keep buying into it, get what they deserve. JMHO! Whitney:wideeyed:

 

[Bilby]

so is the radio station management who gave the go ahead for the tapes to be made public.

And therein lies a very important point.

Prank calls are childish and not amusing - they have consequences. Radio is for music and ads - why do they bother with the other nonsense like this that sets such a poor example? Furthermore, there may be legal issues with regard to the recording of conversations to which you are a party - in NSW in particular, all parties need to be aware they are being recorded (I believe).

That said, the prank call was indeed made, but it was pre-recorded. The DJ's themselves should have pulled the pin once they realised they had been put through, rather than continuing to carry the joke on further and obtain private information - that's incredibly wrong and insensitive. However... once it had all been done, it lay in the hands of management to make the decision as to whether or not to air the recording of the prank call - it was the management who made the decision to air and they should take responsibility for their actions. The DJ's should have known better and pulled the pin so it didn't get as far as it did, but management should never have allowed it to be aired after it did.

As for the poor nurse involved. No one knows what she was thinking, how her life was or wasn't - in terms of work, or her private life. All we know is that she took her life. I wouldn't say that she took her life solely because of the prank call, but it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back and that is an incredibly sad thing. It's awful to think that she was in such despair and was routinely doing her job, battling day in day out, and then was involved in a thoughtless prank through no doing of her own. Naturally such a tragedy was never in the minds of anyone at the radio station - but surely a little bit of common sense should have been - even if the nurse hadn't taken her own life, they breached someone's privacy at best and that's offensive on it's own.

 

[Innordinate]

I heard about this awhile ago. I read that the DJ's had been advised not to talk about it...which makes me think that some law firm is seriously considering trying to charge them with something related to the ladies death.

Which is sad and pathetic and...just goes to show nobody wants to take responsibility or lay responsibility for peoples actions in the right direction.

Really, if anything related to the prank was to push her over the edge I'd have to say it was the rest of the world, upon hearing about the prank, bash the hospital staff for being stupid and pathetic for not realizing it was a prank....but not the prank itself.

:rolleyes:

 

[Smushroom]

Maybe, and I know I might sounds harsh, but just maybe it was a good thing this prank call happened. Of course it is NOT a good thing about the ladies death, but it has definitely highlighted that there is a gap in security and privacy in protecting the royal family...

 

[Nicolette]

Has anyone even proven that the suicide was due to putting the phone through to the other nurse... or was it just a timing issue? It may not have even been the icing on the cake. A lot of assumptions have been made here based on timing. Was there a suicide note?