Prank Calls and Suicides

Since I'm stuck at work with nothing to do I thought I'd get something off my chest. I'm sure you've all heard the ruckus about the Australian DJs who prank called the hospital where Kate Middleton is staying, pretending to be the queen and ended up being given medical details and details about Kate and Williams movements. The nurse who took the call and put it through to the ward (Jacintha Saldanha) has committed suicide and now the press have gone after the DJs like a pack of rabid dogs.

This is really bothering me because, while I think prank calling a hospital is irresponsible, it's also quite obvious to anyone who's heard the footage that they didn't expect to get put through and had no nefarious intent beyond having a bit of a laugh. Their call was really no worse than Radio and TV shows have been doing for 50 odd years. Hell, Rory Bremner once managed to get through to Tony Blair as a prank.

Meanwhile the media played that soundbight of the nurse saying "I'll just put you through" every half an hour for 2 days. I must have heard those 5 words at least 50 times, again and again ad utter nausium. Jacintha Saldanha did make a mistake in putting the call through but, given that she thought she was talking to the Queen of England, it was an entirely understandable one but the media gave her an absolute hammering. It seems to me that the largest part of the blame for her suicide lies pretty squarely with the TV and Radio news channels.

Now, since Jacintha Saldanha's death, the focus of their attention has shifted squarely to the DJs. There's no sign of contrition from the media for their coverage over those couple of days or any acceptance of any blame. To listen to them now you would believe that the two DJs murdered Jacintha in cold blood. So, not satisfied with ending one life, they seem intent on ruining another two.

It bothers me.

What is astounding - perhaps not in this day and age - is that it probably wouldn't have happened if the whole world didn't know about it. This is the NuMedia: spread it far and wide, create a meme, keep spinning it until the next level of obnoxiousness is met.

The media are creating 'reality TV' because that is their competition - the internet in general, where we can get a blow by blow account of a shepherd in Indonesia picking his nose the very second it happens.

The insidiousness is, well, insidious: I don't have TV, barely listen to the radio, and only read a couple of blogs and yet I've heard of this incident. And really, sadly, I just do not care, and am completely cold and ambivalent to the whole thing. Those that are to blame for this (as you have noted) will never be held accountable as we slide into an immoral, barbaric and uncivilized society.

I think there was more to the nurse's death than just the prank call.

If you had asked anyone before this prank whether they thought that it would lead to anyone's death I reckon 100% of people would have said "no", so to hold those who instigated the prank responsible for not foreseeing it is stupid. I think that such pranks and those who pull them are pointless and stupid themselves but, if this woman did take her own life as a result, it's not because of the prank but because of the attention she would have received afterwards for allegedly having played a part in the unbearable trauma the Princess suffered as a result of receiving a phone call she couldn't. If there's fault it lays at the feet of those people with ridiculous attitudes towards celebrities in general and royalty in particular and the media in general who incite that attitude and feed off it.

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if this woman did take her own life as a result, it's not because of the prank but because of the attention she would have received afterwards

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If there's fault it lays at the feet of those people with ridiculous attitudes towards celebrities in general and royalty in particular and the media in general who incite that attitude and feed off it.

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Spot on, that's exactly what I think. Yes the prank call might have been a bit dumb. Yes putting someone through to the ward without doing any security checking might have been a bit dumb. But both of those mistakes were all too human and neither was damaging. Hearing your mistake played out again and again and again on national TV and radio and being held up as a security risk and incompentent, on the other hand, must have been a massive psycological burden. And the thing that really beggars belief for me is that the media, instead of reeling their neck in, have simply switched the same level of vitriol to two new targets. Now that's really dumb.

By the way, not sure if you're being a bit facetious about Kate's "trauma" but the royals didn't make any statement about the incident until after Jacintha's death and haven't given any indication that they were in the least bit bothered by the call (it never actually reached Kate, just a nurse on her ward). They've kept pretty quiet about it so far but, from what I can tell they viewed it as utterly insignificant. The whole fuss is entirely media driven.

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Originally Posted by jmcilhinney

If you had asked anyone before this prank whether they thought that it would lead to anyone's death I reckon 100% of people would have said "no", so to hold those who instigated the prank responsible for not foreseeing it is stupid.

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I agree that no-one could have expected to this to lead to someone's death. However, if the question had been "Could this lead to someone being reprimanded by their employer", or "someone having disciplinary proceedings taken against them" or even "someone losing their job", then the answer should have been "Yes".

This is what has always bothered me about these types of prank calls. These particular consequences may have been extreme, but nevertheless, there often are unpleasant consequences for the people duped by these kinds of things.

FD, I do sincerely believe you are right. I would ban the TV channels and only restore the two government-run channels, DD1 and DD2, airing news at 7, 9 and 11 in the night and running entertainment programmes from 6 to 8 in the evening, and STAYING SHUT the rest of the day.

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Originally Posted by FunkyDexter

By the way, not sure if you're being a bit facetious about Kate's "trauma"

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I was. I have nothing specific against the Royal Family but I also don't think they really serve a useful purpose in this day and age, but there are some rabid Royalists out there who are offended on their behalf that Kate should be subjected to this in the first place. I'm sure that she's more offended by being photographed topless from miles away.

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I was.

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Yeah, I thought you were but I wasn't sure how the story was being told elsewhere in the world. I could kind of imagine there being news reports of Kate being distraught at being pranked and wanted to dispell that myth if it was out there. That's the problem with the internet, there's no "tone".

I'm a sort of casual royalist. I quite like that we've got a royal family (partly because the French don't) and, for the most part, I think they represent us around the world pretty well but, no, they don't really have a concrete role anymore. I view them as a "nice to have".

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Originally Posted by Nightwalker83

I think there was more to the nurse's death than just the prank call.

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It must be true. I guess it went overboard.

This just in..

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/j...al-media-prank