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Subscribe to RSSAfter the death of a nurse who relayed the health of Princess Kate to Australian radio DJs, the broadcaster says it will cooperate with investigations. NBC's Annabel Roberts reports.
British police said Sunday they have contacted Australian authorities about a possible investigation into a radio station's prank call to a U.K. hospital about the Duchess of Cambridge.
Meanwhile, the company that owns the station promised to review its broadcast practices.
The prank took a dark twist Friday with the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, three days after she unwittingly accepted the call about the health of Prince William's pregnant wife, Kate. The death has sparked an angry backlash from those who argue the Australian DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible.
The board of Southern Cross Austereo had an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss a harsh letter from the hospital that fell for the call. King Edward VII's Hospital, where the former Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness this week, condemned the "truly appalling" hoax and called the consequences "tragic beyond words."
Max Moore-Wilton, the chairman of 2DayFM owner Southern Cross Austereo, said in a letter to the hospital's chairman Sunday that the company will cooperate with any investigation.
He wrote:
We are all saddened by the events of the last few days. They are truly tragic.
It is too early to know the full details leading to this tragic event and we are anxious to review the results of an investigation that may be made available to us or made public. We can assure you that we will be fully cooperative with all investigations.
As we have said in our own statements on the matter, the outcome was unforeseeable and very regrettable.
I can assure you we are taking immediate action and reviewing the broadcast and processes involved.
Our Company joins with you, all at King Edwards VII's Hospital and Mrs Saldanha's family and friends in mourning their tragic loss.
U.K.’s Metropolitan Police said Sunday it has contacted Australian authorities in connection with the investigation into Saldanha’s death. Australian police said they would cooperate. A New South Wales Police spokesman told The Telegraph: "As our policing colleagues in London continue to examine events leading up to the death of London nurse Jacintha Saldanha overnight, we will be providing them with whatever assistance is required."
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The radio station callers impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles and received confidential details about the former Kate Middleton's medical information. The call was recorded and broadcast.
AP
2 Day FM radio presenters Mel Greig, left, and Michael Christian are seen In this undated supplied publicity photo.
Police have not yet determined Saldanha's cause of death or whether it was related to the call.
Both DJs involved apologized for the prank before Saldanha's death. Their show has been suspended indefinitely and their Twitter accounts have been taken down after they were bombarded by thousands of abusive comments.
The station's presenters have come under attack from around the world on social media sites and were "extremely distressed," a Southern Cross Austereo spokeswoman said.
Both were keen to speak publicly about the incident, but were in too fragile a condition to do so, the spokeswoman added.
The station has a history of controversy, including airing a segment in which a 14-year-old girl revealed that she had been raped. It also ran a series of "Heartless Hotline" shows in which disadvantage people were offered a prize that could be taken away from them by listeners.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates radio broadcasting, says it received complaints from around the world and is considering whether it should launch an investigation
Separately, Prince William on Sunday pulled out of attending the British Military Tournament, billed as "the largest display of military theatre in the world", citing Kate's illness.
Officials from St. James's Palace have said the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant. The child would be the first for her and William.
The radio DJs who prank called the hospital where Princess Kate Middleton was being treated are facing tremendous backlash following the death of one of the nurses who spoke with them. NBC's Annabel Roberts reports.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
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- Climate talks end with deal that's 'not where we want to be'
- PhotoBlog: Hero's welcome for Hamas leader back from exile
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Leave a Comment:
It's absurd that people blame the radio DJ's, it was a silly prank, this woman was clearly troubled. To try and lay her suicide at the feet of a couple DJ's and a crank call is ridiculous, but every mob needs its bloody sacrifice.
In other words, "It's all fun until somebody loses a nurse."
If you are a military sentry, and a spy sneaks in and steals information from your post because you didn't verify his identity before letting him onto the property, how can you blame the spy if you didn't do your job? Same theory in terms of a security guard and a thief; if you simply let someone in the door without confirming who they are, how is it THEIR fault for YOU doing something to yourself?
She was guarding the gates, as it were. She let in someone who shouldn't have gotten in. The DJs might have been jerks for impersonating royalty, maybe it's even illegal, but SHE was the one with her hand on the doorknob.
It's a horrible thing that she felt embarrassed enough to commit suicide, but if something like this was enough to trigger her death, then what's to say some trauma in her personal life--a broken relationship, for example--wouldn't have done the same? Clearly she had some sort of mental illness to consider suicide after a thing such as this to be an option.
And, to add... this is a case of society turning someone into a "victim" again... but what about personal responsibility? She had a duty as a nurse in a prestigious hospital to both uphold her hospital's policies and maintain patient confidentiality. Again, it was a stupid DJ prank and possibly illegal, but that's what they do in their job. She was negligent in her duties as a nurse.
We have people who drone on and on in these Newsvine comments about how the homeless and the drug addicts and those in poverty need to clean up their act and get a job, and take personal responsibility for themselves and their actions and, essentially, NOT be victims. Yet here we have a radio prank (one that wasn't even on her, exactly--it was on the royals) that causes a woman to commit suicide, and suddenly everyone's crying "victim" and blaming the DJs.
What's disappointing is that as a medical care worker, she KNEW there were options for seeking help in cases of mental illness and stress. She should have sought assistance rather than going right for suicide. The average person is taught to hide their distress and refuse mental health help, but someone in the medical profession knows there are options!
Back under your rock in mommy's basement you sick f#$k.
Send a message to all media. Fire the DJ's and the Program Manager. Media are nothing more then hideous vultures anymore.
I have a boil on my butt.
It's the DJ's fault
According to some here they have the same culpability for my boil as the nurses death.
I mean the nurse felt like she was made the butt of a joke and since the boil is on my butt according to some here it's all related.
And if she got a parking ticket before some allege she committed suicide ( facts not out yet ) the DJ's would be responsible too?
Seriously..what ever happened to personal responsibility ? Oh right..it's always easier to blame others. You just need to justify it in your head and you can blame anyone for anything. Except yourselves.
Maybe she was upset with the last show of Benny Hill ?
Or Downton Abbey? Or what she had for dinner? Or the weather?
Trying to blame the DJ's for her death is ridiculous.
I'll add one more twist to this.
Freedom of the press is necessary and i'm thankful for it. While it may be important or necessary to know when a public figure is hospitalized, does it really need to be published where these public figures are receiving care??? Had it not been published where Kate was, possibly none of this would have occurred.
Condolences to the family of Ms. Saldanha.
I really don't mean to seem cruel or insensitive...
Suicide is not a normal response to this kind of embarrassment.
At some point in life, we all go through this.
There is more to play here.
The head of the hospital sent a letter to the management of the radio station. The radio station should send one back that says:
Dear Sir,
Remove the stick out of your ass. Being as you are at a hospital this should be a simple and quick procedure.
Don't be as thoughtless as your post suggests. When you do thing without consideration except yourself, and when you take advantage of other people for your personal gain, without consideration for the person's feelings, you can hurt them. It's the same things that bullies do on the internet, or in school. They do it to be "cool" because it's fun to have fun at other people's expense. It seems the radio company is beginning to understand this. How much will it take for you to get it, too?
Charlie: we don't all live in a bubble. Everyone is different as to what they can and can't handle from other people. There are some that can't bear to stand next to a stranger in a line--the other person doesn't have to say anything, that's just a personal dysfunction where close proximity to another human being can cause someone to break down. There are others who can stand before O2 or Madison Square Garden crowds and entertain them without batting an eye.
To some degree or other, everyone does things without consideration for other people. Nobody is 100% selfless and giving. (Well, there was one dude, but he's dead.)
I'm not being at all thoughtless. I'm being pragmatic. As I said, it's a tragedy that she didn't have the mental fortitude to stand up and deal with a minor mistake, but that indicates other problems in her thought processes that has nothing to do with the DJs. To blame someone else for her personal and overreactive decision of suicide is falling in line with the black/white view of the world--either you're a victim or you're an attacker. So now we all cry "she was a victim!" rather than simply mourn that she chose to make that decision, and let the wheels of justice pursue the DJs as they will.
If hatred is aimed at those DJs and the radio station, it's a wasted emotion on low-class garbage who aren't worth giving a second thought to for their part in this. If they broke the law by such impersonations, that's all they are ever going to be prosecuted for in the legal sense--not anything that this nurse did as a result of their actions. And so all of you can rage against them all you want in your lives, but it will not make one whit of difference in theirs. You're wasting your attention on them.
This reminds me of the Princess Diana story.There is a difference between "news" which we need a free press to be sure its reported. And entertainment,which can go overboard and interfere in people's private lives. The press gave Diana no privacy,and she died trying to get away from them. Now trying to get ratings,another bunch disgraced an innocent women,and she killed herself because of it. Something needs to be done about this hounding of people so they can't even have a private life.
StandUp... is ridiculous. don't blame the spy for stealing important information?? he is a SPY. in other words a thief. don't blame the thief because someone's lock was picked?
i was appalled at the prank before the nurse tragedy. I don't blame the DJs for her death. I blame them for doing something truly reprehensible. and then look at the collaterol damage. It is really disgusting to prey on sick people in the hospital. did anyone thing the joke was funny before the nurse tragedy?
well, regardless whether you specifically blame the djs or can incarcerate them in any way, i would say the joke is truly on them. i know i've listened to this new breed of coarse humor here in the states for years now, well only for as long as i can till i can turn it off or when coworkers want to listen riding in a vehicle i have no control over, but you know, the stuff that started back during howard stern's reign and competition with other cities, when he went on tours around the country, and places like WYSP in Philly where i lived had to either lower their standards to that shock shlock or go under. it's not that funny, most of it, you can hear the boredom of the cig-smoking djs usually as they have to feign interest or humor at the drivel they're saying, and in this case i guess they got someone who wasn't down to speed with the crap dark ironical and pessimistic outlook mentality.
Jennifer: she was duped into transferring a call. She made a mistake. It was, relatively speaking, a TINY mistake. As a representative of the hospital, and as a nurse, she knew better than to do what she did and, had she followed proper procedure and taken down a name and number to pass on, rather than doing a direct telephone transfer, this would be a moot point.
A healthy, functioning human being makes a mistake, recovers from it, learns from their mistake and moves on.
Clearly, this woman was not a healthy, functioning human being if she saw suicide as the only recourse. Which means ANYTHING would've resulted in her killing herself, as she was unable to deal with a given circumstance.
This is clearly a tragic event and my condolences to the family of the nurse.
Having said that, the blame can fall on many parties:
The DJ's although they were just doing their job to entertain. They may be the least culpable.
The Hospital for not having a protocol when they have patients of such high order
The media for continually publicizing this event after it occurred and making the public think the nurse was incompetent
Security for the Royal family for not implementing the right security.
And I will add that this nurse clearly had to have some issues to have taken her own life over being punked. Who was her caregiver?
Yeah, right. Through fraud and identity theft, two malevolent miscreant radio personalities made a nurse commit suicide from the shame of public humiliation by these two same con artists whose only purpose was their own financial gain and the financial gain of their empolyer from their criminal act. They effectively murdered this nurse for entertainment. By any legal definition, this is manslaughter and the two radio personalities, the station manager and the station owner belong in prison for the rest of their lives.
Shock-jocks should take note that, although well within his rights to earn a living by creating an intensely angry listening audience and verbally abusing them on the radio, Alan Berg created enough angry listeners that eventually, one of them murdered him. Alan Berg may be have had every legal right to be the radio personality he was and certainly had a right to his life, but that doesn't make him any less dead even after being immortalized in the Hollywood movie, Talk Radio. In Florida, there were enough angry listeners to another station that someone finally tried to cut the guy wires to the station's transmitter tower to bring down the antenna.
Malevolent, even if legal, public behavior can have drastic consequences when its victims become unhinged enough to commit crimes such as murder or destruction of a radio station's property in retaliation. A more polite society is much better off for all kinds of reasons, this being not the least amongst them.
The real blame here lies with the media. Night after night they were successful in making a big deal out of something that wasn't even newsworthy.
I totally disagree that this lady was mentally deranged.
Viewer ratings skyrocket on ANY news involving the Queen or members of the family. Why is that?
Quite frankly, I couldn't care less if the lady had morning sickness and was hospitalized.
Those radio hosts seem to be a couple of d-bags, but the nurse's suicide is not at all their fault.
The proof is easy: No one was calling her a victim before she committed suicide, even though the DJs' actions had already occured. Only after her death are people blaming the DJs. That says something - the real issue isn't what the DJs did, it's the nurse's reaction to it.
The whole story was a tragedy, and perhaps what the DJs did was illegal (impersonating someone to elicit confidential information and then releasing that information publicly..sounds like something's wrong with that). But they had nothing to do with the nurse's death.
No one has hit on the possibility that she may have had her job threatened by the hospital mangement and was distraught over the prospect of losing her job because of this incident and having it follow her around like a scarlett letter preventing her from ever getting another job in this profession ever again. Something like that surely could push someone over the edge and take their own life.
Also keep in mind this wasn't some little event isolated to one little town or hospital. This went international in a matter of a couple of hours. Would anyone of you appreciate be the laughing stock of the WORLD?
Why does the press and paparazzi think they need to stalk the royal couples every move? They chased Diana to death and ruined countless others lives with their constant hounding. Some of you folks need to put down the people magazines, turn off TMZ and get a life by leaving others to live their own life in peace.
Nurses are valuable people. Now we've lost another one.
How can people blame the DJs for this? This psychologically troubled nurse just passed on the call. And the British police haven't even released a cause of death.
Why are the British police wasting time and money contacting their counterparts in Australia?
And why are the Australians so apologetic? They should have left the commonwealth and bid farewell to the ridiculous royal family and the queen who serves as their head of state long ago.
You would feel different if this had happened to you.
Would Jacintha Saldanha still be alive if the DJs hadn't made their prank phone call? Condolences to the family and friends of Jacintha Saldanha.
Because all people go through difficult times. If you are insensitive to other's feelings, you do what the radio show hosts did and use her to be funny, without regards to her feelings.
Easy. Because there is every possibility that this nurse would STILL BE ALIVE if it were not for the actions of the moronic radio heads. So, that is a pretty good indicator for blame, yeah? Had they not played their nasty little trick at a time when all were concerned about the health of the mother/child perhaps the nurse might have lived!
Good enough for me. Off with their heads. My heartfelt condolences to the family of Jacintha Sandanha.
So... if she accidentally hung up on a family member while answering phones one day, and that patient that the family member was trying to call died, and SHE was responsible for not letting that family member hear their loved one's voice one last time, are you telling me THAT thought wouldn't have driven her to suicide, either?
This woman made a MINOR MISTAKE. She committed suicide over that mistake. It was an overreaction to a situation--whatever that situation was doesn't matter in the sense that she was in no way equipped to handle dealing with her own mistakes.
AGAIN. Slower so you can understand: no one is debating how serious or not serious the 'mistake' was. What IS CLEAR is that had the radio not pulled their nasty little joke she MIGHT be still alive. DO YOU GET IT YET?
Another example: when a radio station held a contest to see who could drink the most water a woman died. She was playing for money and lost. If there had NOT been a contest she would not have died from it!! And the jury ruled against the radio station, just as they will this time. I stand by my comments and thoughts on this. RADIO STATION: FAIL.
Okay, slower so YOU understand...
In the military, when you are on watch, you are the first line of defense.
As a representative of a hospital, manning the switchboard, she was their first line of defense.
She failed in her duty to properly exercise her responsibilities as that first line of defense. It is a tragedy that she chose suicide rather than owning up to that mistake or seeking help. The suicide, therefore, is on her because SHE HAD OTHER OPTIONS.
Other people in this world are ALWAYS going to pull stupid moves or try and manipulate you into doing something you shouldn't. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY not to put yourself in those positions! You are given instructions? Follow them. She did not follow them; she was celebrity-struck/royalty-struck.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. Monitoring the rest of the world is not your responsibility.
Or to put it another way, TEND TO THINE OWN GARDEN.
Q: Why didn't the owner who fired them foresee the possibility of a person's suicide? Because I'd bet a day earlier that person thought these guys were worth every penny they were paying them for that prank call.
when you take an action, regardless of intent, and it results in a death.... that's manslaughter in most countries
these DJs pulled this prank which called into question the integrity of a nurse at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world.... she was humiliated world wide.... she was taunted for being so stupid in the DJs tweets.....
for many people in such positions, their reputation means quite a lot... and while its a very rash reaction, and clearly way too much... it still happened and a person is dead because these two DJs thought it was funny to humiliate people...
DJ's pull this prank call thing everywhere... they tell people they are getting a tax audit... or that their spouse is having an affair... or whatever else to get a big reaction regardless of the damage caused.... theyll do whatever no matter how sociopathic to get ratings.... if these two get made an example of... I'm all for it.. I hope they never work again.....
Dan...you obviously don't like the Royals or Britian and , no, I'm not British.
Your quite the Dumb As— . You assume too much in your short little minded comment. You know what they say about those who assume. Only thing is you only make an As— out of you and no one else.
This has nothing to do with who Kate is! This has to do with the rights of people in the hospital and the length some will go to find out the dirt on you. Pretending to be a relative or even a friend to find out information about you is a no, no. The lowest of all life forms, people lower than pond scum us these tactics and these people could care less how it affects those they scam or hurt in the process. I hope a lot of people learned a lesson! I think this radio station and these DJ's need to be held accountable for their actions.
Only in cases of extreme long-term emotional and/or physical abuse can one party be blamed in the suicidal death of another party. It goes without saying that the nurse's death was a tragedy. The actions of these two DJs does not come even remotely close to fitting the above description.
For those that say "Would Jacintha Saldanha still be alive if the DJs hadn't made their prank phone call?", well, that is false logic. Every action we take, no matter how small, results in the deaths of millions if you use the same logic. If a butterfly flaps its wings in China, a hurricane can develop on the other side of the world. Given enough time, the future of the world changes with everything we do. That does not mean we are to blame for everything that happens. "Would Jacintha Saldanha still be alive if William had not impregnated Kate?" This statement is just as true and just as nonsensical.
She was not necessarily "psychologically troubled" you IDIOTS. She took her job SERIOUSLY, perhaps TOO seriously, but she had 20 times the moral compass of the idiots who punked her! Bullies like you always accuse their victims of being "too sensitive", because you have NO moral compass or sensitivity yourselves!
And here we are, circling back on the conversation and making her into a victim...
Is a homeless person a victim? A drug addict? An alcoholic? A pedophile? A hoarder? Is a workaholic who ignores their family in favor of their job a victim of society's input?
Where, exactly, do we draw the line between what we think society does to us and all the evils they cause in our life--banks foreclosing on our homes, employers firing us seemingly without reason, friends introducing us to drugs, the liquor cabinet at home never being locked, parents or relatives sexually abusing us and distorting our sense of right/wrong about sex--and where we can exercise our own personal culpability? When does someone else's influence in our life, in a negative way, become their fault because we do not process that experience in a healthy way?
Her action to commit suicide was an overreaction. Perhaps she did take her job too seriously but that, too, is a sign of sickness. An overactive conscience, being overly concerned about what other people think of you and taking everything personal to the point of crisis, leads to any number of stress-related illnesses from ulcers to migranes... including mental illness.
There is not one iota of evidence that this nurse was psychologically troubled.
For those of you who do not know. Failure to maintain confidentiality of a patient's hospital records can lead to being fired and the loss of one's nursing license. Couple that with the international notoriety and humiliation, I wager it would shake to the core every one of you who continue to ridicule Jacintha.
Rest in peace, Nurse Saldanha. I hope those two Aussie attention whore pin heads slept well last night.
I would imagine the fact that she killed herself is pretty clear evidence that she was psychologically troubled. Mentally stable people don't kill themselves because someone crank calls them. Like I said people are always looking to excuse poor behavior. The only person responsible for the death of this woman is nurse saldanha.
Yep you're ripe for your mob justice, it's much easier to rant and wag your fist than it is to step back and look at the situation clearly.
There is absolutely no reason to ridicule her, but there is also no reason to turn her into yet another one of society's "victims." She--a health care worker who knew how to seek mental health help within her field--made a selfish decision of suicide because she could not deal with a situation. That is sad, but it is not something to pity her over and it is not something to go screaming for the DJs' heads over, either.
Jacintha made a mistake. Plain and simple. She passed on a phone call that she should not have. But by no means was that serious enough to warrant SUICIDE. Could she have lost her job? Could she have been transferred? What would have happened? She didn't wait to find out. She didn't own up to her mistake and stick around to find out what the punishment might be and how (severe or mild) that punishment would affect her career. We'll never know.
This was ONE incident, perpetrated by total strangers. Far worse mental pain exists in our lives when we are personally injured by those we love and care for on a regular basis.
As the saying goes, "People treat you the way that you LET them treat you." Nobody can hurt you or embarrass you or otherwise demean you without your permission.
Please change the O in Joke to an E to fit your posts.
you know, cunical, you could drop a few letters in your handle to fit yours, as well. your knee jerk reaction to blame the DJ's for this is EXACTLY what's wrong with society today. Thousands of radio and TV stations across the globe pull silly pranks to gain listeners and advertisers, and people EAT IT UP. so the people found out that the princess has morning sickness. THAT was some state secret worthy of ending your life, simply because you transferred the call? She didn't sell nukes to a terrorist, for god's sake, she transferred a damn phone call.
i feel bad for this woman, especially after the initial uproar, but i feel worse for the DJ's who were doing the job they get paid to do, who vetted the tape with their employers and legal departments before airing it, and are being pilloried for finding out that the princess was losing her breakfast on the floor. sad.
"Blame someone else! I'm just fine! It's other people! They're to blame for my mistakes! They are the ones responsible, not me!"
That, right there, is the mantra of today's society. Facing up to the consequences of our own actions and moving on from them is no longer a coping skill that we have. Sadly, this woman proves that point, because rather than face the punishment for her error and work to overcome whatever negative emotions she felt (either with mental health care professionals or family or friends), she killed herself. She made what can be called a minor mistake--believing a member of the Royal Family would use a public switchboard--and for whatever personal reason, she could not deal with the backlash from that mistake nor whatever consequences lay on the horizon.
The DJs are in the wrong for impersonating royalty and I'm sure there are laws that they will have to face for doing so... however, I SINCERELY doubt that we will be seeing THEM committing suicide because they can't deal with the situation that they find themselves in. The tragedy is that the nurse (whose part in this was minimal) didn't seek help to try to deal with her emotions, and suicide was a severe overreaction to this scenario, which indicates that something else about her life was, well, "not right."
the thing is though, i know people who've listened to and favored this kind of radio programming for years, some of them very well, and they are often very hard, distant and unfeeling kinds of people. just like if you knew people who screwed around with people constantly in real life. it effects people. it's part of the intentional or otherwise desensitization campaign of business. If people from a hundred years ago could see a lot of what we live with daily, seeing the ruination of the environment, wars that are fought without even a public consciousness that they're happening, they'd turn over in their graves.
This woman transferred a call. That was it. She barely spoke to the DJs, relatively speaking, and was simply duped by the celebrity aspect going on at the time. Celebrity calls or not, your responsibilities in your position at work--and the people you protect by providing good, courteous service--are the important thing. Personal accountability, and responsibility in your job and to your employer, are what we preach to workers in society, right?
Thank you. As a member of the medical community FINALLY someone gets it.
maggieadela....
What kind of feeble minded people do they hire to take care of Royal entourage ?? This women had 2 children, and yet took her life for a security breach not of her doing.. leaving a grieving family behind simply because she was embarrassed ?? Give me a break... I don't think any job is worth that amount of sacrifice !! There is something wrong with this picture if this is the reason she did this...!!!!
All the nurse did was transfer the call, and people are blaming the DJs for her death?
How about blaming the UK Media, who blow all things way out of proportion?
Blaming the DJ's is absurd. It's time to do away with all of that royalty nonsense. The British royalty are nothing but a bunch of ego-maniacs.
Yelling "fire" in a theater is a prank also. Is that all right with the DJ supporters?
"Police have not yet determined Saldanha's cause of death or whether it was related to the call."
Why do any of you even have an opinion on this yet? Any opinion? You have no information with which to form an opinion. Yet.
It differs cunical because you can foresee what will happen when you yell fire in a theater. If you don't know someone is unstable you cannot foresee that your actions could result in this reaction.
You kill yourself because you were tricked by a prank call? Really? My condolences to her family but nobody could ever foresee that a harmless prank would cause someone to kill themselves. And yes even though someone killed themselves it was a harmless prank. This type of prank is performed daily by DJs, kids and others.
It wasn't harmless, you thoughtless, heartless person. Somebody is dead. Clearly "harm occurred". Maybe you should figure out what the definition of harmless is. Here's a clue: it's when somebody isn't dead. Why do you have to mock her? What happened was so incredibly sad, and while we know this woman was literally royally humiliated on a global scale, and got into god-only-knows trouble with the hospital she was in, you choose to mock her. You're a disgrace.
Yes! So simple!! She KILLED HERSELF because of the prank. Whether that is a good or bad thing for her to have done SHE DID IT. Enough time wasted. Off with the radio's head. I am sure that is exactly what will happen.
Wrongful death? You bet.
And what of the "Innocence of Muslims" video? Shouldn't that filmmaker Nakoula be held accountable for making such an incendiary film, which brought about protests across the world and ultimately some deaths? People protested all the way from Australia to France to Egypt to Israel to the U.K. and the U.S., and the film ultimately gave Benghazi a public excuse for the actions that took place there... not that the film itself was responsible for Benghazi, as I personally believe that plans were already in place there for such a tragedy.
But certainly, amidst a multi-continental protest against violating something sacred in the world's second-biggest religion, the release of this film on the internet gave people a shallow excuse to murder. So isn't the filmmaker responsible for those deaths in some way... or was it all just "freedom of speech"?
Nakoula was arrested for violating probation (using the internet without authorization and working under pseudonyms), but was never deemed responsible for any deaths, injuries and riots. So if we're crying out for the DJs's blood, why aren't we also crying out that Nakoula was let off the hook so easily for deaths related to HIS actions?
Blaming the DJs for this is absurd, Do they shoulder some of the responsibility? Yes, they do as does every media outlet that played the recording. The nurse herself and/or those medical professionals who should have seen the signs are to blame.
Nurses are basically trusting and caring people. She just fell for a couple of DJs (Dumb Jacks) who had no business doing what they did for a laugh. Life is no JOKE and one had just lost it.
If the DJ's killed themselves, would they be victims? Who would be to blame then?
If I sit on a whoopee cushion tomorrow that my co-worker places under me, is suicide acceptable for my embarrassment?
If this caused some sort of national security breach, I would say this can and should be pursued criminally. But since this was a case of - really - just silliness, give it a rest. The nurse was probably nuts or it was a 'honor killing'. It's quite the rage in Britain these days.
BTW, who gives a toss about Kate Middleton? If this was done against her husband or brother in law it would have been another big shame on them.
The Brits are so uptight about everything.
The chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, the owner of 2Day FM, is: Max-Moore Wilton (ref: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20656911).
Who is he? He is the former head of ex-Prime-Minister John Howard's department. BUT WAIT!
Moore-Wilton was given the job as CEO of Sydney Aircraft Corporation Ltd (SACL) when Howard privatised it. What happened next? THIS happened:www.expendable.tv/2011/09/transit-report-24-missing-records.html
They had 100% proof that Schapelle Corby's bag was tampered with at Sydney Airport, on Moore-Wilton's watch, just after privatization. It was the ONLY bag not scanned.
Absolutely vital evidence? Damn right it was.
Moore-Wilton, Justice Minister Ellison, AFP Commissioner Keelty, and Howard were the gang of four who definitely knew.
THEY NEVER TOLD HER!
When she asked the government for help, they never told her. They never told her lawyer, even when he asked directly about scanning four days later. They never told the Bali court. They watched her fry.
She is still there in a hell hole after NINE YEARS.
STILL they have never revealed it.
The Expendable Project got hold of those letters a year ago, but they remain unreported. The Australian establishment is too cowardly, too closed, and too corrupt to want to face it. 100% media blackout.
Just read the letters for yourself.
By the way, the baggage handlers on duty had lengthy criminal records, and were later exposed on another drug syndication crime.
Seeing a picture here? See the rest of it here: www.expendable.tv
Sit down before you watch that, because it is brutal, jaw dropping, truth.
The point that a lot of people seem to miss is that the nurse was a private person, not a public personality. She never asked to be put on stage, but because of these two immature jerks she suddenly found herself being held up to worldwide ridicule. Anyone who thinks that's funny or even acceptable needs to take a good hard look at yourself to see if you can find any shred of humanity in yourself. And now the two who caused this are being described as "extremely distressed" and "too fragile" to comment -- what a crock. To have reached their ages and still have the emotional maturity of 10-year-olds is just pathetic.
The DJ's were moronic, childish, selfish pr!cks.
However, this idea that every movement of the taxpayer-supported, entitled, undeserving royalty should be documented and worshiped is simply beyond logic.
Combine the 2 and you have a senseless tragedy.
While pranks like this are idiotic, to blame the DJs for this nurse's death is unfair. It was irresponsible of this nurse to react with such drama when she had children who needed her. The humiliation and embarrassment would dissipate with time. Her death will stay with her children forever more. How ironically tragic.
When you invade the privacy of others for personal gain (money) then you take the consequences----the DJ's were doing the bidding of the radio station---------the radio station should take the blame!!
Yes it's one of 10,000 tragedies every day. It was started by the DJs but they didn't cause it, she had her own problems that this added to. You want to blame someone? Then blame her and the last person who made fun of her or who said she might be demoted, or her children who said or did something or the husband or butcher or candlestick maker.
This is a joke, right? I mean, some DJ's in Australia call the hopital that this spoiled little rich brat was in for morning sickness and a nurse who took the call kills herself? That is messed up. I would be embarrassed to admit that my wife was such a spoiled little bitch that she couldn't handle throwing up in the privacy of her own bathroom at the palace.
And, being in line for the throne of England, why didn't her rich husband just have a doctor come to the palace and look at her and give her some anti-nausea medicine? (I know why, having a doctor come to the palace and quietly come in and see her would not have been nearly as dramatic a show. So, the real culprit in the nurses death were the Prince and Princess themselves. Had they quietly taken care of this with a trip to Wallgreens the nurse would still be alive.)
What a bunch of spoiled little pukes... D'OH!
I've known more than a few Aussies over the years. More than a few are just pure arrogant and self-serving. Lots are great people.
Fire these DJs. They are the arrogant ones.
Bring it on.
Morning Jeff..Yep same here with Yanks..met some totally obnoxious one's and they wonder why people dislike/hate them. But have met some brilliant Yanks and they are the one's I associate with....Would not say the DJ's are arrogant...totally brain dead and stupid is more what I class them as....and an embarrassment to my country.
It's true to say the DJ's couldn't have necessarily foresee the tragic conclusion to their so called 'prank'. But there's a long established legal principle that you take your victim as you find them. Many an individual is sat behind bars for having punched/assaulted someone who later died. They didn't set out to kill that individual, but they set in motion the chain of events that resulted in someone's death. These DJ's couldn't be expected to know that this poor nurse would commit suicide, and of course, that wasn't their intention, but they could have foreseen that at the very least it would have caused severe humiliation, embarrassment and the very real possibility of these nurses losing their jobs. What's happened is exceptional, but it's a risk these pranksters took. Having unexpectedly got through to the hospital, they didn't hang up, they continued the deception. Having carried out their deception, they had the opportunity to NOT broadcast the call. They went ahead anyway. They're going to have to own this one.
Alan Funt and Ashton Kutcher have a lot to answer for!
For Gawds sake folks get a life> it was unfortunate what happened to the lady in question, and yet I tire of THE WORLD always trying to pass the buck on who caused what> She killed herself, She made a slight boo boo and she got laughed at so she killed herself. DO YOU REALLY believe that. A prank is a prank is a prank
Dave the Idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Kate killed herself, what would this discussion entail?
Spies and espionage I would imagine. *yawn*
"Tragic". Wow what a statement of regret. I hope that family sues that station until they and the two people who are directly responsible for her death are ground into the dirt.
Do you know something the rest of us don't? The cause of death has not been released. Why the frig would you suggest they sue the radio station if she died from an aneurysm?
Then you better make sure you never say or do anything that might make a person sad, or angry, or depressed or... or you might be sued or go to the graybar hotel
Steve, by the same logic, you would be directly responsible if one of these two DJs decides to end it all. You better cross your fingers...
Too many times the media makes others look bad to up their ratings and it seems as though the ratings are more important than the persons lives they are ruining. I think this is a sad situation and I think if these DJ's and the owner of the radio station need to be used as an example, then so be it. Ruin their lives, so that other media outlets possibly learn a lesson. We all need to care about others feelings and well being before stupid A$$ ratings. You may think I am jumping the gun beforethe autopsy results are out, but I have see them ruin others lives for ratigs, and more times than not, nothing is done to the morons that do their damage on others, for laughs and ratings. If they think it's for funny, they should pull pranks on their own wives and see how long their marriage lasts, think before acting stupid.