If I prank call the Australian Radio Station.....

[Goldmandra]

....and tell them they're on a charge of corporate manslaughter?

I wonder how funny they would find that

[JamieandtheMagiTorch]

Agree again Whistling

[nancy75]

I think some of us need to calm down over this story, the djs making the call were no doubt expecting to be told nothing when they made the call.
They are 2 Australians putting on crap British accents pretending to be the queen, they would have expected to have the phone put down on them and then for the call to be heard by a few thousand people in Sydney.
It is only because the uk news here picked up on the story that any of us even know about it, or do you all regularly listen to Australian radio stations?

It is quite clear that nobody intended for any of this to happen, the story was blown out of proportion from the start ( did any of you see the sack the nurse threads on here? Anyone eating their words now?)
The death of the nurse is tragic, but there could have been lots of reasons for it getting the pitch forks out for the dj's is ridiculous

[Viviennemary]

Yes it's very sad. First pitchforks out for the nurse and now the DJ's.

[Doinmummy]

The DJs have been suspended but what about the producers and lawyers?

[differentnameforthis]

takingback No they didn't & they did stop it there & then. She was as wiling as one can be at 14 who's mother decided it was a good idea to go live on air to "get to the bottom" of her daughter's behaviour. Think Jeremy Kyle. It was her mother who took her there, but it was Kyle Sandilands & co who badgered her into confessing.

Who on earth would agree to interview a 14yr while under a lie detector test, so her mother could ask her personal questions, LIVE on air?

I'm sorry to be insensitive but this is tragic all round, for the djs too. What was meant to be a joke has not only ended their careers but they will have this hanging over them for the rest of their lives ... but I do feel sorry for them too

Really? They caused the death of an innocent woman & you feel sorry for them? Wow!

[BattlingFanjos]

www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/29/kyle-and-jackie-os-live-lie-detector-test-goes-very-wrong/

Absolutely horrendous, what an awful radio piece anyway but the mother is just sick for doing this!

[notmyproblem]

Don't forget to charge all the media outlets in the UK who carried the story nonstop and made sure that receptionist couldn't go 5 min without hearing AGAIN what a complete fuck-up she was being duped by a couple of idiot DJs.

Oh, no, wait that's just news reporting. . The editor over at the DM must have positively creamed his pants when he heard about the suicide, they'll be able to milk this one for months to come.

[differentnameforthis]

I think some of us need to calm down over this story, the djs making the call were no doubt expecting to be told nothing when they made the call

But they WERE told stuff. And they still sent it to air. If they didn't expect to get told that, they could easily have decided not to put it on air after all. But they didn't, because they knew it would go further that Sydney. They intended it to get out as far as possible & knew it would because it concerned the Royal family. They ruined a life & you think people need to calm down? Tell that to the deceased family, why don't you!

[QuickLookBusy]

Exactly doin. Whoever okayed this "prank" should be held to account.

And posters who say things like "lots of TV and radio shows do this kind of thing". They don't phone hospitals, as far as I'm aware, to enquire about someone whose been admitted with complications in early pregnancy.

This wasn't a joke, it was crass, stupid, twattery from the outset.

[HouseOfTinsel]

I think the really sad issue here is that the nurse felt - for whatever reason - that her performance and reputation at work was more important than her own existence. Nobody should ever have to feel that.

[differentnameforthis]

BattlingFanjos

I agree completely with you. But Kyle & co need not have given her that platform. They didn't think of that 14yr old. They just thought ratings.

[nancy75]

They knew it would go further than Sydney.

Did they? How would they know that? Australians don't give the royal family the column inches they get here, in fact most Australians couldn't give a toss about the British royal family.

[JamieandtheMagiTorch]

That lie-detector thing! FCOL. The world is going to hell in a handbasket.

[chicaguapa]

I'm sure the DJs in question will have this on their conscience for the rest of their lives. But making a prank call and it leading to a nurse committing suicide would have been beyond any consequence they could ever have imagined.

Imo the people who needs to accept a bit of responsibility is the media who made such a bloody song and dance out of it. Up to now we have been led to believe the nurses in question were going to be disciplined, that they should be sacked and the royals were furious. Now it turns out that hospital was supporting the nurses through the media storm and the royal family had not made a complaint and sympathised with the hospital.

What next, trial by media for the DJs until they kill themselves too? Has the media learnt nothing about social responsibility and the damage they can cause with tomorrow's chip paper?

[MummytoKatie]

I feel sorry for the DJs as well. I think this type of call is a bit silly and it isn't my type of humour but it was all very unforseeable.

The prank call was ridiculous. They had someone going "woof woof" in the background pretending to be a corgi ffs. That was the level of sophistication of the joke. The point of the joke is that some switch board operator would tell them to piss off whilst sounding nice and British. They would then say "piss orf" to each other in faux-posh accents on air and mutter about the queen being their monarch too. Whilst joking to each other about whose accent was the worst. It would have been vaguely entertaining to all 47 listeners and then forgotten about.

And then suddenly they had the story of a lifetime on their hands. And lawyers telling them it was all fine. And no chance to really think about the repercussions as it all happened so quick. And even if they had would the station have let them not broadcast such a good story.

And now an innocent woman is dead. And they have to live with that forever.

[MrsBW]

nancy75 the British Royal family? It's the Australian's Royal Family too and garners a fair bit of press out there as well.

Lots of contributing factors to this including the British Press IMO.

A tragedy all round.

[nancy75]

Mrsbw, Australians don't see the royal family as we do here, my Australian husband, his friends and family certainly don't, and yes they make the papers but nothing like the obsession we have here.

[BattlingFanjos]

differentnameforthis I completely agree, I got sidetracked by the mum.

Also think, yes the DJ's probably thought they wouldn't get through. THEY should have hung up as soon as they realised they were. They knew its was a fuck up on that poor nurse's part and didn't give a flying. Plus the producers and whoever elses nod was needed to go ahead. Shame on all of them. The whole thing stinks to me, how anyone can go out of their way to do this in the name of entertainment deserves all the criticism they get. Same as Xfactor, same as JK, it's all sick bear baiting/humiliation, awful stuff.

[HouseOfTinsel]

MummytoKatie - yes agree with that. As prank calls go it was actually designed to fail, yet weirdly it didn't - and that turned out to be the story.

[BattlingFanjos]

Mummytokatie I understand why they did it, and what they wanted to get out of it. But seriously? They could have easily have hung up as soon as they got through, had a laugh about being believed, ridiculed each other's accents and whatever else they fancied doing on some poxy non-show. But they didn't, the point is they made a monumental decision that then caused a series of consequences. The ripple effect. In that position I would have had no qualms about saying "No, I'm not doing that". As I did at 10 when some pillock I went to school with though it was funny to prank call 999. It's a lesson the majority of people learn early

[MidniteScribbler]

INancy, they may not have expected anything to happen when they originally made the call, but the call was pre-recorded, and listened to by the stations lawyers and presumably the management before it went to air. There was plenty of time for management to step in and say "no, this is not right, let's can it." I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the station management (who also allowed the lie detector to occur). They need to be held accountable.

And I'm Australian, so I do listen to australian radio stations, although my preference is for ABC News rather than trash commercial stations.

[Aspiemum2]

The prank was awful to begin with. A pregnant woman in hospital as the butt of the joke?! It doesn't matter who she is I think you've to be quite twisted to turn that into a source of amusement.

Of course they have blood on their hands, if the nurse genuinely committed suicide over this. Yes she may have been fragile but they didn't consider the repercussions for the hospital staff before or after - they found it all highly funny. They are utterly pathetic.

It's irrelevant whether you are a royalist or not, it's really a horrible story for everyone involved. I feel for the nurses family, she had 2 kids who no longer have a mum. I also feel for Kate, what should be a joyous time has been plagued by severe sickness and now this.

All round the whole thing is grubby and nasty.

[nancy75]

Midnite, yes they could have binned it, but considering the info the nurses gave out why would they? All they were told was that she was rehydrated and resting, everyone knew why she was in hospital, doctors had been all over our news saying she would be given fluids and getting rest, what they were told was hardly earth shattering.
This only became news here because our media wanted to jump to kates defense against the nasty foreign press who were hounding her. Just the same as the topless photos, when a foreign pap takes a photo of our royals it's an outrage, when a British red top does it, well that's just fine.

[MrsBW]

nancy75 Sorry, going to have to disagree... The nurse also said Kate hadn't been sick while she was on duty.

With all the press speculation about whether she has HG or 'just' morning sickness, that info should absolutely have been kept confidential.

There absolutely was more divulged in that call than was in the public domain already.

I've said it before and I'll as it again. Duchess or no, it should never have been broadcast. Especially since there was an opportunity to review the recording before it went to air.

[MidniteScribbler]

Nancy, it had nothing to do with the information that was divulged. Blind freddy could foresee implications for the two nurses involved. Suicide certainly probably wasn't expected, but surely any lawyer worth their over inflated fee should have predicted reprimands, suspensions or even sacking - very real implications for these womens jobs and livelihood. The fact that not one person stopped to think "hmm, these woman might lose their jobs" is what is so horrible about it. I don't doubt that the DJs probably expected the switchboard to tell them to sod off, and that would be the end. When it got as far as it did, they should have put an end to it and hit the delete button.