To feel sorry for the Australian DJs?

[andapartridgeinaRowantree]

Obviously more sorry for the nurse's family. I wonder how long she was having suicidal thoughts for? I can't think this could have been the only cause,

But these pranks have been going on for such a long time and those DJs could not have predicted such a result and are going to have to live with it for the rest of their lives.

It's such a tragedy and I feel very sad for all concerned.

The hospital shoud have done much more to brief the staff

Yes I do believe it was more than a silly prank. BECAUSE THEY WERE SEEKING TO MAKE MONEY FROM IT and these consequences might not have been forseeable but lifechanging and devastating consequences WERE predictable and the effects on those involved would never have been brought to light under normal circumstances which is the very sad part. It was only because it was this extreme that anyone is condemning the DJs and radio station and looking at the appalling position they put the nurse in question in. No one would be taking a long hard (overdue) look in the mirror over stunts like this otherwise.

Their behaviour breaks the most basic of media ethics you are taught at GSCE level and was obtained by deception rather than by legitimate news gathering methods and was completely frivilous.

The British press is frankly vile a lot of the time and it makes me despair about how they frequently misrepresent individuals or shit on them from a great height, but I simply don't imagine this being carried out by a British media organisation - especially given the Royals were involved because there is a self imposed code of conduct when it comes to the royals by all our newspapers which is internationally known about. So to find this was vetted by the radio station and lawyers prior to going out is even more appalling.

These people are professionals. Except they didn't behave in a professional manner. So thats about the limit of the extent of my sympathy. If you want a privileged job in such a competitive industry and you are prepared to sell your soul and sink to this level to achieve your career goals, then you know the risk you are taking and how it could easily backfire.

The radio station has been doing this for sometime and given its track record seems to lack the most basic level of understanding of ethics. So quite frankly, if it puts the entire radio station off the air by getting its broadcasting licence revoked I doubt I would loose a second of sleep over it, as there are so many ways to entertain in an imaginative way if you can be bothered to make efforts. This is just cheap and lazy broadcasting (and using the example of You've been framed is quite interesting as I believe its one of the cheapest prime time Saturday night shows thats ever been produced in comparison with its contemporaries)

Put simply I think Sydney (and indeed the rest of the world) would be better off with very basic ethics being followed in the media for a list of reasons as long as your arm, without being anything approaching a Mary Whitehouse or being pro-censorship. I'm simply anti-fuckwittery. Which this quite clearly falls into the category of.

(And I don't watch any prank shows and hate things like you've been framed for precisely this very reason and my interest in this actually has very little to do with the royals; I've had an interest in media ethics dating back to my teens.)

Yeah farandaway...except it isn't anything like that at all.

This lady's suicide was not in any way a forseeable consequence of the prank. People are not generally held accountable, either in law or moral principle, for consequences of ther actions which could not be foreseen. I really hope none of you from the baying-for-blood brigade ever end up on a jury.

This is the first thread about this thatihave responded too on here

Not baying for blood just stating the truth, if these two jokers had not played that prank te woman might still be alive

I don't agree these consequences were predictable, Red. But I think your points about lazy journalism were spot on. Because that's what sells.

I think British journalism is guilty of the same silly sensationalism.

I only listen to Radio 4 and I heard that nurse put the call through at least three times.

So if we want blood, shouldn't we be looking a little closer to home?

That statement is asinine. It means nothing. There are any number of actions which may be causative of a death but one is only morally responsible for it if one intended, foresaw or could reasonably have foreseen that consequence. If I throw a stone in the sea and thereby cause a tsunami on the other side of the world (hypothetical example) am I responsible for the resulting deaths?

Sorry piglet, guilty of large tarring brush. Just truly shocked at the knee-jerk witch-hunt vitriol being directed at two silly arses whose prank went fatally wrong.

It WAS very forseeable that a prank of this nature and attention that the radio station were actively seeking would put a person in a position that would severely damage their mental health.

I think there are very health and safety laws on preventing this from happening to members of staff within your own organisation. For a reason.

But its apparently acceptable to wilfully put someone who doesn't work for you in that position for your own financial gain.

I do feel that if there is a danger that this could have endangered the health of someone involved then there is a case to be answered. Its only because the most tragic of consequences has occurred, that we are even talking about how this has very clear repercussions for an individuals mental health. I personally feel that if this had, had caused severe depression or anxiety but not suicide then the same thing is true and I do believe this is very forseeable and preventable.

Kate was the target, but she was no means the only victim and that it was obvious from the word go. And there were countless opportunities to say enough is enough, but it was pushed to the limits and the DJ's comments after the fact show the complete lack of regard for others.

Leaving the awful outcome outside for one moment. I think there is a point to be raised regrading the DJ's lack of respect for a hospital, and the staff and patients within it.

People are admitted to hospital because they are ill. Health care professionals work hard to deliver good care and to try and ensure the best outcomes for patents.

Is that really the sort of environment that should be targeted within a prank? Does it not un

Leaving the awful outcome outside for one moment. I think there is a point to be raised regrading the DJ's lack of respect for a hospital, and the staff and patients within it.

People are admitted to hospital because they are ill. Health care professionals work hard to deliver good care and to try and ensure the best outcomes for patents.

Is that really the sort of environment that should be targeted within a prank? Does it not imply a total lack or respect for the patient well being and authority of the staff?

I can remember the days when the public were petrified to try and visit a ward out of visiting hours. Now we have the press amped outside a hospital and DJ's making stupid calls, wasting everyone's time.

Where did this total lack of respect come from?

It WAS very forseeable that a prank of this nature and attention that the radio station were actively seeking would put a person in a position that would severely damage their mental health.

Sorry, disagree. The DJs never even thought the call would be put through. There is a certainly a case for saying, after the event, lets not broadcast this, but that decision ultimately rests with the radio station and not the DJs themselves.

In this case, the nurses were never named, the Royal Family did not make a complaint (Prince Charles himself was even joking about it the day before the tragedy!), and if we accept the hospital's word for it, there was no question of any disciplinary action being taken.

The victim was only tentatively connected to the prank as the person who put the call through. It was the other nurse who was the subject of 90% of the scrutiny. This particular "joke" was nearing the end of its shelf life after only two days and would in all likelihood have died a natural death by the end of the weekend, had it not been for this poor lady's totally unpredictable and untimely death.

They should not have done it in the first place, I ope that this has taught them a big lesson. I am not saying that they we're responsible for her death, but as a result of that prank and the furor and media coverage of it and the involvement of the two nurses this probably humiliated her and she felt no other option

I don't wish death and destruction on these djs obviously, I hope their souls are giving them their own personal torment which I'm sure would be enough.

That said, I would have liked to see remorse. I see none from that station but carefully worded "it wasn't our fault" statements.

As these days it appears corporations and individuals can be shamed into moral tax obligations it's absurd that this situations apparently doesn't even warrant a statement from the djs concerned.

Shame on this station. Deep deep shame.

I agree midnight the fact that they were trying to get information about an unwell, newly pregnant woman is disgusting. It's a hospital and nothing about being in hospital is funny. I cant being to think what part of any of this they thought would be funny.

If the DJ's didnt think they would get put through then what was the point of it in the first place?

Let us try and stop being hysterical and apply common sense to this. It is forseeable that a nurse in this position will have to answer questions, and will be upset about what has happened. It is not remotely foreseeable that she will become so distraught by it as to commit suicide - and indeed were we in this country not so ludicrously over-the-top in our attitude to the royals and in particular the Duchess of Cambridge the likelihood is she would not have done so. The DJs are not responsible for this death and it is morally illiterate to suggest otherwise.

So when the call WAS put through where does that leave them Pumpkin? It was pre-recorded and vetted BEFORE going out on the airwaves.

So yes, I MIGHT concede your initial point, but I can't concede it given the fact they were successful. And tbh it was always possible that they might be put through and this WAS actually their goal from the outset.

They had numerous opportunities to question what could happen. It wasn't a live on-air stunt. It was well planned and considered at several stages.

As I said previously, we dont know that the nurse had NOT been reprimanded. I'm fairly sure that if this had happened at my place of work there would have been some sort of telling off even from co workers, let alone the bosses. Something along the lines of " you did what ???" you stupid idiot...you're in the shit now".

Its only after hearing that the nurse took her own life that the hospital said they were 'supporting' her.

As the OP can I just say that I didn't see the thread saying nurses should be sacked . And I definitely don't think they should have been.

The whole situation is very tragic and to claim that in staying I have compassion for the young Djs belittles the loss of the family is awful. As is to leap to the idea I don't value the NHS. How ridiculous.

These pranks are a constant part of radio and shows like phone jacker have made them even more prevalent. No one could have predicted this terrible outcome.

Putting aside the horrendous outcome of this. I still think that trying to get information about an unwell mum-to-be by impersonating someone else is disgusting.

Just image if it were a relative of yours in hospital and a neighbour phoned up pretending to be you?

OP - I didn't say that you didn't value the NHS. I said that the fact that we had a thread calling for her resignation, rather than sympathy for the situation she found herself in is telling. There are more requests for sympathies for the DJ's on this thread than there were on the other thread.

I also think its a demonstration of the lack of respect of authority of HCP's when people are just passing this off as a prank.

Do you honestly think nurses have the time to deal with prank calls? Did it not occur to them that the staff might be busy, delivering care, and therefore it's not the sort of place you ring up and start taking the piss?

It's a hospital for crying out loud!

So when the call WAS put through where does that leave them Pumpkin? It was pre-recorded and vetted BEFORE going out on the airwaves.

That's where I think it becomes the radio station's responsibility for airing it. I suspect they would not have done so had any information of a deeply personal nature been disclosed, but given that the ward nurse revealed little more than a series of stock medical cliches about the woman's condition, they went ahead with the broadcast. Like most broadcast organisations, they wanted to make some money, raise their profile, generate publicity - they're hardly alone in that, and their methods in doing so were hardly unique.

The prank was reprehensible, ill-conceived and juvenile, like the majority of pranks and stitch ups usually are, whether they're aired on a radio station or executed in between friends in every day situations. If there was any likelihood that prank calls were likely to result in suicide, schaudenfreude would never have taken off.

Say your best man ties your drunken fiance to a lamp-post outside a pub on his stag night for a "laugh", and then an out of control car mounts the pavement and hits him, fatally wounding him. Is it the best man's fault the fiance is dead, since if he had not been tied to the lamp-post he'd have had a better chance of getting out the way in time?

Tragic though the consequences were, I don't see that these two particular DJs are any more culpable or disgusting than any other DJ (or indeed human being) who either gets enjoyment from pranking, or seeing/hearing about someone being pranked. And I think we've ALL laughed at someone else's misfortune or embarrassment at some time or another.