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AIBU?

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Original poster

To feel sorry for the Australian DJs?

921 replies

andapartridgeinaRowantree · 08/12/2012 00:38

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.

OP posts:
Doinmummy · 08/12/2012 11:10

I don't feel sorry for them at all.

Image if my friends husband was ill in hospital. I phone up pretending to be my friend to find out what's wrong with him. It's a terrible thing to do.

RooneyMara · 08/12/2012 11:19

Not one single tiny ounce of sympathy for them.

I've always deplored this sort of shite and it happens a lot on the radio - like they can't think of anything better to broadcast.
It's completely unethical, very stupid and cruel and should never have been instigated.

I think it would have been very clear to all involved in this 'prank' that it was messing with people's jobs and their privacy - and in the light of that, common sense alone would have stopped anyone vaguely decent from doing it.

They can deal with the consequences how they like but it's not out problem to feel sorry for them. twats

Nancy66 · 08/12/2012 11:20

no newspaper called for the nurse to be sacked that I am aware of.

BaublesAndCuntingCarolSingers · 08/12/2012 11:24

I don't give a shit about them, tbh.

The danger with a prank is it can always backfire. It has backfired spectacularly and they should be suitably ashamed of themselves and be adult enough to shoulder any fallout from their stupid actions.

bakingaddict · 08/12/2012 11:27

The one thing that I have been puzzled over in this saddening episode is that a private hospital dealing with one of the most famous and publicised women in the world doesn't seem to have had any policy for dealing with enquiries relating to her.

It seemed so easy for the DJ's to get through to Kate's nursing team, I would have thought that there would be special pass codes or all calls to be relayed through her protection detail with all nursing and medical staff treating her to fully debriefed on how to deal with incoming enquiries concerning Kate. It seems like the poor nurse suffered the ultimate consequence due to a lack of forward planning by the hospital

EasterEggHuntIsOver · 08/12/2012 11:28

RedToothBrush - I completely agree with everything you said.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the DJs Angry

TheCrackFox · 08/12/2012 11:41

Great post RedToothBrush.

They broadcast this "prank" knowing full well that someone could have lost their job over it - in the middle of a huge recession. Hilarious, eh?

Everybody makes mistakes at work but it is highly unusual to have the world's media and several hundred million Internet users laughing at it. You would have to have the hide of a rhino not to be effected by this. I know I would be utterly distraught.

RedToothbrush · 08/12/2012 11:44

bakingaddict, I put what I thought about your question on another thread:

The trouble with trying to set up a protocol for private calls in a hospital are this:

a) sheer number of people who need to be informed
b) the fact that training takes time and realistically there would be few patients needing this even in a private hospital
c) Kate was an unscheduled admittance which makes it harder to prepare staff
d) you would also need to inform anyone with a legitimate reason to contact Kate
e) trying to illicit medical details breaks the self enforced code of conduct by the British media

In my mind it does come down to the media. No one should have to go down to these lengths IN A HOSPITAL. No matter what the public thirst for the Royals is.

Taken in context after the incident of her topless, perhaps they should have done more, but on the other hand perhaps they felt that the boundaries had been made clearer and images tend to be the biggest seller rather than a story on the subject. And there are limits about how realistic this was in a busy, working hospital with a lot of other patients to deal with too.

seaofyou · 08/12/2012 11:58

The DJs should be sacked for this! This thread is sick and needs to be removed considering the circumstances!

Lots of people on here and possibly FB and other sites were saying the poor woman was stupid for believing the crappy accents and should be sacked on here as well as possibly and other places.

She possibly was not suicidal but the thought the whole world was laughing at her thinking she was stupid and she did a job that well it isn't for the 'money' it is the love of wanting to help people as very caring...then felt she caused all this and some wanting her sack like the thread removed yesterday...yes could easily have driven her to suicide!
So the possibility of it was this one incident alone was possibly correct.

I just hope another life is not wasted on this stupid prank ie Duchess unborn baby from mum's stress of this too!

seeker · 08/12/2012 12:07

I just think it was bizarre that somebody could just rising this hospital and say they wanted to ask about their granddaughter Kate and get put straight through. I think heads should be rolling at the hospital, frankly.

differentnameforthis · 08/12/2012 12:07

Of course there is more to it from the nurse's point of view, of course there is. The point is, this should never have been part of her problems

Spot on, Morloth!

zeeboo · 08/12/2012 12:09

No, what they did was pathetic and cruel to Kate never mind the nurse who took the call and I hope they live with this for the rest of their lives.
You seriously think its ok to prank a young girl in hospital with her first baby, experiencing pregnancy problems and waste the time of the hospital staff to boot? My 12 yr old DS thought it was pathetically childish ffs!
They couldn't have foreseen the death but they could have easily seen that it wasn't ever going to be a good or helpful action and would involve people being embarrassed and humiliated and Kate's privacy yet again breached.

RooneyMara · 08/12/2012 12:12

Whatever her reasons for taking her own life, and whether there were others as well as this, the fact that she has has neatly solved the problem for the hospital over whether to keep her on or not.

And possibly sidestepped the issue over whether anyone else's job should now be considered, as surely this is enough damage in itself and should not be further compounded

I hope that the hospital did not handle it in a way likely to exascerbate what this poor woman was already going through

It looks as though she was living many miles from her family

I am very sorry for her children.

scottishmummy · 08/12/2012 12:15

don't feel sorry for dj at all
but they couldn't have expected this tragic result
my thoughts are with ms saldanha family and children.so v sad.hope they are supported

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 08/12/2012 12:17

You 'hope' they live with this for the rest of their lives? What a strange hope zeeboo.

Of course they will live with this for the rest of their lives. Something that they did has led to the death of another human being. Whether it was 'meant' or not is immaterial, it has happened. I think it can be assumed that without the phone call, Jacintha Saldanha would still be alive and her children would still have a mother.

I do feel sorry for the Australian DJs. They may have done something incredibly ill thought out and stupid but by God they are paying for it now.

This does not take away from the sadness I feel for the nurse who has taken her own life and her family.

However I have enough compassion in me to spare some for the two DJs.

RooneyMara · 08/12/2012 12:17

I imagine the DJs didn't expect to be put through, or believed, as the accents they put on were indeed shite.

That's so far from the point though. 'Publicity stunts' were always a crap idea.

BoreOfWhabylon · 08/12/2012 12:28

I entirely agree with RedToothbrush's excellent post, especially this bit:

We wouldn't have heard the headlines about the nurse who had a breakdown or had quit her job over this. It wouldn't have been important that it had recked her life or career. She'd be forgotten and left to get on with it by the press. There would be no holding the radio station accountable for how much they had destroyed someone's life. And she'd still be painted as "letting down the royals".

Let's not forget that another nurse was also hoaxed - the one who was on the ward. We've heard nothing about her, but I'm willing to bet she's not exactly feeling chipper about the whole thing, not least because her colleague is now dead. If I were her I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to face working as a nurse again.

So, OP, YABU.

PoppyAmex · 08/12/2012 12:37

This is the same radio station that forced a "scared" 14 yr old, to confess live on air, that she had been raped at the age of 12!

They are vile.

I was living in Sydney at the time and I remember this - they had the girl's mother live at the same time and the poor mother got to hear it first there.

They really bullied the girl until she "revealed" it.

VicarInaTutuDrankSantasSherry · 08/12/2012 12:39

yabu.

not least because the male DJ had form for being a twat on air - after he had had a 14yr old girl admit live on air that she had been raped he asked her if that was her only sexual experience. gobsmacking.

there is a very fine art to prank calling. there is a line between funny and monstrous. they crossed it, and not for the first time in their careers.

i dont feel a jot of sympathy for either of them or the station. They need to live with what they have caused, foreseeable or not.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 08/12/2012 12:43

It is not the same DJ, Vicar but the same radio station.

The DJs in question are called Mel Greig and Michael Christian and the DJ who 'interviewed' the 14 year old girl is called Kyle Sandilands.

SirBoobAlot · 08/12/2012 12:46

No sympathy from me. The whole situation is utterly horrible, and it should not have come about, because they shouldn't have made that call.

The male especially was a prize twat to a young girl a few years ago.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 08/12/2012 12:48

He wasn't SirBoobAlot. It is the same station but a different DJ.

chrismissymoomoomee · 08/12/2012 12:52

No sympathy at all from me, they deserve everything they get.

VicarInaTutuDrankSantasSherry · 08/12/2012 12:54

oh right i stand corrected, i thought it was the same dj. still - shows the ethos of the station in a good light that 3 of their djs are twats.

still no sympathy for them. or the station. i hope they lose all their sponsers.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 08/12/2012 13:00

Undoubtedly they will lose their sponsors, it has already started.

The radio station are clearly highly irresponsible and have been sanctioned on a number of occasions.

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