Whether we’re talking about school bullies, Daniel Tosh, or the radio personalities who humiliated a nurse into suicide, the worst thing we can do is lose our own sense of empathy.
This story begins happily, with Princess Kate and Prince William expecting a baby. The media, of course, is wild with the news, wondering what the couple will name The Royal Baby and whether The Royal Baby will actually be twins. Then Kate is struck with pregnancy sickness so profound she has to be hospitalized.
As we know, if there is one thing that tabloids love almost as much as a scandal, it’s danger. And for a while, everyone waited with baited breath to find out if the princess and The Royal Baby were going to be okay.
Meanwhile, two Australian radio DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, decide to prank call the hospital and impersonate Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, inquiring as to the health of their future heir. It was a hairbrained scheme, the type of thing that’s been happening on the radio since Howard Stern and other shock jocks started publicly embarrassing people in the early 80s, and certainly no one figured it would work.
But it did. Greig and Christian were transferred through to the nurse in charge of Kate Middleton’s care, and that nurse disclosed personal details about the Princess’ health.
It must have been thrilling. They’d scooped even the scuzziest of tabloid rags!
According to The Daily Mail, the recording of the prank call was screened and edited by producers before the show went live, and the intimate details of William and Kate’s family were made into breaking news. Greig and Christian tweeted and bragged about their success.
This alone is troubling. I don’t care if you’re royalty or work at WalMart, you deserve your privacy, particularly in a traumatic time. However, exploiting people’s privacy for financial gain is nothing new to tabloid journalism.
But what happened next is an acute reminder that such exploitation can have a very high price.
The DailyMail explains:
A nurse who transferred a prank phone call from two Australian radio presenters about the Duchess of Cambridge has died in a suspected suicide – two days after being duped.
Mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, who was working on the switchboard when 2DayFM obtained intimate details about Kate, was found dead near the King Edward VII Hospital today.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are ‘deeply saddened’ by the tragedy and a Palace spokesman said the couple had not made a complaint about the prank call.
It’s safe to presume, though we don’t have all the facts, that being the unintended victim of this prank caused a hard-working nurse, whose life was dedicated to helping others, to kill herself.
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My first reaction to this story was outrage. I was shaking and had goosebumps. With my work here at GMP, I read a lot of horrific news stories, but something about this one struck me deeply. Not because it’s more tragic than other suicides, or the exploitation of children, or the gunning down of a 17 year-old unarmed boy by police for playing his music too loud. Those are also all horrible stories.
It struck me so deeply because it encapsulates everything I’ve been troubled by in the last few months. It is part of what I believe to be at the root of all the worst things that happen in our society—a profound lack of empathy for other human beings.
In reaction to my righteous outrage, I sent a tweet that I shouldn’t have, just seconds after reading the story. I am not going to delete it because I think it is an example of how we, as humans who consider ourselves moral, often react when we hear about an innocent person being targeted by greedy people.
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/iproposethis/status/277071155851059200″]
Yeah, I laid it on pretty thick. I was enraged. And I was being honest—I do think that the tabloid media is a giant, writhing swarm of greedy fame-whores (no offense intended toward sex workers, of course).
However, my outrage wasn’t well thought-out. I made a decision based on emotion, operating upon a basic human instinct: the desire for revenge.
I wanted to get revenge against Greig and Christian for the death of Jacintha Saldanha. They deserved my words of disgust, my public shaming. I also wanted to be a part of teaching society a lesson. Look what you did! Look what happened because of your passion for laughing at others’ mistakes and misfortune!
But I was wrong. It was wrong to send that tweet.
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I’m reminded of a story posted by my friend and colleague Jamie Utt on his Facebook page. Two trouble-making high school boys had been caught fighting in the hallway at school, and were dealt an unusual punishment. The teens were forced to sit together, holding hands, while their classmates taunted them, calling them “gay” and “f-gs”. The boys sat, heads bowed, faces covered. The incident became national news when the photo, at left, appeared on Facebook.
In the discussion on Jamie’s page, we tried to get to the root of what was happening. Was this punishment rooted in homophobia? Did the principal, who is generally considered a hero renegade of education, ask them to hold hands because he knew it would draw taunts? Or was this a sort of public “hug it out” therapy?
It seems obvious to me that there are two things at work in this story. First, I believe this punishment is rooted in anti-gay sentiment. If the aim had been to get them to reconcile via a “hug it out” therapy, the principal certainly would have known that men in our society generally do not hold hands as a sign of friendship and peace. A handshake would have been appropriate. I would still disagree with any adult forcing a child to touch a person whom they weren’t comfortable touching, but at least the act of shaking hands would be rooted in some sort of logic.
No, I think this principal knew that if the boys held hands, they would be taunted. He must have known that they would be the butt of jokes and should have assumed that anti-gay hate speech would be used against them.
But even deeper, this principal wanted these boys to be bullied.
And that’s what I wanted for the Australian DJs whose bullying contributed to a woman’s suicide.
I wanted to bully them right back.
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A few months ago, comedian and television host Daniel Tosh became world-famous for a rape joke gone wrong. During a performance, he allegedly made a joke about rape that caused an audience member to boo or heckle him. In turn, Tosh directed his biting humor at the audience member as she tried to leave.
As far as we know, this performance was not recorded in any way, so we have to base our discussion upon what those in the audience says happened, and which Daniel Tosh has never refuted. Supposedly he responded by “joking” (purposeful use of scare quotes) that it’d be really funny if she were raped by five guys right then and there.
It’s not funny to me. I don’t care how funny some people found it to be, I see that joke as a threat. Daniel Tosh was exhibiting an extraordinary lack of empathy for that audience member at that moment, not pausing for even a moment to consider why the woman had found his first rape joke to be offensive. Instead, he plunged on as the person in power in the room, the famous one, the one with the mic, and joked about how a woman should be gang raped.
I wrote about this after it happened, when feminists and others were demanding Daniel Tosh’s head, metaphorically. Hatred against Tosh spewed from nearly every media outlet online. Petitions demanded Tosh.0, his Comedy Central show, be pulled from the air and boycotts against the network were planned.
I can’t speak to whether Daniel Tosh is a good man. I don’t know him and I know very little about his personal life. What I do know is that he publicly apologized for what he did and that his apology simply was not enough for many people. They wanted him gone, out of the public eye, defamed, ashamed, and discredited.
But why?
Because he’d been a bully. He had bullied that audience member and it was wrong. And ultimately, we wanted to bully him right back.
So what would happen if Daniel Tosh had been taken off the air? If comedy clubs refused to book him? While they have every right to do either of these things, what would it accomplish?
I imagine people felt it would be a big lesson to comedians not to make rape jokes. But where does that “lesson” end? Does Louis CK need to strike his bit, shown below, from his comedy routine—where he actively challenges the way in which the media has completely fucked up the messages we send people about rape and consent? I mean, it’s a joke about rape, right? And while many critics say, Oh no, that’s Louis CK, he’s allowed to make rape jokes because he does it right there are others who say there should be no jokes about rape allowed. Ever.
So who decides? When does that snowball stop rolling?
And what do we really feel, inside of ourselves, when we hurt those who have hurt us?
Satisfaction.
If Daniel Tosh had lost his career, there would be a whole pile of people patting themselves on the back, believing they had helped stop rape by making a dent in rape culture.
But all they would have done, really, was create a sense of fear within the entertainment community, limiting the ability of people to push the limits on touchy social issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, ableism, sexual assault and any other issues that the vocal social justice community find important. And sometimes, pushing those limits in comedy can be consciousness-raising.
I find all these issues important too, and within my community of friends who are not involved in social justice issues, I sometimes find myself trying to figure out the best way to explain that making fun of an “ugly tranny” is hate speech. Often, these friends or acquaintances of mine truly had never thought about the consequence of what they were doing, even when they joked about “Colored People Time” (referring to someone of color being late) or said that fat people have a disease. But if I explain it compassionately, most of the time people agree, and they regret having bought into the idea that making a joke made something less offensive.
But will I no longer be that person’s friend because of that lapse of judgement? Do I want my friend who said “Colored People Time” to lose her job or be publicly shamed? No. I just want to talk about it with her.
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This week, the editorial staff here at The Good Men Project has been discussing a new comment on a blog post, about an out gay teenage boy named Josh who was bullied and subsequently killed himself.
It’s always hard to write those stories. I wrote a similar one a few months ago and had to read a number of articles about the boy and watch interviews with his loved ones. I have little boys of my own, and I don’t know if they’re going to be gay, straight, bi, trans or whatever else when they grow up, but I look at this boy’s mother and I feel like she is my sister. Her boy. Our boys. All these children who are taunted because of their sexuality (or their looks, weight, race, gender expression, etc) are our family. Their parents are our brothers and sisters.
The comment in question was from a person identifies herself as Josh’s cousin:
What should happen to that boy’s tormenters, both children and adults? What should happen to the people who told him that God was going to send him to hell, to be burned alive for eternity, because of the fact that he refused to deny his sexuality? Their bullying led to a death, even if some of them thought it was in God’s name.
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And what should happen to Mel Greig and Michael Christian? Should they be fired? The Daily Mail reports that their Twitter accounts are closed, that the station’s website has been flooded with complaints, threats and harassing messages, and that the pair has been suspended.
But what about the producer(s) of the radio show, the ones who approved that prank call for air? Do we want that person gone? To me, the producer failed even more than the radio personalities. It’s their job to push the limits and the producer’s job to make a choice about the legality and ethics of airing the content that is produced. Should the production team be fired, too?
How about legally? Should Greig and Christian be charged with contributing to the death of the nurse? What will that accomplish?
In order to answer these questions, we must check in with ourselves.
What is missing inside of people when they bully someone—when they suggest an audience member should be raped, when they trick a nurse into giving out private details that would probably cost her her job, or when they taunt and shame a gay teen so mercilessly that he commits suicide?
They’re missing empathy—the ability to imagine how the other person feels.
Most likely, they aren’t psychopaths who lack empathy completely, instead they probably experience a lapse of compassion for the human beings involved in their bullying. A quest for popularity, for power, for laughs, for acceptance, for justice, or for revenge becomes so overwhelming that for a short time, they forget the humanity of the person in front of them, or on the other end of the phone.
And sometimes that’s deadly.
That’s why my tweet about the DJs was inappropriate. I had lost my empathy for the human beings who had made a very, very dire mistake that ended up having horrifying consequences. For a moment, in my quest to show the world just how messed up their prank was, I just wanted to make them hurt.
My feeling is that Greig and Christian aren’t bad people. My feeling is that they had a job to do—to provoke, push boundaries, be funny and edgy—and they lost their moral compass along the way. This situation deserves our outrage, as does the threatening joke Daniel Tosh made, as does the death of Josh as a result of bullying.
But if all we do is take down the person we’re outraged with, dancing around singing, Ding dong the witch is dead! we’re not really dealing with the problem, are we? In fact, by pretending that Daniel Tosh or Greig and Christian are actually the problem, rather than symptoms of much bigger problems, we are preventing the conversations that need to be happening from being had. Conversations about how we are all responsible for our culture—one of hate, oppression, greed, celebrity-worship, sexual exploitation and more. Also, conversations about how a person takes responsibility for doing something bad, how they ask for forgiveness, how they grow and how they can show they’ve changed. And conversations about how and when we forgive.
This isn’t to say that people who do something bad shouldn’t suffer consequence. I’m uncomfortable with Daniel Tosh now, and so I don’t watch his show, and I won’t see his comedy shows. Maybe someday I will. But for now, the consequence of what he does is losing a viewer and having people talk about his aggressive comment in public.
The natural consequence for Greig and Christian may be that they lose their jobs, but if that’s the case, then so should their producer who ultimately was the one who put that segment on the air. But I would rather see them, all of them— the production team and the DJs—sit down with a responsible journalist or social activist and talk about what happened. I want to explore the societal and personal factors that led them to air that segment, and it’d be great if their apologies to be as public as their prank.
But let us be sure, as we level attacks, as we send our tweets, as we confront the people in our own lives who have harmed us or others, that we aren’t reacting to a lack of empathy by abandoning our own.
Source
So sad and so devastating but perhaps not too terribly surprising. People with mental illness, who commit suicide, many times, have a history of previous attempts. My heart goes out to her family.
So the inquest has been opened and adjourned. The reports coming from the Inquest (Press Appear to be Excluded and there is no apparent statement as to why) indicate Jacintha Saldanha did commit suicide. She left three suicide notes. Newpapers which have spoken to people attending the inquest report one referred to funeral arrangements she wished. One of the others was to her family. The third was highly critical of how she was treated very badly by colleagues in the wake of the hoax call. It is very odd for there to be such a delay and so much obfuscation… Read more »
And once again, MH, you gloss over facts that don’t suit your, at times, bizarre method of “reasoning”.
The third suicide note referred directly to the phone call by Christian & Grieg. So these three notes along with the tragic suicide of this woman rather negate the pages & pages you have been.
Please don’t bother to respond, as I won’t be checking back. This was an interesting & well reasoned read until it was hijacked by your ill-reasoned rantings and those of your acolytes.
My thoughts are with the family of Jacintha Saldana.
You failed to make comment on the delays in official confirmation of “suspected” suicide – it is still not ruled as suicide by the coroner and the ongoing police investigation, which has to deal with the issues raised of Workplace Bullying. Sorry if you see me as glossing rather than ignoring. Must be a UK law Thing Vs other places.
Also – Spotted this with my morning coffee too, from the Employer in a letter to a Mt Vaz MP “Neither ourselves, her friends or family noticed anything to give cause for concern,”
Anyone missing from that list? Such as Colleagues? It’s amazing what people leave out and that is where you do need to focus – the things unmentioned and the things standing till in plain sight.
So far I see no proven direct connection between the death of this nurse and the prank call.
If you want to write about bullies, there is much better stuff out there for example this one.
This is about the death of boys over years and nobody seems to care about.
It’s good stuff for the ‘GoodMenProject’ to talk about.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2246378/Dozier-School-Report-reveals-19-unmarked-graves-Florida-boys-reform-school.html
Quite.
What exactly were Royal Protection/MI5 doing at 5.30 am when the phone rang? I never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by foolishness and stupidity. But when the explanations of foolishness and failure require such a clash of coincidences that probability cries “Hold On” you need to stand back and look at what is standing still and hiding in plain sight. According to the Evening Standard, Mrs Saldanha left a note for her husband Ben Barboza, 49, and children Junal, 17, and Lisha, 14, but the family still believe there are “unexplained circumstances”. Keith Vaz, the Labour… Read more »
BTW…this is an excellent article dealing with how absolutely insane y’all are in your handling of this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-russnow/jacintha-saldanha-dead-royal-family_b_2269546.html
Thank you for that! I blame a great deal of the hysteria on the operation of #FatSparrowCult and all who bow down before the great Icon. They twit and retwit factoids until they are all in a frenzy and reality or even realities are of no interest! You can’t stop a fundamentalist when they have their fundamental out and are playing with it.
That’s why I only tweet funny stuff. :O)
Playing Cludo – Its the Queen In Buckingham Place with ….???? and you think I jest! Tue 11 Dec 2012 10.40 UTC A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out on the hospital nurse who was found dead after taking a hoax call about the Duchess of Cambridge. Source – BBC News 11 Dec 2012 10.04 UTC So I do wonder why so many are stating and even demanding that there has been a suicide when the Post Mortem is still to be performed – 5 Days after a person died. It is so very very odd. Normally a… Read more »
As someone whose entire professional career (over 25 years) has been as a radio announcer I can tell you that you have not factored in a major component. One that has been overlooked in every analysis I’ve read…that being: these two people are supposed to be professional broadcasters. Whether or not they’re supposed to “push boundaries” or “be funny” or whatever you want to try and say as a way to excuse their behavior – they’re supposed to know what is “too much”. They’re supposed to know what the law allows, what society would allow, what common sense and good… Read more »
JM: Ok, one more time – Still don’t know it was a suicide and I do know what the gist of the story was. Until someone in charge states that the cause of her death was A) Suicide and, B) said suicide was a direct result of the prank, I will not decide. I will say I find it very hard to believe that IF it was suicide that this one thing, embarrassing as it might have been, would cause a supposedly balanced, professional woman to take her own life. Invariably there is always so much more going on in… Read more »
i’M DONE WITH THIS.
Pity – was looking forward to your opinions on Public Interest in investigation Breaches Of Data Protection By Hospital (£500,000 Fine) Vs Public Interest is seeking Extradition of 2 DJ’s from Australia To UK for a crime that may NOT have been committed (£5000 + Fine).
Justice costs money and the costs and returns have to be assessed. I may need to do some maths!
What MediaHound said. It is much more irresponsible to form a lynch mob to string these DJ’s up than to stand back and let all the info come in and THEN make a informed decision. To be honest, I think a HUGE leap was made in assuming that her death had anything whatsoever to do with the prank. This more than anything bothers me. Yes, it’s sad she died but you are going to feel very dumb when you find out that this really had no bearing on her death at all. In reflecting on this post and some of… Read more »
Andy -Yohan as the DJs did not seek info with criminal intent it’s not clear what if anything anyone could be charged with in the UK – except of course the hospital who appear to be in breach of The Data Protection Act 1998, and should have reported the data breach to the Information Commissioner for investigation. Failures to Report and Also the breach could be big issue and fining issue (£0.5 Million) – so it’s odd that the media and hospital have forgotten to mention it given the Levison Inquiry/Report. Is the hospital attempting to divert attention?
MediaHound The very act of obtaining the information under false pretences and impersonating another person is a criminal offence, full stop.
The bigger issue and one which requires no extradition is of course The Information Commissioner investigation the Data Breach. The DPA ICO guidance on Social Engineering and Spoofing has been about for 10 years, so are the literacy levels in Hospital Management so poor they can’t read? Intent is relevant and relative. Would love to see how taped evidence could be used to show intent. Both presenters made it clear they expected total failure due to duff accents – and were clear they expected to get stopped at the first hurdle. Appendix 4 DPA 1998 Criminal Sanctions = £5000.00 fine… Read more »
Screw the suicide issue! The crime against humanity is the cruelty.
Why are people hesitant to condemn cruelty and would rather turn the spotlight to the suicide non-issue? Could it be because they fear not being able to freely mock and torture poli-oposites?
We cannot ignore this ‘suicide non-issue’.
It’s a form of lynch-justice going on which is not acceptable.
There are plenty of people who want those Australian DJs in jail facing manslaughter-charges without even unable to prove any direct connection between the prank and the alleged suicide.
Thank you! Until there is clear evidence that this admittedly immature and silly stunt caused this poor woman to take her own life (which I highly doubt), there is no reason to even factor it in.
Here! Here!
You guys, it’s not an “either/or” – they have to consider it a factor in the suicide, until it’s ruled out that it had nothing to do with it. Insisting that it has to have *nothing* to do with the suicide is as absurd as insisting that is HAS TO have something to do with the suicide. Stop going to extremes to prove a point. The fact is, we don’t know, but everything should be considered. And above all, when we act, we should consider how the fallout of our stupid pranks (or take-down culture) will affect the very real… Read more »
You guys, it’s not an “either/or” – they have to consider it a factor in the suicide, until it’s ruled out that it had nothing to do with it. Sorry – “In the Suicide”? Has there been a suicide? The Police haven’t said So – the Family haven’t said so – The Pathologist doing the post Mortem has not said so and the Coroner has still to open an Inquest! There is nothing to factor in or out other than Idol Speculation! #LoveTheCutGlassBalls Who has these Crystal Balls and Abilities to generate net content and why are they not Trillionaires… Read more »
There is already adequate evidence and mockery is a form of bullying as is trophy hunting.
Yet again you are all claiming that there is no connection between the suicide and the pranksters yet this issue is about the suicide and the pranksters who have been bailed out by the Radio Station. Are you looking in the mirror and seeing yourselves in all of this?
I agree with you 100% Rob. Pranks, bullying, whatever you want to call it is abhorrent. To humiliate another person or organisation or idea to “show what a big person you are” or how clever you are is so vile and low. And to do it for “humour” is hideous. I’ve always hated prank calls, hidden camera shows, anything where another persons humiliation is the source of alleged humour. The lack of empathy we show towards one another is breathtaking. I am by no means perfect, but I do try to show kindness to others every day. Sometimes it’s reciprocated,… Read more »
we should bring them to trial and have them prosecuted the evidence should be adequate. they acted selfishly and retribution in the form of financial sanctions and exclusion from public broadcasting for a long period would be sufficient. Do not allow words like Bullying to be used to describe reactions to the people who brought on this amount of sorrow to the victim it was a selfish act by a couple of egotistical morons. They could argue anything they like but their actions were dishonest and they contributed to the woman’s decision to commit suicide whether there were other underlying… Read more »
I see no adequate evidence. There is no proven connection between her death and the phone call.
Prosecuted for what?
The only offence I see is about trying to receive medical information of a person by false pretense.
“The only offence I see is about trying to receive medical information of a person by false pretense.”
And that is a criminal offence in this country the United Kingdom, the actual crime happened here just like a hacking operated here in the UK but against an American company or Government department in the USA, it would be a crime in US law.
Your reply attacks my comment and then supports it?
Yes, you might try to prosecute these 2 DJs of ‘receiving medical information of a person by false pretense. I think there is enough evidence for that.
However I see no evidence at all, how you can prosecute them for manslaughter of that person who connected that phonecall to another person and later on died, reason of death so far not disclosed.
Joao.
Charges for what? In a society of laws–which we used to have–you get charged with what is already illegal, not for something a lot of people with too little to do think is icky.
We have no idea why this woman killed herself, if indeed that’s what happened, and there are any number of other things that may have happened to her in the preceding couple of, say, days which were equally or more responsible.
We know she got the call and later she was dead. Causal relationship is inferred, mostly because it’s a celeb/Royal thing.
I’m not saying they should be bullied, as in fact that won’t solve a thing. They should, however, be held responsible for their actions and face trial, as we’re not talking about someone being offended, but about someone who certainly had some previous issues and that this committed suicide (?) as a result of a shame to her dignity and job. If you’re DUI and something happens, then you’re to blame. If you accidentally kill someone, even if without intent, then you’re to blame anyway. I’m not saying they acted with malice, but who cares? Because of that someone died,… Read more »
@ Joao If somebody is driving a car and is causing a deadly accident, the driver is responsible for this accident and should face charges. However if an employer fires one of the staff, or a spouse decides to divorce, and the staff member or spouse commits suicide because he feels unhappy about that, how can you keep the employer or the other spouse responsible for the suicide? We are responsible for our own decisions, we are not responsible for the decisions of others. It is the person who commits suicide who is responsible for this suicide and not as… Read more »
Joanna,
As a supporter of anti bullying and violence prevention work for many years, I’d like to thank you for this insightful take on how quick we all are to seek revenge or “right a wrong”, and in doing that we run the risk of creating more victims along the way. I love the Gandhi quote above that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. It does indeed.
Children react emotionally first, as do adults, but adults can and should step back, and think twice about a quick emotional response, as you did.
Again, thank you.
A very sad story to be sure but until all investigation is done we will not know facts of the whole story. No one may EVER know all the facts. And we shouldn’t because it’s just not our business. I agree there is a huge lack of empathy in the world today. I think parents have failed to realize that for the most part compassion and empathy must be taught. While we may be born with the capability most children will not readily express it at first. Frequently when I see someone fall down or embarrass themselves in some way… Read more »
In a statement, Mrs Saldanha’s family said they were “deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha”. They have requested privacy from the media.
BBC News 8 December 2012 Last updated at 12:41 UTC – 7.41 ET
Still Not Suicide – Still NO cause of death stated – Post Mortem still awaited.
Joanna,
You got to the heart of all these sad tales: a lack of heart, or empathy.
Even with the best of intentions, with careful forethought, we can wound people with our words.
Bullying the bullies brings Ghandi to mind: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
What would be if the caller is a young pretty British lady and the phone operator a male immigrant? Nobody would care in this case if he commits suicide or not. But this call was from Australia…from 2 DJs, and that’s maybe the biggest problem now. It’s getting ‘political’. There is no suicide note as far as I know. There is no proof that the suicide is directly related to that prank-call. The suicide might have any other reason. It should be noticed that the final decision to go ahead is with the person committing suicide. About the phonecall, I… Read more »
Yohan – glad to see you pointing out facts and not idol speculation.
Still NOT suicide 24 hours after story broke – I wonder what will happen if it’s not suicide and if people will be apologising on mass to the Nurses Family for any false idol speculation causing up-sent and offence?
They “go there because no one comes to the real-time rescue of certain categories of people…or more accurately, “non-people.”
Smarmy and cruel reduction of the social stew seems to require killing the non-people. Gays, rape victims, molested little boys, drunken and hurting celebrities…they are all fair-game. If they take their lives, so be it. Tosh and Mahr don’t give a damn! And they get away with it because society agrees that “that’s O.K.”
What Tosh did was fucking stupid but it’s miles different to actually releasing private information about someone’s health, which is a hugeee problem I think. You also goto these shows and expect hecklers to be treated like shit, I dunno if I’d call it a threat though as “it’d be funny if you were gang-raped by 5 guys right now” doesn’t really say I hope you DO get gang-raped? To me a threat would be to tell her she is going to be gang-raped or tell others to actually do it vs comment on a hypothetical situation. It’s pretty fucked… Read more »
Why have the DJ’s been titled “Bullies” all of sudden? Unless, the writers / reporters like yourself just want to attract more attention by using these type of trending sensational words and titles. Just report & comment on the facts without “your hands on it”
I think there are two causes – laziness and twitter. #140BrainCells
Hey, thanks for calling me lazy, MH. Jesus Christ.
My job is not to be a reporter, I do social commentary. Op-Eds, if you will.
Suppose time brings out evidence of severe mental issues. I suppose we could say the radio prank pushed her over the edge where, otherwise, she would not have gone. Or, at least, not for another month.
Sometimes stuff just happens. Seeking a scapegoat is lifespan you’ll never get back.
The DJs did something dumb and stupid but I’m guessing they never thought in a million years their prank would work – they probably just thought they’d get into a bunch of vaguely humorous argy-bargy with hospital administration. They are not to blame for this poor woman’s death, any more than the Royal Family are (who mostly laughed off the initial incident), hospital administration (who had neither suspended or disciplined her), nor even the UK media, who, at least in the coverage I read, focussed far more on the Australian DJs than they did on the hospital’s mistake. Ultimately the… Read more »
Thanks for a well reasoned article, Joanna. Social media has amplified bullying to unprecedented levels. Previously we might have said the hateful things we thought to those within hearing distance, and in cases of extreme outrage, sat down and written to a newspaper. Now our instant outrage can be transmitted around the world in the blink of an eye. Type once & then read three times before sending. Having said that, Austereo & 2DayFM have a history of condoning, and encouraging, bullying tactics for the sake of ratings. It’s worth googling Kyle Sandilands – the outrage when he called a… Read more »
questioned a young girl (who was hooked up to a lie detector at the time) about a pre-teen rape = FALSE. The radio segment involved people being hooked to a lie detector test and quizzed by people who know them. The Girl of 14 was there with HER MOTHER – and the mother was repeatedly asking the girl; If She Had Had Sex – and to quote: Child to mother ” I’ve already told you the story about this, and don’t look at me and smile because it’s not funny” Pause “Oh OK, I got raped when I was 12… Read more »
Wow, you have made some stunning assumptions. I live in Australia and have intimate knowledge of the entire gamut of 2DayFM fiasco’s. Yes, the girl’s mother was present and did ask those questions. But for Kyle Sandilands to ask the question “so was that your only sexual experience” to a child who had just said that she was raped at 12 and to broadcast it was irresponsible at best. You chose to conveniently ignore his vilification of a female News Ltd journalist, which was beyond hateful and also chose not to address the culture of bullying which would appear to… Read more »
Elle, thanks for your thoughts on this, especially as an Australian who is more familiar with this station/show.
I do love your statement “I delete far more than I send, just quietly” — I do, too. LIke 2/3 of what I write.
I …. have intimate knowledge of the entire gamut of 2DayFM fiasco’s.
Interesting. Would love to hear.
Oh – Conflict Of Interest : Me= No and You = Yes/No?
Media: Me Past=Yes Present=No – You =Yes!
Would you care to explain “Righteous Indignation sans Reality”? – you media professional you read in context= easy! P^)
2/3 = 2big be do 1/8 you=happy? P^)
Um, would you care to repeat that in a known language, such as English?
Cest La Vie
Wow, that made absolutely no sense.
Elle, I’m Aussie as well and cannot comprehend why Sandilands is still on air. I remember a line from Howard Stern’s movie “Private Parts” where they were looking over the ratings and commenting that more people that listened to him hated him. Why? They wanted to hear what he said next. Something about Sandilands suggests the same to me. His popularity comes from a desire for people to hear him stuff up and be offensive on air.
Prurience is like that – even if some attempt to hide it behind indignation. But then again, if it all changed it would just lead to boredom and empty blogs. What else is the net for, except highly indignant status updates.
Heisenberg, don’t you think it is a sad indictment that these type of radio personalities (most high profile being Sandilands & Alan Jones) rate wildly? I love radio – the intimacy & immediacy leaves other kinds of main stream media doe dead. But the fact that the listening public seem to flock to announcers whose stock in trade is to denigrate others just leaves me shaking my head. Not just in Australia, but world wide. I don’t know if you saw either the ACA or TT interview with the DJ’s tonight, but to me, something felt a bit “off”. I… Read more »
Ban this filth! By Ben Thompson Mary Whitehouse, once a byword for moral censure, emerges from her archive in a number of other unlikely guises. … Link Everywhere you look in 2012’s media landscape, images of participation and interactivity distract from the eclipse of real engagement. If the career of Mary Whitehouse can teach us anything, perhaps it’s that the moral ramifications of culture are a subject worth having a serious argument about. and “Touché,” wrote BBC chairman Sir Michael Swann, graciously putting his hands up after she had caught him in a rare moment of inconsistency. “You do your… Read more »
I don’t know if you saw either the ACA or TT interview with the DJ’s tonight, but to me, something felt a bit “off”. Well I have had no knowledge of sight of either of the pair until this story broke – so I’ve watched the interview in full and then had to locate alternate video footage to compare body language, vocal tone, stress and the natural speech patterns of both him and her – and together. I’d be more worried about the two being bludgeoned into submission by their employer – especially the evident physical distress and tears of… Read more »