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Royal Prank Call Nurse Commits Suicide

I am pissed off! That radio duo has her death on their conscience! I hope they're never allowed on the air again! They should be fired for what they did!
 
I initially thought it was a great bit, as they managed to get so far, and get away with it. However, no one saw this coming, as you can't predict human behaviour. The station concerned has a track record for edgy stunts, and I somehow think they will escape the regulators (weak) slap, even if the jocks do get sacked, which is on the cards. They've been suspended indefinitely, but I think once Monday rolls around, they will be terminated.
 
2DAY-FM has suspended it's advertising until December 10th. Facebook page is down. I'm trying to stream, yet there's no audio.

Honestly, I would not be surprised if the ACMA finally ordered the plug pulled. They already made breaches of decency, and this could be the last straw.
 
This side of the pond they would have been charged with criminal impersonation.
 
Silkie, I assume you're east of the Atlantic, then. I don't think they'd be criminally liable anywhere in the Western Hemipshere.

And why should they?

What law did they break? What did they do wrong, other than the most awfulest of impressions of royalty since, well, ever?

It was a radio stunt, a prank. In the US, there have been thousands, if not tens of thousands of radio shams and prank calls over the years (until the rules changed) and no one's gone and off'd themselves. What happened was sad, maybe even a tragedy, but this nurse lady obviously had some larger issues at play if she let a couple of half-arsed Aussie DJs drive her to suicide. If not them, it would have later been a bent syringe or a flat tyre on her car that sent her over the edge. Trust me, it's the little things that eventually do us in.
 
I agree with Zach. The laws regarding criminal culpability in the pursuit of humor/satire are pretty loose and I doubt anyone, in their wildest imagination, could have foreseen the death of a nurse in this instance. We haven't yet heard her side of the story or what may have been happening in her life to drive her to this tragic consequence but I think it clear that no rational person would behave in this manner.

This attempt to discover the condition of the Duchess wasn't intentionally criminal nor even mildly egregious. As I remember the conversation it was polite and reasonable. I cannot fathom why the nurse would take her own life even after being fooled by these two DJ's.

I'm not aware of the international laws in this type of case but would think that perhaps it was required of the DJ's to make the recipient of the call aware it was being recorded - which I don't think they did. That would be the only legal issue AFAIK.

That said, there are certainly cases where this type of stunt has gone too far and caused great harm. I have always thought the "morning zoo" type of humor is very ill-advised and generally not too funny. I don't know about condemning it entirely or restricting it legally but it seems generally in poor taste. Radio humor can be funny without being obnoxious.
 
Forgive me, I feel a rant coming on…

It would be wise to remember who brought us this story in the first place: the British tabloid press. The same people whose paparazzi who were waiting to ambush Kate as she left hospital; the same pap who mercilessly flashbulb anyone even remotely royal in Great Britain everywhere they go; the same pap who used a telephoto lens to capture Kate's nude sunbathing in the south of France; the same pap who literally drove Diana Princess of Wales to her death by chasing her through Paris.

These people are eager and willing to endanger the safety and privacy of anyone and everyone they target. Now they've hyped a non-story of "local DJ prank calls nurse" to such heights the nurse killed herself. If anyone needs to be brought under control, it's the press in Great Britain and not morning zoo crews from down under. Or in the US for that matter. They fanned the flames of an otherwise unremarkable story into something larger than it needs to be. If this were an Aussie morning show prank calling the mother of the president of Singapore no one in the US would ever hear about it. Heck, if they prank called someone trying to get to our own First Lady I doubt there would be such furore.

In Zach's world, the only newsworthy item from all this would be the horrifically bad impersonations the 2DAY show members used. It would not have been endless fodder for tabloids in the UK. The nurse would have been embarrassed but not driven to suicide. The world would not, in essence, give a damn. As it should be.

I'm going slightly OT here but it needs to be said. Radio has become so incessantly bland and inoffensive that radio people and radio fans have forgotten what it's like to be edgy and funny at the same time. It happened decades ago in the UK (seriously, their breakfast shows are so inoffensively awful they've become offensive again.) It's probably going to happen in Australia soon because of this, and it's already by and large happened in the US because it's easier to make money on bland than cutting edge.

Not that there's anything wrong with that; I'm all about capitalism. It's just that I think radio has gone too far in the US towards placating the complainers and not enough towards entertaining the broader audience.

Edgy radio's audience didn't abandon the medium as corporate radio claims; radio abandoned edgy talent and their listeners with mind-numbingly strict rules and regulations far beyond what the FCC requires. As corporate safe radio clamped down on the fringes, their ratings fell (to some degree, I suppose Howard Stern had high ratings till the end). That justified terminating some great, if not mainstream talent. Remember, it wasn't that long ago that radio embraced the likes of Stern, or The Greaseman, or Don & Mike, or even Opie & Anthony. Now they've all been shuffled off, either to early retirement, or internet streaming or satellite radio. Places where the rules aren't so important.

So what does free radio have left? Bland, boring and unfortunately often uninformative morning crap. To borrow an offensive but completely accurate assessment of morning radio from the aforementioned Opie and Anthony show, the typical morning crew is “Two Men & A Hole”: The main host is often still a man and he gets top billing because radio is still a man's world, even though this man contributes nothing to the show. The other man is billed last but gets the responsibility of being the one to push the boundaries of content. If he goes over the line, he is the least paid and lowest on the pole so his termination is easy. There's a new third wheel in place by next week that blends seamlessly into the fold. It's all held together by the woman, who acts as den mother with nothing more useful than an occasional, "Oh, you guys!" or "Oh, you don't mean that." Something to keep the idiot men in line. She contributes nothing else of value and has nothing important or informative to say. She is a drag on humanity, a literal black hole of comedy, but gets second billing because radio wants to appeal to women, too, and doesn't know how else to do it.

If you think about it, this formula to some degree applies to a LOT of mornings shows in every single market, doesn't it? Sure, there are exceptions like the south's Rick & Bubba, who have no woman to temper them yet they do well in female demographics, because they're just being themselves and they're good folks at heart. But by and large radio is too afraid of making 1% less profit to try anything other than the absolute safest, most boring crap.

Again, sorry for the topic drift, but this whole situation has just made me mad at radio all over again, just for different reasons than practically everyone else.
 
Zach said:
Forgive me, I feel a rant coming on…

It would be wise to remember who brought us this story in the first place: the British tabloid press. The same people whose paparazzi who were waiting to ambush Kate as she left hospital; the same pap who mercilessly flashbulb anyone even remotely royal in Great Britain everywhere they go; the same pap who used a telephoto lens to capture Kate's nude sunbathing in the south of France; the same pap who literally drove Diana Princess of Wales to her death by chasing her through Paris.

These people are eager and willing to endanger the safety and privacy of anyone and everyone they target. Now they've hyped a non-story of "local DJ prank calls nurse" to such heights the nurse killed herself. If anyone needs to be brought under control, it's the press in Great Britain and not morning zoo crews from down under. Or in the US for that matter. They fanned the flames of an otherwise unremarkable story into something larger than it needs to be. If this were an Aussie morning show prank calling the mother of the president of Singapore no one in the US would ever hear about it. Heck, if they prank called someone trying to get to our own First Lady I doubt there would be such furore.

In Zach's world, the only newsworthy item from all this would be the horrifically bad impersonations the 2DAY show members used. It would not have been endless fodder for tabloids in the UK. The nurse would have been embarrassed but not driven to suicide. The world would not, in essence, give a damn. As it should be.

I'm going slightly OT here but it needs to be said. Radio has become so incessantly bland and inoffensive that radio people and radio fans have forgotten what it's like to be edgy and funny at the same time. It happened decades ago in the UK (seriously, their breakfast shows are so inoffensively awful they've become offensive again.) It's probably going to happen in Australia soon because of this, and it's already by and large happened in the US because it's easier to make money on bland than cutting edge.

Not that there's anything wrong with that; I'm all about capitalism. It's just that I think radio has gone too far in the US towards placating the complainers and not enough towards entertaining the broader audience.

Edgy radio's audience didn't abandon the medium as corporate radio claims; radio abandoned edgy talent and their listeners with mind-numbingly strict rules and regulations far beyond what the FCC requires. As corporate safe radio clamped down on the fringes, their ratings fell (to some degree, I suppose Howard Stern had high ratings till the end). That justified terminating some great, if not mainstream talent. Remember, it wasn't that long ago that radio embraced the likes of Stern, or The Greaseman, or Don & Mike, or even Opie & Anthony. Now they've all been shuffled off, either to early retirement, or internet streaming or satellite radio. Places where the rules aren't so important.

So what does free radio have left? Bland, boring and unfortunately often uninformative morning crap. To borrow an offensive but completely accurate assessment of morning radio from the aforementioned Opie and Anthony show, the typical morning crew is “Two Men & A Hole”: The main host is often still a man and he gets top billing because radio is still a man's world, even though this man contributes nothing to the show. The other man is billed last but gets the responsibility of being the one to push the boundaries of content. If he goes over the line, he is the least paid and lowest on the pole so his termination is easy. There's a new third wheel in place by next week that blends seamlessly into the fold. It's all held together by the woman, who acts as den mother with nothing more useful than an occasional, "Oh, you guys!" or "Oh, you don't mean that." Something to keep the idiot men in line. She contributes nothing else of value and has nothing important or informative to say. She is a drag on humanity, a literal black hole of comedy, but gets second billing because radio wants to appeal to women, too, and doesn't know how else to do it.

If you think about it, this formula to some degree applies to a LOT of mornings shows in every single market, doesn't it? Sure, there are exceptions like the south's Rick & Bubba, who have no woman to temper them yet they do well in female demographics, because they're just being themselves and they're good folks at heart. But by and large radio is too afraid of making 1% less profit to try anything other than the absolute safest, most boring crap.

Again, sorry for the topic drift, but this whole situation has just made me mad at radio all over again, just for different reasons than practically everyone else.
Click to expand...

Well written post. I don't think it's immature of me that I love edgy radio but feel like it's rapidly disappearing everywhere. The public's reaction to this is why everyone plays it safe now. Seriously, how many bambam and Streetboy style radio shows (Kiss100, London) do you find on the radio now? Edgy radio is, for the most part, widely frowned upon because people now have come to expect safe, bland and formulaic content from the radio. People are so finicky and sensitive in some respects when it comes to the media that I'm not surprised pranks and scams and general fun radio riffraff has disappeared, or when stations like 2day still do it, they get hated on by the public. For example, radio in the Philippines can be far, far more edgy than any CHR morning show you'll find in America now (some of the discussion on Magic 89.9's "Good Times with Mo" is downright horrifying and uncomfortable compared to something you'll here on radio in the US), but Asians are often thought of as shy and conservative compared to people in Europe and America. People read Fifty Shades of Gray but complain when their ears hear something edgy on the radio. British citizens speak out against wild Australian radio stations but forget about their own historically edgy and offensive media culture. There's certainly a significant disconnect here.

The other problem I have with this whole incident involves how the media has portrayed it. A lot of people I've heard talking about this have been brought to believe that the "poor sweet-sounding nurse" who divulged the information was the one who committed suicide on the call. In reality, the operator -- the nurse who simply transferred the call to the room -- was the woman who committed suicide. Sad for everyone involved.
 
I also don't get the connection why the operator who made the phone connection decided to dis-connect her life.
Was she fired from her job for connecting the call? If so then whoever fired her should be to blame? As far as I know we do not know from doctors the cause of death. Died from embarrasment? The operator should have called the DJs and pretended to fire them from their jobs. The DJs got a million dollars worth of publicity so they will probably end up with huge paying contracts to be judges on US reality shows or something like that.
 
Zach said:
Silkie, I assume you're east of the Atlantic, then. I don't think they'd be criminally liable anywhere in the Western Hemipshere.

And why should they?

What law did they break? What did they do wrong, other than the most awfulest of impressions of royalty since, well, ever?

It was a radio stunt, a prank. In the US, there have been thousands, if not tens of thousands of radio shams and prank calls over the years (until the rules changed) and no one's gone and off'd themselves. What happened was sad, maybe even a tragedy, but this nurse lady obviously had some larger issues at play if she let a couple of half-arsed Aussie DJs drive her to suicide. If not them, it would have later been a bent syringe or a flat tyre on her car that sent her over the edge. Trust me, it's the little things that eventually do us in.
Click to expand...

No, most states have criminal impersonation laws on their books.
 
It wasn't so much the prank itself Zach (though it IS a HUGE factor), but the protocol surrounding it.

"What happened was sad, maybe even a tragedy, but this nurse lady obviously had some larger issues at play if she let a couple of half-arsed Aussie DJs drive her to suicide. If not them, it would have later been a bent syringe or a flat tyre on her car that sent her over the edge....."

And you also have to remember this nurse, albeit unwittingly, broke some SERIOUS hospital confidentiality rules. This could have gotten her fired. Perhaps she was expecting it. And this was also the royal couple.

The nurse NEVER had any prior indications of any problems. She was very well liked and was a good and hard working nurse. The shame may have been too much for her to bear. So to assume she was merely unstable is simply not seeing the entire picture. There's something else.

Yes. There are some Australian radio hosts who feel HORRIBLE right now. They (and their producers) have also been fired from 2DAY. On top of that, Southern Cross Austereo now has to face possible license revocation of 2DAY from the ACMA.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/radi...ce-over-tragic-prank-call-20121213-2bclw.html

And secondly, if you intend to record a phone call, you HAVE to let the other party know what is happening per New South Wales state law. And breaking this is very VERY bad juju.

The problem is while 2DAY lawyers cleared the stunt for broadcast, nobody can prove that the nurse at the hospital cleared the station on her part. Such a thing would be easy for the station to produce; Before broadcast, you tell the party that they are being recorded, get the name of the party you’re speaking to and maybe inform them that what they are saying is being broadcast over the radio. But I’m also sure if that happened, the nurse would have also flatly declined taking the call any further. She likely knew the confidentiality rules of her hospital.

And ALL indicators (namely the call itself) point to the unthinkable. They didn’t.

I understand this was a prank gone HORRIBLY wrong. And I understand the intent of the skit and had the hosts known what they know now, they NEVER would have done it. But there was a potentially FATAL breakdown somewhere. And it all comes back to them: Where is the clearance recording? THIS ALONE would bring this fire to a manageable level.

I honestly don't think there is any. Because 2DAY’s remedial actions point to some MAJOR ass-covering by some VERY frightened radio executives at Southern Cross Austereo. They canceled all advertising from the 7th until today and pledged to donate all advertising revenue from advertising from now until the end of the year to the family of the nurse.

This is also Christmas advertising - the BIGGEST, most profitable season for radio advertising anywhere. THAT probably illustrates just how frightened they really are.

But there’s another angle: Who WANTS to advertise on 2DAY now? Even if all the proceeds were to go to the family of the nurse, most Australians don’t hold 2DAY in a very good light now. And their advertisers KNOW it.

The scorn of 2DAY is not only in Sydney, not only nationwide across Australia, but WORLDWIDE. Why the hell would an advertiser want to advertise on such a vilified radio station? I'm not sure if 2DAY can even recover. And while I don't think it's the fault of the entire radio station, the entire radio station may be the collateral damage. This is THAT HUGE.

This story has been front and center in the Australian media for the last week and it’s not going away. I think what Australians really want is Southern Cross Austereo, 2DAY and all those involved to pony up THEIR OWN pounds of flesh for this.

And that may very well happen before this is over....

And let's face it, when you're deliberately invading ANYONE'S privacy, you're not being "edgy", you're being a jerk......
 
One more thing....

"In May, ACMA found that 2Day FM had breached the ''decency provision'' of the broadcasting code when breakfast presented Kyle Sandilands called a female journalist a ''fat slag'' and a ''piece of s--t'' on air.

ACMA made decency a condition of 2Day FM's licence for the next five years...."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...nk-backlash-20121208-2b1zy.html#ixzz2Eta7Hom9

If 2DAY has this and they were already under a decency condition from the ACMA for their license, it doesn't look good for 2DAY. I can understand how nervous they must be.....
 
Bongwater, you put this in perspective for me. Thank you.

That said, I still find it odd that now after this Sandy Hook horror in Connecticut today, we have people who are saying that guns don't kill people, but DJs do. Food for thought.
 
Zach said:
That said, I still find it odd that now after this Sandy Hook horror in Connecticut today, we have people who are saying that guns don't kill people, but DJs do. Food for thought.
Click to expand...

I generally like to see myself as a glass half full sort of person, but after the tragic events in Sandy Hook, I don't think anything will change.

As for Southern Cross Austereo, I think change is in the wind...
 
Lee Anderson said:
Zach said:
That said, I still find it odd that now after this Sandy Hook horror in Connecticut today, we have people who are saying that guns don't kill people, but DJs do. Food for thought.
Click to expand...
As for Southern Cross Austereo, I think change is in the wind...
Click to expand...

That is IF they are even given a chance for a third strike. The ACMA will not be coming empty handed.

I think the fairest solution is for the ACMA to revoke 2DAY's license and keep Southern Cross Austereo on a VERY short leash with the rest of their stations. ONE MORE gross violation of any law and/or provision of the broadcast code and it's OVER. Plus, double the probation period at 10 years during which time, they cannot acquire, transfer or construct any new radio stations.
 
But why should 2DAY be punished for anything other than whatever local broadcasting rules they broke? They shouldn't be screwed just to make the British feel better. The nurse left three suicide notes and now it's coming out that perhaps she had been harassed a bit by the hospital staff after this incident. Maybe the hospital administrator should be the one facing the virtual guillotine instead of these DJs.
 
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