OT: Nurse Jacintha Saldanha

[Lizistired]

My bad..., AMF.

[ems]

My bad..., AMF.

Had to ask my daughter what AMF was...

No, you aren't. Let's all chill. It's the holidays.

[cosmo]

Lighten up everyone.

I don't usually post in the OT threads but newbies might see that this place is not too sterile might feel more encouraged to browse around.

[KSMike]

What happened is a horrible tragedy. No changing that. But morning DJ's have been playing phone pranks for as long as there have been morning DJ's. Given the same situation again, I'd be willing to bet another DJ would do the same thing and nobody would think twice. I believe the DJ's are as shocked as everyone else.

Of course, DJ's around the world will do nothing ever again to try to lighten peoples' mornings. Once again we must be absolutely, positively, 100% certain that nobody under ANY circumstances MIGHT be the SLIGHTEST bit offended.

[ughwhatname]

I recognize that the DJs had no idea the possible result of their prank, but I was pretty bothered when I heard they called a hospital and recorded personal information and the broadcast it.

Anne Hathaway had the misfortune of being photographed recently while getting out of a car sans panties. She talked about being disappointed that the decent thing would have been to delete the photo, but instead, the photographer sold it.

Decency would dictate that the DJs stop recording the conversation once they realized they were getting real info, and then to delete it rather than broadcasting it.

What happened is a horrible tragedy. No changing that. But morning DJ's have been playing phone pranks for as long as there have been morning DJ's. Given the same situation again, I'd be willing to bet another DJ would do the same thing and nobody would think twice. I believe the DJ's are as shocked as everyone else.

Of course, DJ's around the world will do nothing ever again to try to lighten peoples' mornings. Once again we must be absolutely, positively, 100% certain that nobody under ANY circumstances MIGHT be the SLIGHTEST bit offended.

[KSMike]

Decency would dictate that the DJs stop recording the conversation once they realized they were getting real info, and then to delete it rather than broadcasting it.

Yes. On that point I agree.

[ddk]

I find it completely unbelievable that anyone would put any blame whatsoever on the radio announcers. An immature and stupid prank? Sure, but placing on them any responsibility for this woman's suicide is utterly absurd. People need to stop taking everything so bloody seriously and quit acting like special snowflakes that are sensitive to the slightest breeze. If something as inane and innocuous as a prank call can push you to the point of killing yourself, then that's YOUR problem, not anyone else's.

[49er]

I think the article by Bel Mooney does a great job in summarizing my feelings on this issue. This point really hits the crux of the issue in my opinion.

Now that an innocent woman is dead, her family bereaved and bewildered, and the whole world knows the story – the thoughtless joke doesn’t seem funny at all, least of all to the shamed perpetrators.

To me, it never was. From the moment I heard their silly, adolescent giggles and the poor nurses’ polite replies, I saw the prank as another example of the casual, tacky, thoughtless cruelty that has infected popular culture like a plague – on radio, on television and increasingly on Twitter and other social media outlets.

More at the link.

http://tinyurl.com/c8wq2qj

49er

[Therapist]

I find it completely unbelievable that anyone would put any blame whatsoever on the radio announcers. An immature and stupid prank? Sure, but placing on them any responsibility for this woman's suicide is utterly absurd. People need to stop taking everything so bloody seriously and quit acting like special snowflakes that are sensitive to the slightest breeze. If something as inane and innocuous as a prank call can push you to the point of killing yourself, then that's YOUR problem, not anyone else's.

Thank you.

The poor nurse must have had some serious problems to brutally hang herself. A prank call did not cause this. As of yet there is no evidence, besides the mere juxtaposition of events, that the call was a contributing factor.

Silly radio programs are all over. You don't hear anyone objecting to them. But now print a news story accusing them and .. well, you know.

[49er]

I find it completely unbelievable that anyone would put any blame whatsoever on the radio announcers. An immature and stupid prank? Sure, but placing on them any responsibility for this woman's suicide is utterly absurd. People need to stop taking everything so bloody seriously and quit acting like special snowflakes that are sensitive to the slightest breeze. If something as inane and innocuous as a prank call can push you to the point of killing yourself, then that's YOUR problem, not anyone else's.

Thank you.

The poor nurse must have had some serious problems to brutally hang herself. A prank call did not cause this. As of yet there is no evidence, besides the mere juxtaposition of events, that the call was a contributing factor.

Silly radio programs are all over. You don't hear anyone objecting to them. But now print a news story accusing them and .. well, you know.

The old blame the victim attitude strikes again. As an aside Therapist, you don't have to be mentally ill to commit suicide unless you think everyone who did that during the Depression qualified for a DSM5 diagnosis of depression.

Again, which you tough love folks seem to want to deliberately ignore, this woman came from India, which has a different value system regarding honor and disgrace. I am really getting tired of the US imposing their mental health values on other countries and trying to posthumously diagnose everyone as mentally ill when that country's culture of norms are totally different.

People don't object to silly radio programs because in my opinion, we have become a society that thinks complaining is hopeless and doesn't do any good. Fortunately, in my area, some sports talk show hosts were suspended for some very tasteless comments. So maybe the tide is changing.

Sorry folks, having a sense of decency and compassion has nothing to do with being too sensitive or not lacking a sense of humor. I love a good joke as much as anyone but even if this woman had not committed suicide, I still felt what the DJs did was totally tasteless and out of bounds.

49er

[DeadlySleep]

The old blame the victim attitude strikes again. 49er

Isn't that the definition of suicide?

[ughwhatname]

Actually, her various suicide notes directly referenced the "Prank" and her employer, the hospital. I would say that qualifies as evidence of the causal relationship.




[quote="TherapistThank you.

The poor nurse must have had some serious problems to brutally hang herself. A prank call did not cause this. As of yet there is no evidence, besides the mere juxtaposition of events, that the call was a contributing factor.

Silly radio programs are all over. You don't hear anyone objecting to them. But now print a news story accusing them and .. well, you know.[/quote]

[49er]

The old blame the victim attitude strikes again. 49er

Isn't that the definition of suicide?

Hi Deadly Sleep,

Can you clarify? Sorry I have a sense of missing something obvious but my brain isn't cooperating this morning:)

49er

[xenablue]

Decency would dictate that the DJs stop recording the conversation once they realized they were getting real info, and then to delete it rather than broadcasting it.

Yes. On that point I agree.

To be fair on this point of this whole tragedy - it wasn't the DJs who broadcast the conversation but the station manager - the DJs didn't want it broadcast.
The rest of the story is so hyped up by the media it's difficult to tell the truth from fabrication - you'll (we the gullible public) will never know all the facts.

xena

[ughwhatname]

I actually spoke to that very point in my earlier posts. I don't think the DJs, merely because it is their voices on the recording, should be the fall-guys for this thing. Whoever made the decision to air it should lose their job, in my opinion, and not because someone died, but because a call to a hospital that included personal medical information was broadcast which was totally inappropriate and indecent.

My earlier post:

I find the idea of calling a hospital to record an inquiry about a famous patient's status to be beyond the pale. To then have the powers-that-be give an okay to broadcast the terrible invasion of privacy is beyond comprehension.

The DJs were stupid in their actions, but their superiors who okayed the broadcasting should be held responsible for their actions. I hope that the DJs aren't the only ones to lose their jobs.

Decency would dictate that the DJs stop recording the conversation once they realized they were getting real info, and then to delete it rather than broadcasting it.

Yes. On that point I agree.

To be fair on this point of this whole tragedy - it wasn't the DJs who broadcast the conversation but the station manager - the DJs didn't want it broadcast.
The rest of the story is so hyped up by the media it's difficult to tell the truth from fabrication - you'll (we the gullible public) will never know all the facts.

xena