“It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar” - Henry David Thoreau
I feel sorry for her, and I feel sorry for her family, but it is not the fault of the pranksters.
No one could have reasonably expected this tragic outcome, and it is not justice to blame Mel Greig and Michael Christian for what she chose to do. They didn’t kill her, nor did they contribute in any material way to her death.
Posted in: Australia, Britain, Mainstream Media.
Free speech is about the state dictating what is or is not acceptable, it is not about free people freely expressing contempt for contemptible behaviour.
Refusal to finance a platform for thugs to spew their venomous bile does not constitute censorship.
Financing a platform constitutes support.
paraphrased from Lord Vetinari
"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
© 2013 Counting Cats in Zanzibar | Powered by WordPress
A WordPress theme by Ravi Varma
Hosted by DnM Computers, Gold Coast
When the hoax story broke, the first thing that occurred to me was the kicking various people would get, concomitant with career-ending employer references to follow.
However, this reminds me of the film ‘Snowball’ where a small lie results in catastrophic sequalae.
2DAY FM is a shitty, brainless radio station, and has been for 30 odd years (it wasn’t so bad when they started out). Like it or not, these rank amateurs penetrated the security of a hospital with ease.
It is very convenient to use this suicide as a way of papering over a mistake, and possibly more than one was made.
To make a scapegoat of someone who’s penetrated, in a guileless, unsophisticated and naif manner the level of security even the most lowly born assume to be in place, is absurd. Two Westies call up a London hospital pretending to be our monarchy and get away with it.
All these spies being carefully trained in the ways of their target countries seems a waste of money to me when some bogans can get through.
Of course, Cats, she topped herself totally out of the blue. Nothing at all to do with a prevailing media culture of sneering and cunthood, as so amply demonstrated by our two sneering cunts. No material contribution at all. Of course not.
Bollocks.
me,
Yep, you got it.
No one could have reasonably anticipated this, so no, these guys can’t reasonably be blamed. Glad you agree with me.
They will be though, all part of the whining that looks for blame whenever something happens - “the prevailing media culture of sneering and cunthood” (as you oh so eruditely and elegantly express it) will see to that.
No, you are right, they should not be blamed by anyone. It is virtually unpredictable that such a prank would result in such an outcome.
However. They will have to live for the rest of their lives with the fact that their actions did contribute to someone else taking their own life. Much in the same way a person who kills a child who runs in front of their car has to live with that, despite it not being their fault.
How this pair respond to this tragedy is what they should be judged on. If they sweep it under the carpet and a year down the line are behaving in just the same manner, then they deserve condemnation. If they have decide to alter their careers and find a more constructive way of making a living, then they are to be applauded.
Well said, Cats. I’m pretty averse to 2Day, but blaming the DJs here is just silly.
Well I am surprised at the rank amateurism of the hospital and the royal entourage.
When I send someone else to pick up my son from his nursery they have to be pre-approved and photographed from a list you give said nursery at the start of the year. They also need to give a password. Surely a similar type system would stop anything like this.
And much as one feels sorry for anyone who kills themselves, I suspect it will transpire that the person in question had deeper issues. You may feel a bit of a mug to fall for this, but a psychologically healthy person does not kill themselves over it.
Reality probably won’t stop the witch hunt however.
SAoT,
My thoughts exactly. Rational people don’t commit suicide over something like that. In fact, rational people tend not to commit suicide at all.
The whole purpose of the broadcast was to mock the Royals, but to mock the staff involved was an inevitable consequence (collateral damage), and it was reasonably foreseeable that the victim of the call would be exposed to global public humiliation as a natural consequence of the call being made public. The nurse was speaking in what appeared to be a second language, and would not have the same ear for the voices that a native Brit would have had.
In law, you take your victim as you find them, don’t tread on eggshells.
The DJs may well have broken UK data protection law, jurisdiction is tricky, the actus reus was committed in Australia, the effect was in England.
What is worrying is that there is a market for this sort of radio, how far culturally have we fallen, and what defences do people have for their own well-being when this sort of rubbish radio is financially viable?
We haven’t fallen at all. Rubbish, whatever the medium, has always been viable.
I think it fairly obvious that there was something deeper in this woman’s psyche and that if this pushed her over the edge some other things had driven her to the cliff anyway.
What I do find fascinating though is the idea this was “amateurish”. It might seem so on the face of it but every grifter born knows the massive deception boldly done tends to work better than an intricate plot.
It’s a psychological trick worthy of Goebels. You tell the big lie and there are few bigger than pretending to be the Queen. You do it with sheer bravado and people believe or at least are bamboozled enough to agree.
It’s also like the Chewbacca Defense.
Mmmmmm….
Always regarded the exquisitely crafted practical joke as being close to an artform.
But.
They come in four flavours.
1) Those perpetuated on retrospectively consenting adults. Then all have a laugh. Perp & victim. Perp awaits retribution in dread. It’s a conversation.
2)Those perpetuated on figures inflated with their own sense of importance. They get laughed at. It’s a form of heckling & alleviates the desire to lynch them, if only temporarily. Educational & arguably for their own protection (see lynch)
3)Those perpetuated on the weak & vulnerable. It’s point & laugh & a form of intimidation.
4)Those perpetuated on institutions. Seriously unstable ground. Because the point of gag almost inevitably intersects with either 2) or 3) & type 2) have a tendency to deflect the revenge down on 3), even if 3) are not the ‘had’ party. So careful thought needed. This case? Scumbags. Also other media for joining in the point & laugh. However. Scamming one of the radio presenters? Allowable. Message is - get a proper job.
It may be worthwhilke looking at the law of cause and effect. Man 1 has an argument and pushes man 2. Man 2 pushes back. Man 1 loses balance, falls over, hits head on pavement, dies from head injury. Man 2 found guilty of manslaughter - he did not intend to cause death but his actions directly led to death of man 1. Australian radio employees make early morning hoax call to hospital, answered by tired and overworked nurse (who normally does not work on switchboard but wanted to help out) with a cultural history of doing her best to serve patients and family. Nurse believes callers that they are members of Royalty and gives out information. Hoax callers rejoice at this jolly jape and make it public. Nurse is overcome with guilt, humiliation and shame which she had brought upon her family, profession and hospital and commits suicide. Neither of the radio employees wanted, or expected, this to happen, but because of their actions, it did. Cause and effct. Their crime: Manslaughter!
@ Penseivat. The concept of manslaughter here might be ‘gross negligence manslaughter’ where acts or omissions cause another’s death. From my recollection, taunting or humiliating another, done here inevitably but incidentally, has not been regarded as sufficiently likely to create an obvious risk of death or harm to come within what is required, but here the act of impersonating another to gain information puts the actors in a situation where they have mens rea of one sort already.
Your point about the context is very good, a person with a strong personal code, and a deferential frame of mind, it seems, whose life is shattered.
A typical NHS nurse (not allowed near the royal person, is seems) might have acted very differently.
SAOT: indeed.
The people at fault, if any, are the idiots in charge of the phone system at the hospital: at a place where seriously important people are treated (it’s not just the Royals), some complete unknown can call in on an Australian number, pretend to be the Queen (how likely is it that she makes her own calls?), and they just go “Ok, here you go, we’ll put you through now”.
No checking, no verification, not even a cursory glance at the incoming number?
These are the people who should be dismissed immediately, with no compensation.
Breathtaking incompetence.
@ Andrew. Do you blame banks for being robbed? It is so irresponsible to store money in them.
This has become, predictably, a bandwagon, even a showboat, and definitely a grandstand. The “Community” is out in force with an ethnic MP well to the fore. This is being milked for all it is worth and the compensation case is probably in the oven cooking nicely.
No-one has mentioned they are indians and rotten whiteys did the dirty deed. But the visual clues and hints are being really well deployed on the TV news bulletins .
I’m sick and tired of hearing about it already and fully agree it had nothing to do with the radio presenters. It was a bit of a prat stunt but stunts often are. To pull it just after the enquiry into press intrusions into private lives showed appalling judgement.
Just what the ban this, ban that, regulated this, regulate that, crowd needed.Probably them keeping on stirring it to justify banning something. Anyone fancy a job on the Prank Prior Approval Tribunal? Prat for short.