dJJ said:

dJJ said:

They had the intend to ridicule her and expose her as a joke world wide.

What is there not to blame?

There clearly is a causal relationship between her death and their intend to ridicule her.

It wasn't her. It could have been anybody. The fact is they wanted to make a joke and it worked. They weren't targetting her, ridiculing her, and making a joke out of her. Think of it like youtube. People do stupid stuff all the time, millions watch it, laught about it, nobody thinks negative things will happen, and very rarely do they.

luv4u said:

alexzander said:

It was a joke. The dj's arent responsible for what happened to this woman.

They damn well are. Should be fired and prosecuted.

As for Sarah Palin being tricked

1. what exactly should they be charged with?

2. sarah palin being tricked is funny though?... what if she'd killed herself?

iaminparties said:

banks said:

I hated those guys

They mocked Aaliyah airplane crash.

They were nothing but Howard Stern wannabees. But no one does it better than Howard.

dJJ said:

mobliss said:

i think the prank was in poor taste... a family expecting a child should be off limits... but welcome to the media in 2012

blaming them for this woman's death is ridiculous beyond comprehension

They had the intend to ridicule her and expose her as a joke world wide.

What is there not to blame?

There clearly is a causal relationship between her death and their intend to ridicule her.

the intent was a prank... ever seen punk'd?... happens ALL THE TIME... what has happened is incredibly tragic... i'm sure the dj's involded feel dreadful

what this brings home to me more than anything is that there are so many seemingly stable people who are very fragile

the dj's should be judged on their actions (ie what they ACTUALLY DID).. and the intent of those actions.. what has happened as an indirect result is an extraordinary circumstance that is reasonable to assume couldn't have been forseen

Stymie said:

Now, this poor woman may have been teetering on the brink for a long time over something not related to this and this was just it for her. We never know what people are going through so I would like to think we can act with simple common decency.

See. When I first heard the story I thought it was the nurse who committed suicide. At least that's the impression I got from the report I watched because Harry gave a statment about how wonderful and competent and caring a "nurse" she was. Then I heard it was the receiptionist who transferred the call. All she said was "Hold on," and transferred the call.

That why I agree with those who say that there was something else going on to throw this poor woman over the edge IF, in fact, she committed suicide. Has anyone heard from the nurse who spoke to the deejays? Seems to me she would be the one feeling the most humiliation. I'm going now my damn self. Something just does not compute.

There is a link for those that want to hear the DJ prank call

http://www.cbc.ca/news/wo...death.html

Just saw and read this on my home webpage.

Its best to wait and see how this all falls out; my thoughts are with this young ladies family, friends, and all who knew her loved her dearly. Tragic.

The main comment after this prank was "How did this call get put through?" I've never made a mistake that has resulted in an international media frenzy but I'm certain I would've felt incredibly embarassed and humiliated.

i'm thinking where the hell they got the number for the hospital? remember when Damaris prank called Prince on australian radio, she told the receptionist a name which was beeped out, maybe the royals should of had that kind of secret identity contract thing to get to Kate's nurses, etc.

Stupid prank, but we all choose to react in our on ways. I would have never thought that the receptionist would harm herself. Although each party, the DJS, The Media , and the receptionist all take part of the blame.

I mean the person they made the butt of a joke, still chooses to react in their own way.

Just like a person who's busy texting and driving (selfishly) causes an accident and permanently alters someones life. The person who's life has changed still chooses to react to their new circumstances.

RIP

flyorra said:

i'm thinking where the hell they got the number for the hospital?

The phone book?

mynameisnotsusan said:

The main comment after this prank was "How did this call get put through?" I've never made a mistake that has resulted in an international media frenzy but I'm certain I would've felt incredibly embarassed and humiliated.

Exactly, I don't get the impression the DJ's are really that remorsefull. They don't feel sorry at all, but keep the blame at the receptionist.

They only anounced the statement that they feel bad for the family. The boss of the radio station probably had to force that on them.

aardvark15 said:

dJJ said:

They had the intend to ridicule her and expose her as a joke world wide.

What is there not to blame?

There clearly is a causal relationship between her death and their intend to ridicule her.

It wasn't her. It could have been anybody. The fact is they wanted to make a joke and it worked. They weren't targetting her, ridiculing her, and making a joke out of her. Think of it like youtube. People do stupid stuff all the time, millions watch it, laught about it, nobody thinks negative things will happen, and very rarely do they.

Pranks on youtube can't be compared to joking around as the English Royals.

(Leave that up to Prince Harry )

I think that at the very least these fools should have known that their stupid prank could get someone into trouble and cause them to lose their job. Wtf is funny about that?

IF she did kill herself then maybe she was distraught over possiblly getting fired...that happens a lot.

The trouble with pranks and many other things these days is that people no longer understand when something crosses the line anymore.

I don't think the DJs can be expected to shoulder all the blame for this. Responsibility surely has to come down to what one could have reasonably foreseen would be the consequences of one's actions. I don't think anyone could have reasonably foreseen that she'd take her own life after this (and we still don't know what more there was to this story - what she was facing in her own life, etc).

It was a pretty tame, good-natured prank, and there was no malice towards any of the hospital staff. It the sort of thing that we've all watched/listened to and chuckled along with in the past - and, crucially, the sort of thing that the 'pranked' would usually be amused about after the reveal. Come on, you can far more easily imagine an alternative scenario following this, in which receptionist and nurse briefly appear on one of the morning shows, with hosts, guests and audience all smiling and chuckling along about it together - quite different to this cold, grim image of 'the whole world laughing at her' that keeps being conjured up. Had that really been the case, people would have objected when the original bit made the news. But they didn't. There was no uproar here on the Org or elsewhere in the media, because no-one thought for a second it would end up like this.

I agree that we could all be nicer to each other, and we should treat others like we'd want to be treated and all that, but I don't think any of us could bear being held to a standard of account where we have to interact in such a cotton wool-covered way with other people that if, unbeknown to us, they're near-suicidal, none of our actions could possibly construed as having triggered their final descent. I can certainly think of exchanges I've had with jobsworthy train staff, traffic wardens, cold callers, and, of course, fellow orgers that would fall some way short of that - and I think most other people could say the same. A simple thought experiment would be to imagine the news coming through tomorrow that one of the DJs, now fully in the glare of the media spotlight, with little cover from the contempt of the baying mob, has taken their own life. When we pore, ex post facto, over the words the most eager critics are saying today, using the standard of account they themselves are proposing, who will we judge to have such scrupulously clean hands and who'll be found wanting? Might we not all do better to give each other a little bit of leeway to fuck up?

[Edited 12/8/12 5:20am]

i don't feel sorry for her, like i don't feel sorry for caged birds.

it all just so sad and avoidable...when i first heard about this prank call..my first thought was this isnt very clever...having someone's private medicial information being given out to someone kidding on they are someone else...which is made all the worse by such a high profile case like this..

the dj's who made the call have to take some responsibility for what has happened as they should never have phoned a hospital in the first place which led to such tragic consequences. i think they will be feeling terrible just now and it will probably ruin their careers in media for good which is a fair punishment in my eyes .

the poor nurse who took her own life...i think its obvious that she had to have had other problems in her life to make her do something like this...this wouldnt make the vast majority of people to want to take their own lives so something else had to be a factor in all this...i dont know if she got a hard time from her bosses over this incident (i hope not) ..you just have to feel for the family of this poor woman .

i hope this ends these prank calls for good...this was probably going to happen eventually...just sad.

babynoz said:

I think that at the very least these fools should have known that their stupid prank could get someone into trouble and cause them to lose their job. Wtf is funny about that?

IF she did kill herself then maybe she was distraught over possiblly getting fired...that happens a lot.

The trouble with pranks and many other things these days is that people no longer understand when something crosses the line anymore.

I agree there are a lot of things like that, nowadays. I don't know if you guys have these I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! shows there, where they take these faded 'Z-list' celebrities looking to get back into the public eye, put them in 'the jungle', and have them perform all kinds of unpleasant challenges (being covered in cockroaches, snakes, rats; having to eat kangaroo testicles or anuses, etc). I can't watch them - and they come off to me like some terrible sign of a culture gone horribly wrong, where we enjoy watching people suffering and humiliating themselves.

Likewise, there are some 'extreme' prank shows, like one from Brazil that made the news last week, where they made an elevator stop, and then made a 'ghost girl' appear to terrified people in it, and which now has a sequel involving a coffin that opens. These all push the boundaries way beyond where it seems to me they should be, and I feel like some completely out-of-touch old fuddy-duddy when I see people sharing clips and laughing at them.

I wouldn't put this rather tame prank call in the same category, because I just can't see that someone could have reasonably foreseen an outcome like this (and I stress again that we don't yet know the whole story). I'd be happy to see some of the other stuff get reined in a bit, though. Any sense of 'boundaries' seems non-existent with them, and they're bound to lead to tragedy sooner or later.

[Edited 12/8/12 4:33am]

I do not think people are understanding the UK (especially small) hospital system.

Phone switch board, state patients name and request to be put through to ward.

Phone ward direct.

Nursing staff other job roll is to act like switchboard receptionists and answer telephone calls especially after hours (5pm to 8:30am).

Example: When my daughter recently was in Labour I contacted the ward at approx 11pm, spoke with Midwife, stated my name, daughters name and how I was related and that I wished to be updated and was informed how she was progressing. I was informed how dilated she was, that she was having gas and air and in birthing pool.

We have data protection act and staff are torn with what to do. They wish to help patient and concerned relatives. Someone stating they are a relative and giving name and knowing about the medical condtion would not normaly ring alarm bells). But I can see a lot of hospital policies changing now due to that disgraceful hoax call.

It was a sick prank. A woman dangerously dehydrated rushed to hospital, turns out to be less than eight weeks pregnant. A high chance of medical complications. Could have been ectopic pregnancy, organ failure, miscarriage etc. After media announced Kate had HG (hyperemesis gravidarum ) A condition that can cause serious complications without medical intervention. And those two ejits DJ’s and whoever sanctioned this hoax call thought this would be amusing thing to do. It didn’t even enter their moronic brains that Kate could have taken a turn for the worse, with major complications even with medical intervention.

They thought it highly amusing to broadcast around the world knowing fully that a media frenzy would happen and knowing that the media would go on a man hunt to out this poor woman. They set out to embarrass, humiliate, upset the hospital, hospital staff and Kate. Not giving a damn about consequences.

Now they know the consequences and I hope they never ever work in the media ever again.

Edit to add: It is illegal to Impersonate, giving faulse identity, worse when you impersonate a public official. It is also illegal to aquire/obtain personal information under false pretences. I hope they are prosecute all those involved.

.

[Edited 12/8/12 5:59am]

I think something was going on with this woman to cause her to do this.

That said, the prank was really lowdown.

I hope those prank callers feel like shit

blackbob said:

it all just so sad and avoidable...when i first heard about this prank call..my first thought was this isnt very clever...having someone's private medicial information being given out to someone kidding on they are someone else...which is made all the worse by such a high profile case like this..

the dj's who made the call have to take some responsibility for what has happened as they should never have phoned a hospital in the first place which led to such tragic consequences. i think they will be feeling terrible just now and it will probably ruin their careers in media for good which is a fair punishment in my eyes .

the poor nurse who took her own life...i think its obvious that she had to have had other problems in her life to make her do something like this...this wouldnt make the vast majority of people to want to take their own lives so something else had to be a factor in all this...i dont know if she got a hard time from her bosses over this incident (i hope not) ..you just have to feel for the family of this poor woman .

i hope this ends these prank calls for good...this was probably going to happen eventually...just sad.

Probably her bosses, the Royals, and the Royal Protection Squad. She was a accessory to personal information being given out about a member of the Royal Family and that shit don't fly. She almost certainly would have lost her job. So in that sense the DJ's are accountable for co-ercing that information. Obviously they didn't think she'd kill herself, they probably didn't think through the potential outcomes at all.

But they shouldn't be made scapegoats either. What they did was no worse than most people in media. It's indicative of the general state of media, that's why stuff like the Leveson inquiry is going on. Unacceptable and tastless media behaviour is rife - look at the Daily Mail, TMZ, countless tabloids and celebrity gossip blogs.

It was a tasteless thing to do, but sadly the modern media is about one thing - ratings. Including website hits. If you're ratings aren't good enough, you'll get replaced by someone else willing to do whatever it takes to get them up. The female DJ in this incident got her start on a reality show, that says it all really.

[Edited 12/8/12 8:30am]

imago said:

free2bfreeda said:

comment retracted.

Is this about the green lizards from the house of draco stuff?

deebee said:

babynoz said:

I think that at the very least these fools should have known that their stupid prank could get someone into trouble and cause them to lose their job. Wtf is funny about that?

IF she did kill herself then maybe she was distraught over possiblly getting fired...that happens a lot.

The trouble with pranks and many other things these days is that people no longer understand when something crosses the line anymore.

I agree there are a lot of things like that, nowadays. I don't know if you guys have these I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! shows there, where they take these faded 'Z-list' celebrities looking to get back into the public eye, put them in 'the jungle', and have them perform all kinds of unpleasant challenges (being covered in cockroaches, snakes, rats; having to eat kangaroo testicles or anuses, etc). I can't watch them - and they come off to me like some terrible sign of a culture gone horribly wrong, where we enjoy watching people suffering and humiliating themselves.

Likewise, there are some 'extreme' prank shows, like one from Brazil that made the news last week, where they made an elevator stop, and then made a 'ghost girl' appear to terrified people in it, and which now has a sequel involving a coffin that opens. These all push the boundaries way beyond where it seems to me they should be, and I feel like some completely out-of-touch old fuddy-duddy when I see people sharing clips and laughing at them.

I wouldn't put this rather tame prank call in the same category, because I just can't see that someone could have reasonably foreseen an outcome like this (and I stress again that we don't yet know the whole story). I'd be happy to see some of the other stuff get reined in a bit, though. Any sense of 'boundaries' seems non-existent with them, and they're bound to lead to tragedy sooner or later.

[Edited 12/8/12 4:33am]

Sorry bro, but the thing that makes this a not so tame prank is the fact that this is a hospital where the staff is presumably engaged in weighty matters such as maintaining health and life saving. That being the case I think it's more than just a matter of poor taste that they would distract people engaged in such work just to pull a funny.

I do not expect that these morons should have known that their poor judgement would end in death but like I said, they should have known that their antics could get somebody in trouble in this type of setting and that should have been enough.

I don't know about UK laws but violating patient privacy laws here can subject a person to civil and even criminal prosecution. We don't know for sure if the employee killed herself but who knows what consequences she may have been threatened with besides termination?

The ghost girl prank was potentially dangerous as well. Shyra and I were commenting on that thread that in certain settings that little girl could have gotten hurt by a panicked victim.

Now in the case of c-list celebs who willingly put themselves into stupid predicaments, that's a whole nother discussion.

It does seem like a completely harmless prank, the type of which is happening everyday on radio stations. It's really strange that someone tricked by a harmless prank not even directed at theirself and who has a family, would kill themselves.

Has any news article given any background on the receptionist?

o

Timmy84 said:

I think something was going on with this woman to cause her to do this.

That said, the prank was really lowdown.

I don't think it's been officially ruled a suicide yet but it's not that unusual for people to kill themselves over losing a job. She may have been in fear of what her husband would do, her family may have already been having money problems, she may have feared prosecution, etc, etc....

I have a feeling that this ain't over either. I think that the royals may go after that station just like they went after the guy who took the boobie pics of Kate.

babynoz said:

o

Timmy84 said:

I think something was going on with this woman to cause her to do this.

That said, the prank was really lowdown.

I don't think it's been officially ruled a suicide yet but it's not that unusual for people to kill themselves over losing a job. She may have been in fear of what her husband would do, her family may have already been having money problems, she may have feared prosecution, etc, etc....

I have a feeling that this ain't over either. I think that the royals may go after that station just like they went after the guy who took the boobie pics of Kate.

Agreed. There is no confirmation yet as to cause of death until an autopsy is performed.