The recent events surrounding the death of Jacintha Saldhana, a nurse at King Edward VII hospital are tragic. A lady has left behind 2 young children and a husband in awful circumstances. Two DJ’s will live with the haunting memory of this episode for the rest of their lives. They have almost probably flushed their radio career straight down the toilet.

Though there is a lot to this story that is mind boggling, and to the media reaction as well.

Prank calls have been part of radio for as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to the Hot 30 with David Rymer, and there was one particular incident I remember when he phoned a girl telling her that their had been a mistake with her HSC mark. The girl was in tears, the media was outraged, calling for his dismissal, and rightly so. It was a mean spirited gag, lacking of any humour and it backfired big time.

Listening to the the prank done by Mel and Chris, I could detect no maliciousness directed to the recipients of the call. It was a piece of harmless fluff and about as innocuous as you can get; not mean-spirited or nasty in any way. The punchline (if there is any) is aimed toward the over-the-top stuffy accents of the British royalty, corgis barking etc. Even the mock Charles asking ‘Are they alright?’ to the nurse on the line had an air of ‘concern’ about it. That any of this could be construed as ‘bullying’ is just nonsense.

That someone would choose to kill themselves over this is unfathomable. Though it is not my position to judge, I find it amazing and baffling that a nurse (who acted only in the capacity of receptionist switching a call) would reach the threshold of pain that life could not continue and death was the only option. Weighing up the shame and humiliation she felt outweighed the life of being a wife and mother. It is very sad that this decision was made this way.

There must be more to the story. Life cannot be that cheap that switching a call (and not even being the major participant in it) would warrant your own death. What involvement did the hospital staff have in all of this? Was there ribbing for being fooled and not adequately protecting the royals from outsiders? What was her home life like? There must be so many details left out that it seem like we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg, and nothing underneath the water.

If the DJ’s (Mel Greig and Michael Christian) are to be found culpable of enciting a person to suicide, then by the same logic Ashton Kutcher should be nabbed for potential mass murder.  If anything the only negative aspects about this call was that it was a) an invasion of privacy and b) was conducted through deception. Though the 2nd point is somewhat mitigated in that the over-the-top accents should have been a give away (though the lady being from India may not have been as well attuned to this)

Should they have broadcast a call which gave away obviously sensitive and private information. No they shouldn’t. This is the only moral black spot.

Consider other pieces of entertainment that rely on ‘pranking’  Borat and Brüno for instance. These were made for entertaining audiences, though when you crack down the formula, it is entertainment made by causing intentional embarassment, uneasiness to an unsuspecting person. This was the case when a college kid sued Sacha Baron Cohen for causing intentional distress. If we are to stand the same moral high ground, then these movies should disappear as they could be a catalyst for suicide. (I found the movies to be very distasteful)

It brings up interesting ideas in responsibility and the extent to which the actions a person can be directly attributed to a fatal action of someone else.
If I were to call my neighbour an ‘asshole’ and he commits suicide over this, am I responsible? Most people would say ‘No’.  It’s absurd to think so. Though if it were an ongoing and sustained attack with deliberate intention to cause harm and suffering, then a reasonable person may conclude otherwise. In the case of the radio station gag, it’s been said by many that no one could have reasonably forseen this turn of events. And I believe this too. This event taken in isolation, I believe that the action of the lady in taking her own life was completely disproportionate to what she experienced. When I first heard of this, my initial reaction was ‘What, over that?’ It just seemed entirely ludicrous.

The internet unfortunately stirs up a a culture of manufactured outrage by those who find a certain glee in being part of a media frenzy. How many of those actually feel any sense of rage sitting behind their keyboard. Probably not many at all.|Was the same prank call derided BEFORE the lady took her own life. No. There was some press in England and that was pretty much it. Prince Charles himself even laughed it off.

I think to those who are going to chastise the DJ’s for this, take a long had look at the situation before you go all guns blazing. I think Jeff Kennett summed it up well. “Nothing they did was offensive. We’ve got to be careful we don’t become so PC that we deny ourselves the opportunity to extend to these two all the support we can.”