2Day FM Prank ends in tragedy

[robbiefrom13 877]

smartarse is not funny. hospitals are not fair game. hospitals do important life-and-death stuff, while smartarses contribute nothing but a dumbing-down consumerist attitude to other people and stuff that matters.

funny is funny and I like it, but there are a lot of very unfunny "comedians" who can only push abuse, denigration and mindlessness mockery - the "humour" of cruelty - that has a lot in common with bullying - it tears down the innocent, and makes a public spectacle of others' discomfort, etc. I am inclined to think it is motivated by the desire to highlight how someone else is even dumber than they are themself. Why on earth would our culture see merit in giving such people a public platform from which to mould the attitudes and sense of humour of others?

[dee-luded 2,958]

I did, but to an honest & Innocent person, who believes in peoples integrity, then they're not playing by the same Rule Book.

they should have informed the girl about the joke in an inclusive way at best.

they let her hang, & probably the first she new about it was from being reprimanded by her boss???

Now a nice person has died thru greed for adulation & arrogance. & smartarse ratings...

Its the innocent who pay the hurt, & this needs to be turned ass about. the bosses must be sacked for not implementing a code of behaviour. and the board should stand down themselves for a better model.

this sarcastic type humour is caustic, & corrodes our culture. & imo is a reflection of our inner sadness & a helplessness to change where we've gone to, as a society. out of frustration...

# Just wanted to add to this, a bit more info for anyone who may be interested, in what seems a delightful soul lost to us >

" Nurse would have been 'hit badly' by royal prank "

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/nurse-would-have-been-hit-badly-by-royal-prank-20121209-2b335.html

Jacintha Saldanha was a kind woman. "She used to walk an elderly neighbour who has dementia... down to the shops and back," one of her neighbours told London's The Times.

The neighbour said Ms Saldanha's two children, a son and daughter aged 14 and 16, "were always polite and well-behaved. The boy often played football on the green".

But Ms Saldanha, who often stayed in nurses' quarters in London away from the family home in Bristol, also described herself to friends as "a very nervous person", one told The Telegraph. She would have been "hit badly" by the prank phone call to her hospital asking after the Duchess of Cambridge; it would have "played on her mind".

While there is no clear evidence from Ms Saldanha or anyone else that the prank call by two Australian radio presenters triggered her suspected suicide, news of her death has been greeted by a tidal wave of revulsion that now includes a scathing letter from the head of the hospital concerned to the management of the radio station, 2Day FM in Sydney.

And the two presenters who imitated the Queen and Prince Charles, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, are not only suspended indefinitely but appear to have deleted their Twitter accounts following a barrage of abuse.

Lord Glenarthur, chairman of the King Edward VII hospital where Kate had been staying earlier this week over pregnancy-related illness, sent a letter on Saturday condemning the call and asking for assurances the station would not do anything like that again.

In a letter to Max Moore-Wilton, chairman of the station's parent company, Southern Cross Austereo, Lord Glenarthur said he protested in the strongest possible terms over the hoax call, which had been "extremely foolish". The decision by management to transmit the pre-recorded call was "truly appalling".

"The longer–term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words. I appreciate that you cannot undo the damage which has been done but I would urge you to take steps to ensure that such an incident could never be repeated."

Ms Saldanha was relieving on reception when she took the call, in which Greig purported to be the Queen. She put it through to the ward where another nurse gave intimate details of the duchess's condition.

Media subsequently canvassed questions such as whether the nurses involved should be disciplined, suspended or reported to the British midwifery regulator. The hospital took no such actions.

A palace spokesman said the Royal couple had not complained of the security breach: "On the contrary we offered our full and heartfelt support to the nurses involved and hospital staff at all times."

Ms Saldanha, 46, was found unconscious early on Friday morning and ambulance officers could not revive her.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/nurse-would-have-been-hit-badly-by-royal-prank-20121209-2b335.html#ixzz2EVkWTuFn

* eXploitation is alive & well in our society, praying on our most beautiful & vulnerable amongst us.

.......... death to eXploitation!!!

[robbiefrom13 877]

and another bit of info -

Southern Cross Austereo spokeswoman Sandy Kaye now says Christian and Greig are being counselled by a psychologist – paid for by the company – and Christian and Grieg are "being babysat" by Austereo staff in order to be "kept from seeing the media coverage as much as possible ... We're seriously concerned about their welfare and we’re doing whatever we can to help them."

The radio station says nobody could have anticipated the tragic outcome of the "prank" - as though that is an argument to be putting up now!

Everything in the response from the radio station and the presenters screams immaturity and ignorance. Babies on the loose - like allowing an infant to play with a loaded gun - giving such people the technology with which to impose on the busy real world their self-absorbed stupidity.

Come to think of it, on the technology that they were not fit to have access to, being on the radio may well have driven them to try to think of something clever to say or do, and may have puffed them up to imagine the wave of admiration they could get for their smartarsery, but it was with the phone that they did their damage... How do we protect ourselves and the rest of the world from fools who can't see what just shouldn't be done with a phone? Maybe these two should be charged in the way that "pranksters" pay for wasted police rescue efforts following mindless (and self-absorbed) "hoax calls", or in the way that arsonists pay for the damage they cause by their use of a packet of matches. Their immaturity and ignorance surely can't be an excuse.

Why do Australians listen to such drivellers on the radio, and why do advertisers not shut them down? Seriously depressing that our community indulges these pathetic fools, a point which is not lost on the rest of the world.

[Sir Why You Little 34,490]

Found out some interesting information today via an ex employee of Southern Cross Austereo..SCA.

The interview was pre recorded 2 days before it went to air...was completely cleared by their legal team..

This in my eyes completely changes the dynamic....a live off the cuff phone call ala Tony Martin Mick Molloy is one thing..this is another

SCA could be in huge trouble over this...they would have known the risk...

Southern Cross have been lowering the standard of radio for years, maybe this will be their swansong...?

[PJ_12345 1,098]

Found out some interesting information today via an ex employee of Southern Cross Austereo..SCA.

The interview was pre recorded 2 days before it went to air...was completely cleared by their legal team..

This in my eyes completely changes the dynamic....a live off the cuff phone call ala Tony Martin Mick Molloy is one thing..this is another

SCA could be in huge trouble over this...they would have known the risk...

Southern Cross have been lowering the standard of radio for years, maybe this will be their swansong...?

I have read this too.

Completely pre-recorded, completely cleared by their legal team... this changes everything for me too.

Also I didnt realise that the nurse that committed suicide only connected the call through to another nurse, she wasnt the one who disclosed the information.

What a mess.

[Sir Why You Little 34,490]

I have read this too.

Completely pre-recorded, completely cleared by their legal team... this changes everything for me too.

Also I didnt realise that the nurse that committed suicide only connected the call through to another nurse, she wasnt the one who disclosed the information.

What a mess.

Yes SCA had 48 hours to decide what to do with this..

a lot different to an instant phone call...which does happen.

This whole episode was planned all the way...i was staggered to hear it..

[mauriesy 6,802]

Why do Australians Sydneysiders listen to such drivellers on the radio, and why do advertisers not shut them down?

Fixed your post.

There's something about Sydney radio, and it's even worse when there's an airhead female co-host.

Melbourne radio seems completely different and a shock-jock free zone by comparison (even when you take Hinch into account).

[Sir Why You Little 34,490]

Fixed your post.

There's something about Sydney radio, and it's even worse when there's an airhead female co-host.

Melbourne radio seems completely different and a shock-jock free zone by comparison (even when you take Hinch into account).

Austereo is syndicated through Fox FM and MMM...so we in Melbourne are sadly infected by the same airwaves.

[dee-luded 2,958]

Fixed your post.

There's something about Sydney radio, and it's even worse when there's an airhead female co-host.

Melbourne radio seems completely different and a shock-jock free zone by comparison (even when you take Hinch into account).

The faster the City, the faster dribble... goes hand in hand with a decadent mantality... too many $$$$$, rather the sentse.

or caring, so,,,,, Why should we care about that radio stations existence???

[Crompton's the man 635]

Just a thought along the social morality direction

One of the human actions that has always horrified me is that of dropping rocks off bridges over cars passing underneath on a freeway.

Probably nothing will come of it but (I suspect) the excitement of it all is that if your coordination or aim is just so, the result could be extreme (and of course if you're "underage" your defence lawyer will be able to plead all kinds of diminishing and imaginary arguments but that's another story : I so wish I had been born to be a defence lawyer)

Compared to the scenario above ( or putting rocks on railway tracks is another) I feel you have to say that these radio people have not deliberately set out to play Russian roulette with the lives of the hospital staff they contacted and their degree of culpability needs to be assessed with a careful and just mind.

If anything these events lend more credibility to the Leveson inquiry recommendations which the current British Prime Minister has largely chosen to ignore ( no doubt for very good reasons such as trying to stay on the right side of Billionair Murdoch)

Maybe the real fault is that in our own country we do not have a legislative framework that spells out to junior media people that this type of media intrusion is proscribed and will result in prosecution if enacted.

(don't expect too many journalists to be suggesting this interpretation of recent history - PLEASE don't mention the c*****ship word)

[dee-luded 2,958]

Just a thought along the social morality direction

One of the human actions that has always horrified me is that of dropping rocks off bridges over cars passing underneath on a freeway.

Probably nothing will come of it but (I suspect) the excitement of it all is that if your coordination or aim is just so, the result could be extreme (and of course if you're "underage" your defence lawyer will be able to plead all kinds of diminishing and imaginary arguments but that's another story : I so wish I had been born to be a defence lawyer)

Compared to the scenario above ( or putting rocks on railway tracks is another) I feel you have to say that these radio people have not deliberately set out to play Russian roulette with the lives of the hospital staff they contacted and their degree of culpability needs to be assessed with a careful and just mind.

If anything these events lend more credibility to the Leveson inquiry recommendations which the current British Prime Minister has largely chosen to ignore ( no doubt for very good reasons such as trying to stay on the right side of Billionair Murdoch)

Maybe the real fault is that in our own country we do not have a legislative framework that spells out to junior media people that this type of media intrusion is proscribed and will result in prosecution if enacted.

(don't expect too many journalists to be suggesting this interpretation of recent history - PLEASE don't mention the c*****ship word)

I think the board should be sacked First off. Just to start the ball rolling & send shivers thru board rooms across Australia.

Next, I would haul the executive officers out of they're offices by they're nostrils. Tell them to get straight out of the building & don't stop for they're pens etc.

If they're is a media organisation that has power over these cowboys, the executives should be Banned from working in the electronic media for at least 12 months.

Then we can get down to the Shock [censored].... I'd like to find out more, but 6 months off, from the on-air media for starters, should send a message to other announcers, that they indeed have a moral responsibility to the Values of this great land & all its peoples...

Edited December 9, 2012 by dee-luded

[PJ_12345 1,098]

I think the board should be sacked First off. Just to start the ball rolling & send shivers thru board rooms across Australia.

Next, I would haul the executive officers out of they're offices by they're nostrils. Tell them to get straight out of the building & don't stop for they're pens etc.

If they're is a media organisation that has power over these cowboys, the executives should be Banned from working in the electronic media for at least 12 months.

Then we can get down to the Shock [censored].... I'd like to find out more, but 6 months off, from the on-air media for starters, should send a message to other announcers, that they indeed have a moral responsibility to the Values of this great land & all its peoples...

Dee-luded your delusional if you think anyone other than the producers and dj's will be sacked.

Refer to The Sun...

Boards dont see the day to day activities of companies.

[dee-luded 2,958]

Dee-luded your delusional if you think anyone other than the producers and dj's will be sacked.

Refer to The Sun...

Boards dont see the day to day activities of companies.

Maybe not, but they are responsible for the Values & attitudes of the company & its executive officers etc. Who then hires the CEO? & other top executives?

This Issue needs to be made a major example of, as does the company. Maybe a ban from the airwaves for 6 months. They may prefer that then. Lose the licence for 6 months.

The crap shock jock routines, & the likes of sandilands & his bimboish partner in crime.

[robbiefrom13 877]

Yes SCA had 48 hours to decide what to do with this..

a lot different to an instant phone call...which does happen.

This whole episode was planned all the way...i was staggered to hear it..

I think it was a couple of giggly infants who dreamed it up (hate the word "stunt" - anything that can be called a stunt: don't do it!) and thought they'd been clever and ran to management to tell them. Management apparently operate on the same breathless mental plane too - they knew no better - all were surely focused on the gaspworthy daring of the stunt; and surely no lawyer could fail to see the potential outcry, regardless of any question of a suicide. But they in their own coccoon of mindlessness oh boy they just went ahead!

The way the radio station and the two clowns have reacted since, it confirms the mindless self-absorption in my opinion. No-one has applied any mature or responsible thought at all - look at how they glowed with self-admiration and look-at-meing straight afterwards and around the going-to-air. Sooo excited! No planning - not what they'd think of, I don't reckon.

A licence ought to requre a test and passing that test and continuing to have some awareness of some rules.

Is this part of the as-yet unregulated information/communications revolution perhaps? The 21st century's answer to 5-year-olds down mines in the industrial revolution - self-absorbed self-indulging people with power doing it because legislation hadn't addressed it yet and they did whatever seemed right to them? People not up to the demands of moral discrimination when no-one is telling them exactly what you can and shouldn't do? Time for legislation...

Edited December 9, 2012 by robbiefrom13

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

Immaturity is not illegal.

There must have been thousands, if not more, of these sorts of prank calls made since the development of the modern radio show. This is the first I've ever heard of one resulting in a death (if that's the case, no one has actually made a causal link yet between the call and the suicide).

It might have been in bad taste, but I think there's a lot of overreacting going on. People choke on novelty toothpicks but no one's trying to get them pulled from shelves of supermarkets.

If this nurse killed herself as a result of the prank, I doubt that it was the prank alone that did it. I would suggest that there were likely other issues at play. If it were me, I'd be less worried about the prank and more worried about the constant media attention. Maybe that's where some of the blame should lie if we are to assign blame at all.

What are we going to do? Make a law preventing prank calls? Sounds like a very slippery slope to me, and there are much larger issues society and lawmakers could be dealing with.

I don't mean to sound crass nor insensitive, I just think we need a little perspective here.

[mauriesy 6,802]

Austereo is syndicated through Fox FM and MMM...so we in Melbourne are sadly infected by the same airwaves.

But it all comes from Sydney. For whatever reason, Melbourne radio doesn't seem infected with the same shock-jock mentality.

I think generally it's because there's too many radio stations fighting for revenue, and they're all forced into more devious ways of making the news rather than simply reporting or commenting on it. Either that or they win ratings by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

In Sydney radio, good taste, class, morals and etiquette have gone out the window and been replaced by vindictiveness, accusation, bias, judgementalism, pranks and stupidity.

Give me Red Symons any day.

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

But it all comes from Sydney. For whatever reason, Melbourne radio doesn't seem infected with the same shock-jock mentality.

I think generally it's because there's too many radio stations fighting for revenue, and they're all forced into more devious ways of making the news rather than simply reporting or commenting on it. Either that or they win ratings by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

In Sydney radio, good taste, class, morals and etiquette have gone out the window and been replaced by vindictiveness, accusation, bias, judgementalism, pranks and stupidity.

Give me Red Symons any day.

Isn't the Matt & Jo Show Melbourne based? Matt have been doing regular prank calls for the last 10 years.

Although they are owned by 2Day, that team is Melbourne based isn't it?

[robbiefrom13 877]

The great Britain believed slavery was ok until well into the 1800's; the Americans tore themselves apart over their right to have slaves, in the second half of the 19th Century. Pre-pubescent girls down mines with naked miners who molested them was known about and tolerated in the 1840's in England. I could go on. Cars were around for years before we introduced driving licences. Cigarettes used to be allowed everywhere, and when I was in primary school I used to be able to go to the milk bar to buy them for my father. Laws eventually change, when we realise they need to.

Lots of things today need to be legislated against - wife-bashing, racial and religious vilification, association with extremist groups espousing everything from white supremacy to jihad. Watering the lawn when there's a drought. People don't always choose the sensible and tolerant path - often, they do whatever they see as an opportunity for some personal benefit. It's a shame, but where the means of doing damage exist, regulation seems to end up being considered necessary. If only people were mature enough and had sufficient sense of connectedness to humanity generally for us not to need such regulation...

But people who have no shame and obsessively thrust themselves forward for personal notoriety or fame do need to be somehow stopped from wasting the time and efforts of others who are doing communally useful things. As I said before, hoax calls to police rescue services are no longer seen as just good fun and innocent. Hospitals ought to be exempt from self-serving smartarsery. We can - probably in time will - come up with suitable controls and disincentives to reduce the amount of time-wasting and distress caused by disconnected people with no worthwhile reason for getting into in-trays that matter in a community-wide sense. I am all for individual self-expression, but not for mocking/tearing-down reasons; we all have gifts, but I don't consider smartarsery to be a gift.

No disrespect intended, but I put this forward as a perspective...

Edited December 9, 2012 by robbiefrom13

[Sir Why You Little 34,490]

But it all comes from Sydney. For whatever reason, Melbourne radio doesn't seem infected with the same shock-jock mentality.

I think generally it's because there's too many radio stations fighting for revenue, and they're all forced into more devious ways of making the news rather than simply reporting or commenting on it. Either that or they win ratings by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

In Sydney radio, good taste, class, morals and etiquette have gone out the window and been replaced by vindictiveness, accusation, bias, judgementalism, pranks and stupidity.

Give me Red Symons any day.

you are right Maurie & i agree with you but a lot of syndication goes on in australia particularly in the kids market.

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

The great Britain believed slavery was ok until well into the 1800's; the Americans tore themselves apart over their right to have slaves, in the second half of the 19th Century. Pre-pubescent girls down mines with naked miners who molested them was known about and tolerated in the 1840's in England. I could go on. Cigarettes used to be allowed everywhere, and when I was in primary school I used to be able to go to the milk bar to buy them for my father. Laws change, when we realise they need to. Cars were around for years before we introduced driving licences.

Lots of things today need to be legislated against - wife-bashing, racial and religious vilification, association with extremist groups espousing everything from white supremacy to jihad. People don't always choose the sensible and tolerant path - often, they do whatever they see as an opportunity for some personal benefit. It's a shame, but where the means of doing damage exist, regulation seems to end up being considered necessary. If only people were mature enough and had sufficient sense of connectedness to humanity generally for us not to need such regulation...

But people who have no shame and obsessively thrust themselves forward for notoriety or fame do need to be somehow stopped from wasting the time and efforts of others who are doing useful things. As I said before, hoax calls to police rescue services are no longer seen as just good fun and innocent. Hospitals ought to be exempt from self-serving smartarsery. We can - probably in time will - come up with suitable controls and disincentives to reduce the amount of time-wasting and distress caused by people with no worthwhile reason for getting into in-trays that matter.

No disrespect intended, but I put this forward as a perspective...

That's quite a long bow to draw there. Slavery was a huge economic and social issue and effected millions of people. Prank calling is an often-times crass form of entertainment. I see no commonality that would allow you to draw this parallel. In fact, if anything, it shows that we have more important things to think about than pranks calls that may or may not have one time caused someone to commit suicide.

It's just nowhere near the top of the legislative to-do list. If it were, we would be living in a country with profoundly screwed up priorities. And to be honest, if someone waved a magic wand and solved all our other problems, I still would argue against legislating against prank calls because it would give rise to too many issues regarding the curtailing of free speech.

Prank calls are not hate-speech, let's be reasonable here. It's an immature form of entertainment that largely leaves no lasting damage. If stupid people want to entertain other stupid people by making prank calls then who cares? I think if anything the media is the most guilty here for the disproportionate amount of air time the original prank received and the subsequent commentary on the POSSIBLE link to a suicide. This may just all be a coincidence, and we are spinning into a frenzy because of the proximity of 'event a' and 'event b', even though there was no causal or correlative relationship.

Calling for the broadcaster's blood or demanding we legislate does not solve anything. It just blows the issue out of all proportion.

One death does not make an adequate sample size for sweeping legislative change.

[dee-luded 2,958]

Immaturity is not illegal.

There must have been thousands, if not more, of these sorts of prank calls made since the development of the modern radio show. This is the first I've ever heard of one resulting in a death (if that's the case, no one has actually made a causal link yet between the call and the suicide).

It might have been in bad taste, but I think there's a lot of overreacting going on. People choke on novelty toothpicks but no one's trying to get them pulled from shelves of supermarkets.

If this nurse killed herself as a result of the prank, I doubt that it was the prank alone that did it. I would suggest that there were likely other issues at play. If it were me, I'd be less worried about the prank and more worried about the constant media attention. Maybe that's where some of the blame should lie if we are to assign blame at all.

What are we going to do? Make a law preventing prank calls? Sounds like a very slippery slope to me, and there are much larger issues society and lawmakers could be dealing with.

I don't mean to sound crass nor insensitive, I just think we need a little perspective here.

"Immaturity is not illegal."

No, but it is pitiful. And it can be culpable.

The thread is about drugs, but this story is of the same type of causation. largely Immaturity & irresponsibility. It is out of the same damaging behaviours that cause the extreme sadness in some who are a constant on the recieving end of these sorts of personal actions.

............The perpetrators are usually IMO, of a sort of harder more aggressive, type of nature, less caring of things. Often these people are the Bulls in the China shop.

Run amok leaving a trail of despair behind them, & either not realising,,, not looking in the mirror to witness the wreckage, or just don't give a damn.

These are the ones who largely contribute In many ways, from the School Yard to the Board Rooms of Australia, who cause grief & destruction in people, & in homes around Australia.

Poor self esteem then gets handed down within families causing a bigger more ingrained into dna problem where it is a propensity for those kids to suffer from birth.

This Nature + Nurture, is a compounded recipe for disaster in a careless society. The Karmic cycle says Hi.

The person the perpetrator or they're loved ones come across one day, may be at a crossroad...

[Bluey's Dad 3,419]

"Immaturity is not illegal."

No, but it is pitiful. And it can be culpable.

The thread is about drugs, but this story is of the same type of causation. largely Immaturity & irresponsibility. It is out of the same damaging behaviours that cause the extreme sadness in some who are a constant on the recieving end of these sorts of personal actions.

............The perpetrators are usually IMO, of a sort of harder more aggressive, type of nature, less caring of things. Often these people are the Bulls in the China shop.

Run amok leaving a trail of despair behind them, & either not realising,,, not looking in the mirror to witness the wreckage, or just don't give a damn.

These are the ones who largely contribute In many ways, from the School Yard to the Board Rooms of Australia, who cause grief & destruction in people, & in homes around Australia.

Poor self esteem then gets handed down within families causing a bigger more ingrained into dna problem where it is a propensity for those kids to suffer from birth.

This Nature + Nurture, is a compounded recipe for disaster in a careless society. The Karmic cycle says Hi.

The person the perpetrator or they're loved ones come across one day, may be at a crossroad...

"Immaturity is not illegal."

"No, but it is pitiful. And it can be culpable."

True, but there's a line. I think prank calls sit firmly on the 'pitiful but not culpable' side, unless the contents of that call are intentionally hostile, hateful or done with intention to cause harm. In that case, there are already laws to cover those acts. A prank call specific law is not necessary.

You may be right about the roots of both behaviours. I've had very few exposures to drugs in my life so can't say for sure.

After that you kind of lost me, not sure how they both relate.

I don't think the nature/nurture debate has anything to do with Karma, since I very much doubt Karma exists in any form.

Maybe a mod could split the threads?

[dee-luded 2,958]

That's quite a long bow to draw there. Slavery was a huge economic and social issue and effected millions of people. Prank calling is an often-times crass form of entertainment. I see no commonality that would allow you to draw this parallel. In fact, if anything, it shows that we have more important things to think about than pranks calls that may or may not have one time caused someone to commit suicide.

It's just nowhere near the top of the legislative to-do list. If it were, we would be living in a country with profoundly screwed up priorities. And to be honest, if someone waved a magic wand and solved all our other problems, I still would argue against legislating against prank calls because it would give rise to too many issues regarding the curtailing of free speech.

Prank calls are not hate-speech, let's be reasonable here. It's an immature form of entertainment that largely leaves no lasting damage. If stupid people want to entertain other stupid people by making prank calls then who cares? I think if anything the media is the most guilty here for the disproportionate amount of air time the original prank received and the subsequent commentary on the POSSIBLE link to a suicide. This may just all be a coincidence, and we are spinning into a frenzy because of the proximity of 'event a' and 'event b', even though there was no causal or correlative relationship.

Calling for the broadcaster's blood or demanding we legislate does not solve anything. It just blows the issue out of all proportion.

One death does not make an adequate sample size for sweeping legislative change.

What so our finances are More important legislative issues than protecting our societies values & safety???

I think it does, because our young learn & are led more these days by they're peers than they're parents... they have more respect for the Idols & peers. and so are infected by these so called "Stars"

This Is why these Issues are so Important. Because these Media "Stars" have little scrupuls... and are money oriented rather than 100% caring of the community.

Stupid people educating stupid people, who cares? Are you serious? Here's your problem, & you don't seem to get that it is a problem.

Who taught you, this attitude? you could well search inside.

The issue of the shock jocks & really poor media behaviors isn't a one off,, & is heading in a direction off the planet.

The media is out of control at the moment as they think as long as they're trying to earn profits for some Company,,, then they have right on they're side. As if Money is more important the Life.

.....and the boards, as faceless men/people, think they are above the peoples Law....

..........time gentleman, please.....

[mauriesy 6,802]

True, but there's a line. I think prank calls sit firmly on the 'pitiful but not culpable' side, unless the contents of that call are intentionally hostile, hateful or done with intention to cause harm. In that case, there are already laws to cover those acts. A prank call specific law is not necessary.

I think there's a difference between a candid camera-type prank that is relatively harmless and the perpetrator immediately fesses up, as opposed to a prank that deliberately sets out to breach patient confidentiality and puts a nurse in an invidious and regrettable professional position.

[robbiefrom13 877]

Choke might be right - I am seizing my opportunity here, to attack something I hate. I am making use of a suicide that may have had all sorts of complicated causes.

Where I am coming from is what dee-luded referred to - the School Yard. As a school-teacher, I can't stand seeing weak kids slavishly follow mindless models that are feted on radio and tv, etc, and growing up habituated to anti-social and selfishly unproductive patterns of behaviour. And I hate seeing the collateral victims of loud self-serving bullies getting hurt. I believe that we have always had those hard-hearted or very stupid and ambitious individuals who seize on their opportunities to boost themselves by taking others down. Shakespeare railed against gongoozling idiots - the sort who stand and drink and stare and mock. Part of history, and we now see new sorts of hurt being inflicted through the unregulated power of media/celebrity/communications technology. Somewhere along the line, we will call a stop. Usually too late.

The thing about the slave trade, or the sale of cigarettes, is that at the time no-one thought anything of it at all - slaves just were inferior, and they benefitted from us taking their lives in hand and so on. Think stolen generations - done for their own good as much as anything. Cigarettes were good for your nerves! In the pot, the frog would tell you if asked, "no, this is not too bad. Well, I'm actually enjoying it..."