Autralian DJs and prank calls

[Hacker Khan]

Anyone else think the reaction to what they did is way over the top? Yes it was not that big or clever, but there was no way in the world they could have foreseen what would happen. And people saying they have blood on their hands is way over the top.

The call was in some mock English accent with a tape of Corgi's barking in the background, so you could argue it was not a serious threat to break through the security or humiliate the person answering the phone. And prank calls have been around for ages. So what is supposed to happen, we ban prank calls just in case someone may take it way out of proportion and kill themselves?

I notice the hospital are trying to put lots of blame on the DJs. Might one ask where was the support for the lady in question who was asked to answer the phones when Kate was in there? Did they not think there may be a lot of people wanting to ring the hospital so you put some procedures in place? Also where was the support for the lady after the event? It's pretty obvious that she had issues, so might one expect the hospital to be able to spot this and not lambast 2 DJs for not thinking that the terrible outcome might happen?

 

[gripitripit]

I think most of the blame lies with the media who went ott reporting it.

 

[drawboy]

I could not agree with the OP more on this. It is farcical to blame the dj's on this. It was a prank call no more with no harm done. No one let out any information that the media didn't already know. How many people did themselves in after Jeremy Beadle hoaxed them or after Dom Jolly made them look daft. No, there is something more behind this, either the poor nurse had mental issues already which tipped her over the edge or something more sinister has taken place similar to the Lady Diana incident.
Anyway you look at it the dj's cannot be held responsible in my eyes.

 

[jimbob.someroo]

Again, agree with OP.

There was no way in which they could forsee the outcome and a lot of blame has to be placed on the hospital for not having receptionists working in the early hours when arguably the most famous couple in the world are in the place. Apparently the nurse doesn't usually answer phones but they don't have receptionists working 24 hours.

I think the nurse must have had something else going on for her to take her own life. It's tragic that she did so, but on the grand scheme of things, I can't ever imagine it being reason alone for a perfectly happy woman with a family to take her own life. - I may be wrong.

The only blame I have for the Radio Station is that apparently it was vetted by bosses before playing out, a la Russel Brand / Jonathon Ross. It is the station controllers who should take the blame from their side, not the DJ's. You hire DJ's to do stupid outlandish things like that and the Station bosses are the ones that are supposed to weed out anything too OTT.

 

[6inchcup]

doesn't matter if they knew the woman would take her own life or not in a court of law the would be facing charges for the prank for the outcome,i did jury service 15 years ago and one case involved a youth kicking a ball to his mate across a road,harmless thing to do but it caused a driver to swerve and hit a cyclist who suffered major brain trauma,the youth got 5 years for causing the accident and in the words of the judge any action that causes distress or injury cant be deemed as a prank or harmless fun.

 

[Val]

The poor lass must have been very troubled to take her own life.

Shame for all the invloved directly or indirectly.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I agree up to a point. The bigger the "target" the bigger the responsibility. One thing winding a mate or a B list celeb but the hugher you aim the more those involved feel the impact. Clearly they couldn't have foreseen the outcome though and so the media witchnhunt is way off the mark and looking for sacrificial lambs aka the DJ's. I think once they have had their pound of flesh, the whole thing, including the fact someone died will be yesterdays news

 

[Imurg]

Whilst the DJ's couldn't have known the eventual outcome, when you play a trick
/prank on someone you have to accept some of the consequences when things go wrong.
They must have realised that, at best,someonewasgoing to get into serious trouble if the hoax came off.
Knowing that I feel they are, at least partly, responsible.
When Beadle and Edmonds used to do this everyone else was in on the joke so nobody was getting sacked .
This was an attempt to boost ratings with little thought for the damage they would to whoever picked up the phone.

 

[Scottjd1]

I think most of the blame lies with the media who went ott reporting it.

This is the problem ..... Actually its the problem with most bad stuff these days.

 

[Crazyface]

doesn't matter if they knew the woman would take her own life or not in a court of law the would be facing charges for the prank for the outcome,i did jury service 15 years ago and one case involved a youth kicking a ball to his mate across a road,harmless thing to do but it caused a driver to swerve and hit a cyclist who suffered major brain trauma,the youth got 5 years for causing the accident and in the words of the judge any action that causes distress or injury cant be deemed as a prank or harmless fun.

Sorry to interupt, but WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thas got to be the most ridiculous ruling I have EVER heard of!

PS Agree with the backing of the DJ's.

 

[car.crash]

What's bugged me more than anything is the fact they thought it would be funny to terrorise a woman whilst she's in hospital having trouble with her baby. If someone done that I my fiancé I would be livid, let alone doing it to the future queen knowing the royals have a huge fan club.
Back to the poor lady who topped herself I bet my life on it that the national security tore her ass open for what she did.

 

[LanDog]

What really happened, for my perspective, is that 2 people attempted a joke, it didn't work out, that really should've been it.

But as what seems to happen in most of these situations, the media had to find a front page story, and completely blew it out of proportion so much so that a poor young woman couldn't take it and ended her own life. Which in itself is an example of how things are often taken far too far by the British Press.

The DJs should be disappointed that it has escalated so badly. But really for me, each and every journalist who has written something to rile and embarrass the nurse in question, should be riddled with guilt.

 

[6inchcup]

Sorry to interupt, but WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thas got to be the most ridiculous ruling I have EVER heard of!

PS Agree with the backing of the DJ's.

why is it ridiculous,the actions of the youth caused someone to be seroiusly hurt and impaired for life,same as the judge stated the reckless action was to blame what seemed an innocent thing to do had serious conciquences

 

[SocketRocket]

why is it ridiculous,the actions of the youth caused someone to be seroiusly hurt and impaired for life,same as the judge stated the reckless action was to blame what seemed an innocent thing to do had serious conciquences

How can kicking a football be a reckless action unless it was proven that the act was deliberate in causing injury.

 

[Hobbit]

How can kicking a football be a reckless action unless it was proven that the act was deliberate in causing injury.

Maybe its where he was playing football and how he kicked it. Would you say that a group of kids playing football in a greenhouse is wise, and if they broke several pains of glass there isn't blame attached?

Causing death by dangerous driving requires someone to make a subjective judgement about how the driver was behaving.
Causing death by playing a prank...

The outcome of the prank call is undoubtedly sad but it was a prank that backfired. Guilty of manslaughter, accidental death? Of course not. But if the DJ's hadn't played the prank what would the outcome be? And if the driver hadn't... Obviously the nurse would still be alive... so who is partly culpable in the nurse death?

 

[Hacker Khan]

But if the DJ's hadn't played the prank what would the outcome be? And if the driver hadn't... Obviously the nurse would still be alive... so who is partly culpable in the nurse death?

And the moral of the story is never do anything until you have done a risk assessment, and make sure you follow a process.

 

[Imurg]

And the moral of the story is never do anything until you have done a risk assessment, and make sure you follow a process.

Up to a point Yes...

The best outcome of this "jape" would be someone at the Hospital getting fired or severely reprimanded.
Is it worth a "laugh" to potentially ruin someone's life........

Malicious hoax phone calls should be outlawed - they didn't think through the possible outcomes or they simply didn't care.

 

[sawtooth]

Totally agree, how the hell can you blame the DJ's for this?

If anything I blame the hospital security or lack of it. I'm sorry but if you have someone of that importance staying at the hospital then you should have a process in place to guard against this sort of thing.

 

[Imurg]

Totally agree, how the hell can you blame the DJ's for this?

If anything I blame the hospital security or lack of it. I'm sorry but if you have someone of that importance staying at the hospital then you should have a process in place to guard against this sort of thing.

Agreed, the Hospital failed.

But what was the reasoning behind the call in the first place?
Someone was always going to get in trouble if it got through - ok it was a long shot but it came off. Did they think that the Hospital would just smile and say " Ah - you got us!" and leave it at that? Were they doing it just to expose short-comings at the Hospital? Were they hell - they were on a ratings boost. If it was to expose the Hospital then there would be some justification for it but that wasn't why they did it.

People need to realise that there are consequences to making calls like these.

All for the sake of a laugh and a few more listeners.....

 

[Hobbit]

Totally agree, how the hell can you blame the DJ's for this?

If anything I blame the hospital security or lack of it. I'm sorry but if you have someone of that importance staying at the hospital then you should have a process in place to guard against this sort of thing.

Virtually every accident on the road is quite simply that, an accident. But fault is apportioned because the accident could have been avoided it pretty much every case. Someone runs into the back of you; it wasn't deliberate but its their fault for travelling too close/too fast/looking left when they should have looked right.

Someone playing a prank is a deliberate act that may have consequences. I dare say most of us would have expected the consequence would be a disciplinary or sacking for giving out patient confidential info...

Should the hospital have a process in place for dealing with phone calls? They probably do have one but how would you react if you, honestly, thought it was the Queen at the other end of the line? "Sorry Ma'am but I can't tell you..."