Monday, December 10, 2012

Australian DJs speak after British nurse commits suicide due to prank call



Last week, two Australian radio DJs made a prank phone call to Kate Middleton at the hospital where she was staying while enduring morning sickness.

Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who released private information after being duped into thinking she was speaking with Prince Charles and The Queen, subsequently committed suicide.

The DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian took themselves off the air last week, and gave their first interview about the tragedy to Australia's Current Affair.

It's a heartbreaking event - very tragic.

Watching the interview, clearly the DJs are shattered. It is interesting that they don't seem to be able to describe the "vetting" process for airing prank calls. More than once in the interview they are asked what the process is. They seem to know there IS a process to determine if a prank call is aired, but they don't seem to even know "who" makes the decision to air such things. They simply say their job is to come up with material, and then it's handed off and out of their hands.

Very sad all around.