ballaughbiker Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Hardly relevant to the thread I think it is. Without the very high profile of the patient, no pinhead in Australia would have thought up the idea to make the call in the first place. Therefore their and our perception of what royalty is and why it should be targeted and ridiculed and maybe even attacked is relevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxman1980 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Hardly relevant to the thread I think it is. Without the very high profile of the patient, no pinhead in Australia would have thought up the idea to make the call in the first place. Therefore their and our perception of what royalty is and why it should be targeted and ridiculed and maybe even attacked is relevant. The Royals though are not the only high profile people who require hospital treatment. It could have been the President of the USA, the Prime Minister or any one of a thousand celebities. The discussion in this case should not be about the Royals but why we think that prank calls such as this are acceptable or funny. The outcome of all this was a breach of medical confidentiality and the tragic loss of a life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I agree with Chinahand's first post, but would add that what is seen as humourous in one culture can be seen as a loss of honour and integrity, or even offensive, in another. However, that doesn't mean our culture should automatically adopt the standards or same behaviour of others. One lesson to learn from this, is perhaps that organsiations with staff not used to our culture, to have the unecessary press attention explained to them properly. Any number of people could potentially have dealt with that call. I can imagine the hospital authorities embarrassed, over-reacting and even bollocking people left right and centre, whilst meanwhile millions in our culture saw it as the joke it was intended to be, others seeing it as a serious breach, and several as potentially seriously career damaging. I can imagine a lot of blamestorming going on. But you should always be careful who you wind up and careful with whoever else is involved. In this case IMO it led to a clash of cultures and a tragic overreaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballaughbiker Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 The Royals though are not the only high profile people who require hospital treatment True but it was them this time and you would be hard pressed to disagree that the royals are a very easy target due to their perceived easy lifestyle. I've always liked aussie irreverence but when I first heard about this prank, I thought they had gone to far. Ridiculing others can be very funny if you're a bit thick but when you become a target, you might see things a bit differently. Ridicule has been used to entertain for hundreds of years but there are some very distasteful examples of it which don't happen any more. Whether trapping what might have been a dedicated foreign professional towards the end of a night shift who might not be completely fluent in the language and maybe from a completely different culture just to entertain the intellectually challenged by worldwide ridicule could just be one of those examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Spoke to someone many years ago who ran a tree planting business in England. The firm had an order with the Highgrove estate. One day the Boss of the estate (HRH !) phoned the Managing Director of the company to discuss the order. The MD thought it was a hoax and told HRH he didn't believe it was him. All sorted out amicably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quilp Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Spoke to someone many years ago who ran a tree planting business in England. The firm had an order with the Highgrove estate. One day the Boss of the estate (HRH !) phoned the Managing Director of the company to discuss the order. The MD thought it was a hoax and told HRH he didn't believe it was him. All sorted out amicably. The MD probably thought it was some Jug-eared clown.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxman1980 Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Ballalaugh Biker - I had been commenting that Tuggers rant about the Royal Family was not relevant to this thread (something which I note you did also). I think it is right to question the behaviour of the DJ's who thought this was a good idea. The MD thought it was a hoax and told HRH he didn't believe it was him. All sorted out amicably. I cannot see any of the Royal Family being offended if they were questioned by someone taking an unexpected call. I think they value their privacy (especially when a member of the family is in hospital) and that they would be pleased to see that someone is willing to challenge an unexpected call on what I assume was a publically available number. Edited to add that I still do not blame the two nurses involved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tugger Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I think they deserve to be stripped of their titles, most of their properties and their constitutional position. Hardly relevant to the thread. Ah yes, but I don't give a shit what you think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScotsAlan Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I found this news very sad. Even worse that she is a mum of two. I am very surprised there was not some sort of security system in place to stop pranksters getting through. If you were to call an NHS hospital at any time to enquire about a patient I doubt very much if you would be put straight through. Maybe Wrighty could tell us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asitis Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 I am afraid we live in a voyeuristic society where cheap laughs at other peoples expense is the norm with crap TV supporting those with little else to do but snigger at the misfortune of others. Twitter and Facebook just part of the problem where cyber bullying is the norm. Every so often someone very sensitive is going to become the butt of this cheap humour whether intended or not and it is a risk those who participate take ! The motives of the presenters was to generate a cheap laugh for their audience at someones expense probably not expecting to get beyond the switchboard but that does not absolve them of some responsibility for the consequences. Rant over ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addie Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 One of the problems with randomely targetted 'let's have a larff' behaviour is that one never knows the state of mind of those at the receiving end. I blame a lot of this on the towie, chelsea, geordie, BB, Andre, Jordon, jungle, celebrity come prancing brigade who expose themselves so readily as though it's the norm. Simple minded minor radio twits can't seem to tell the difference between publicity hungry z-listers and real people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.K. Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 She would have had armed Royal Protection Officers there I'm sure. So why they weren't vetting telephone calls as well is a surprise to me. Wait for the wash-up session I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballaughbiker Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Every so often someone very sensitive is going to become the butt of this cheap humour whether intended or not and it is a risk those who participate take ! It was bad enough tricking someone likely just trying to do a responsible worthwhile job at some unearthly hour of the morning just to to get a laugh but when it succeeded, they put video clips on the net of them doing it and started up new hashtags on twitter to really get the most out of it they could, now on a worldwide stage. By doing this they showed they just did not care about humiliation, ridicule and degradation of their two victims as long as they pandered to the lowest common denominator in their audience. That video clip was still on the radio stations website following the new of this nurses death. Whilst its obvious they never meant it to end like it did, they really did enjoy their couple of day's fame before the tragic news. Its hard to therefore give them the benefit of the doubt. This nurse was obviously very sensitive but you've got to wonder how you would feel having been humiliated in front of a worldwide audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrossRoss Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MjPPMLlZqo Here is the prank call, nothing confidential or special inside information given away. No need for suicide, the nurse did nothing wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endovelicus Posted December 8, 2012 Share Posted December 8, 2012 Here is the prank call, nothing confidential or special inside information given away. No need for suicide, the nurse did nothing wrong. Which is exactly what was reported both at the time and since. So why would you feel it necessary to give those Aussie dipsticks more publicity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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