Every disc jockey who has ever made a prank call is rethinking his or her approach after what happened this past weekend. Tom Taylor had this report in his newsletter this morning...
Thanks to social media, Sydney’s 2Day FM is being punished by a global wash of anger and spite, after the object of a phone prank killed herself. Friday’s NOW newsletter had the story of Aussie jocks Mel Greig and Michael Christian posing as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, and getting all the way to a nurse involved with the medical care of Kate Middleton. They considered that a bit of fun – but as you probably heard all weekend, 46-year-old nurse (and mother of two) Jacintha Saldanha committed suicide. Was that foreseeable? Probably not. And five years ago, she wouldn’t have been subjected to the avalanche of criticism from Twitter and other social media. Now the abuse has turned to Mel Greig and Michael Christian, and their station. Owner Southern Cross Austereo has suspended their show.
This is a horrible, tragic story. I should note, however, that the prank calls do go both ways. Ask that moron who will do anything in his power to get on live television shows only to say "Howard Stern". He has done so at the most tasteless times--during live coverage of horrible tragedies. Nobody killed themselves, but at the very least I'm guessing a few people were fired. I'm also wondering if that jerk who pranked me into thinking he was Michael Dukakis in 1988 (almost getting me fired from the Steve & Garry show) has any feelings of remorse for that.
