For Every Action There Is an (Completely Un)Equal and Opposite Reaction

For those of you who don’t already know, Waity Katie, i.e. Duchess Dolittle, i.e. Kate Middleton, i.e. the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant. With an alleged baby. I wouldn’t blame you for being unaware of this fact; it’s gotten such little publicity.

What’s gotten as equally as little publicity, is the fact that Kate’s been in and out of the hospital with “morning sickness” and that, during one of her hospital stays, two Australian DJs decided to pull a little prank-aroony. Posing as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, they called King Edward VII Hospital, the hospital where Kate was staying, saying that they wanted to speak with her. Although they were never put through to Kate, they were given private(ish) information—how she was feeling, if she was sleeping, when Prince William had left, etc.—by an on-duty nurse, Jacintha Saldanha.

I hadn’t intended to write about this situation, mostly because of its tragic ending—the suicide of the aforementioned nurse—but changed my mind after reading a few recent articles on the subject.

The overwhelming consensus—in the media at least—is that these DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, are responsible for the nurse’s death. They drove her to kill herself. Because they were bullies. For this, they were fired from their jobs and have been completely vilified in the press. 

The evil, vile, black-hearted, bullying DJs in question

Obviously if I blogged every time the media got something wrong, I’d never stop blogging, but this one really bothers me for several reasons:

1.       The DJs were doing their job. I’ve heard quite a few on-air personalities do stupid pranky stuff; stuff that may’ve been questioned had things taken a bad turn, but it didn’t so they weren’t. Bottom line: They all do it. It doesn’t necessarily make it right, but these two shouldn’t be brought before the metaphorical firing squad for something that is common practice among this crowd. There but for the grace of God…

2.       If you listen to the audio from the call, Greig and Christian say several times that they fully expect to be hung up on. They knew their idea wasn’t original, that their accents were terrible, and that they were completely unbelievable. They had no expectation of being put through. It was simply a way to fill air time.  

3.       They’re not the first people—on-air or otherwise—to prank-call a hospital trying to get info on a celebrity. After this, however, they may be the last…at least for a while.

4.       To my third point, what if this had been any other pregnant celebrity? Would the fall-out have been the same? Why are the royals so much more important, especially Kate? She’s nothing more than a glorified celebrity with a title. The media, the royals, and the Kate worshippers all need to get a sense of humor.

5.       The DJs have now been labeled as bullies and told that it was their bullying that led this poor woman to kill herself. I take serious issue with this last claim. Real bullying exists. This isn’t it.

People like Perez Hilton should be ashamed of themselves for writing crap like this:

“Knowing now that the prank at least somewhat contributed to Jacintha's heartbreaking decision to end her own life, we sincerely hope a lesson can be learned about the consequences of bullying — even when we think it's harmless.”

Perhaps Mr. Hilton and his cronies could use a little refresher on what bullying actually is. To bully is “to treat abusively; to affect by means of force or coercion.”

I’m sorry; maybe I’m missing something here. In what way did Greig or Christian do either of these things? Listen, I’m not saying that Jacintha wasn’t bullied. But if she was, it was almost certainly by the hospital staff or the public, NOT by the DJs. Labeling these two as bullies is completely inaccurate and adds to the “boy who cried wolf” effect. It makes people immune to such accusations and minimizes legitimate bullying allegations, of which there are plenty.

Could Greig and Christian be accused of bad judgment? Sure. (But isn’t that a job requirement to be a radio personality?) What they cannot and should not be accused of, however, is bullying.

This was a terrible tragedy and it should absolutely be discussed. We should be discussing the mental health issues that lead to suicide; we should be discussing how the hospital handled Ms. Saldanha and if they have any culpability in the situation; we should be discussing the more-than-likely bullying that was directed at Ms. Saldanha—by us, the public.

But, in my opinion, what we should not be discussing is the “bullying” DJs. The reaction to Greig and Christian’s stupid prank has been totally blown out of proportion. They’ve been scapegoated because they dared to embarrass precious Kate, plain and simple.

That’s my take, at least. What do you guys think?  

                 

(Fear not, I’m getting off my soapbox now before someone pushes me.

ATG will now return to its regularly scheduled judgmental programming.)