Today, the NZ Herald reported:
It's probably too much to hope that the desperately sad prank-call affair is the beginning of the end for the sub-sub-culture that should answer to the name Radio Moron.
For the simple reason that so many people seem to like it, wherever you are on the airwaves, you're only a tweak of the dial away from having your ears and intelligence assaulted by loud-mouthed exhibitionists convinced of their own hilariousness and hell-bent on reducing everything to a lowest common denominator of raucous inanity.
A woman is dead, and at the time of writing there was no reason to think she wouldn't still be alive if she hadn't answered the prank call.
Clearly Michael Christian and Mel Greig bear some responsibility for the death of Jacintha Saldanha, who took her life shortly after their stupid prank call. With the contents of her suicide notes now coming to light and showing that she was upset at the Australian DJs trickery, its pretty obvious their disrespectful actions have led to Saldanha's suicide.
That initial stupid prank was bad enough, but then the morons at the centre of this media spectacle tried to claim they never intended to mislead anybody, which is patently false. The prank would only have worked if they managed to trick somebody, and that somebody happened to be a senior nurse at King Edward VII hospital, Jacintha Saldanha.
Saying that their hoax wasn't really a hoax is clearly bullshit, and contemptibly adds further insult to the intelligence and memory of Jacintha Saldanha, who's shame at being tricked appears to be the main factor that lead to her taking her own life. Michael Christian and Mel Greig are obviously partly responsible for her death and should feel highly ashamed.
Whether these idiot DJs who are now in hiding because of death threats were aware that their trickery would cause somebody else enough shame to commit suicide just reflects badly on them. Only a truly narcissistic fool would fail to comprehend the potential ramifications for their actions.
That's what separates the wheat from the chaff, those who care enough about other people to treat them with respect and those who simply don't care and cause other people misfortune either for their own gratification or in the case of 2Day FM for increased ratings.
The disgraceful Michael Christian and Mel Greig then made the situation worse by trying to publicly apologize... Well that's what the headlines read anyway. What they were actually doing was gaining even more attention with a few crocodile tears and obvious insincerity that was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Despicably they were using the suicide of Jacintha Saldanha to raise their public profiles. What a couple of assholes!
This isn't an isolated incident of appalling grandstanding by the Australian DJs or the radio station they belong to either... The worst of which was when a 14-year-old girl was encouraged to reveal on air while strapped to a lie-detector that she'd been raped.
The difference with this more recent case is that the harm caused is blatantly obvious for all to see, when normally such harm that unthinking fools like Michael Christian and Mel Greig cause is hidden in a multitude of other socially destruction effects, not just suicide statistics.
This week the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced that it has opened a formal investigation, which will hopefully lead to the shitty radio station being closed down. In the mean time I hope that Michael Christian and Mel Greig stay off air for good, we don't want to hear from such assholes like them again.
