Between guilt and innocence: 2Day FM and the moral blame game
There is a difference between legal responsibility and moral responsibility, argues philosophy lecturer Patrick Stokes in a post first published on The Conversation.
This past weekend, we saw the media – old, new, and social – trying to digest the indigestible. The death of Jacintha Saldanha, the British nurse who apparently took her own life after being caught up in a prank phone call from 2DayFM DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, is one of those stories that is so sad, so utterly pointless and bewildering, as to leave us gasping for something, anything, coherent to say about it.
There’s also something frighteningly random in how things seem to have played out: a simple, farcical prank call from the other side of the planet, and suddenly a 46 year old woman – a mother of two and from all accounts a dedicated and well-regarded professional – is dead. That she is appears to be, from what we know at this stage, the result of decisions that had nothing to do with her. No one set out to cause this, no one could have seen it coming, but the feeling remains that someone – Greig and Christian, Austereo management, the hospital, the media, the cult of celebrity itself – must be to blame.
Blaming, as it happens, is something the internet is very good at. Within hours, the 2DayFM Facebook page was inundated with angry messages. Twitter lit up with outrage. Some of the response has been decidedly sinister.
Wow! One of the most sensible pieces I have read on this saga since it began.
It could just go on and on – it needs to stop somewhere.
Perhaps the problem here is that some Australians, with the local media as a particular bad example, think the whole world is some sort of silly, giggly joke-fest that they need to be part of. This is not the first time we have had issues with ‘media’ types- and I use the term very, very loosely – getting themselves into strife over their big mouths and their seemingly juvenile sense of humour. Think The Chaser, Alan Jones, Kyle Sandilands and now these pre-school jokers. I have news for all budding journos / media types out there- the rest of the world- and if you don’t know where that is try Google Maps- does not live in some pre-pubescent toddler time joke fest where everything under the sun is apparently funny or open to your ridicule, where we all make lame jokes about even the most sensitive and personal things and where pulling schoolboy pranks is seen as a road to fame and fortune. That is called, in most parts of this planet as being immature and dumb. No really, I know it sounds too crazy to be true, but acting like a stupid little child means that you are- well- a stupid little child really. And then getting your PR hacks to put you in front of a bank of cameras so you can cry like a little baby to show us all how really, really, really sorry you claim to be is just too much. Here is some timely advice – try acting your age and not your shoe size and this kind of thing wont happen again.
Brando, I quite enjoy a little fun in the world… It would not have happened if the hospital had a proper protocol for fielding calls. The kind of world you describe sounds very serious – depressing even!
Yes Wendles, its the hospitals fault- how stupid of me not to realise that. I assume then, by that logic, its also the the fault of the pedestrian for dying on us and not the fault of the drink driver who runs him/her down? As a journo, I am sad to admit that world I describe exists every day in the press. I dont mind a good joke or five- toilet humour included and I certainly do not think those two radio presenters meant to harm anyone, however when you act like a tosser, rarely will any good come out of that. But perhaps I was too hard on them. This city is also full of self-styled and over-paid ‘ show programmers’ whose only ‘talent’ is to come up with vomit-laden brainless crap (Channel 10 anyone?) that they have copied from elsewhere and as such they too should share some of the blame and pain. Its almost 2013 and our radio stations are paying some inner-city 29 year old wannabe serious coin to come up with mindless schoolboy pranks on a radio show. And we have the hide to poke fun at the Americans? Yes they have heaps of garbage on their mass media channels, but then again we have nothing like The Daily Show/Colbert Report for example. Why? Because that takes not huge amounts of money but intelligence, wit and a true understanding of comedic timing- something that is in short supply in our tosser-infested and highly incestuous mediascape.
Just watch how quickly this issue will fade away when the next big news drama unfolds.
@ Branko, you do have a little bee in your bonnet… I get what you are saying but if there was no demand for this kind of crap it wouldn’t exist. People are listening to these young broadcasters making their silly little pranks… That’s why they do it. It’s a matter of commerce. If you’re not happy with the broadcasting you switch it off, no? And yes, if the hospital had a proper protocol in place to field calls then none of this would have happened… The call wouldn’t have gone through. I’m not really sure how you ‘logically’ related this to pedestrians being killed by drunk divers? Anyway, with regards to there being little demand for intelligence and wit – again, it’s a matter of commerce & personal taste. I hope you find something you like out there!