Posted on 12/07/2012 1:17:56 PM PST by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Once upon a time I was an aspiring media professional. My very first foray into the business was as summer newspaper intern with The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Near the end of my internship, I was given an assignment that haunts me to this very day.
I was told to go out to a Cleveland suburb where a shooter was reportedly spraying bullets in a residential neighborhood.
When I arrived at scene, police had cordoned off the block where the shooter – a troubled 17 year-old kid – was holed up in his house. After what seemed like hours, but probably were more like minutes, a SWAT team stormed the house.
I expected an exchange of gunfire, but there was none. Then paramedics were summoned to the house, where they removed the lifeless body of the kid, who, it turned out, had turned the gun on himself.
It shook me to my very core. Not the least because the deceased was only two years younger than I was.
But as I learned in J-school, I had to get to story; I had to interview witnesses.
So I approached the young man’s family, which had huddled behind the police cordon, along with neighbors that had been evacuated.
They were near hysterical. But, still, I asked them if they had anything to say to the newspaper.
They looked right through me. And I didn’t blame them. Because I intruded upon them at a time when they should have been left alone with their grief.
I was reminded of that experience when heard the tragic story of Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who worked at King Edward VII Hospital in London, where expected mum Kate Middleton was treated this week.
Jacintha was so traumatized by a hoax played on her by two oh-so-clever Australian radio jocks – who pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles calling for Kate – that she killed herself yesterday.
My heart breaks for the deceased nurse and her family.
The tragedy confirms to me what I have learned during a media career of more than two decades: Many of those who work in print, digital, radio and television are closer to the prince of this world than to Christ.
Their God-lessness informs their approach to mass communication. If they can put something in print, or over the airwaves, that creates buzz, that attracts readers or listeners or viewers, they’re good to go with it.
Even if it causes a poor nurse so much despair, she finds her life no longer worth living.
Why does modern western civ think its “cool” to be mean to perfectly innocent individuals in the name of humor? Its sick.
This is ridiculous. The nurse obviously had other mental issues. No sane person would commit suicide over a prank. It wasn’t even that embarrassing a prank. Have we become so weak that a little bit of embarrassment makes us go off the deep end.
And now you are a blogger.
A tragic tale of dashed dreams and failure.
My condolences, sir.
No. Just like the bully suicides, the person that did the killing is the suicide NOT the people around them. They might have done something annoying and stupid and embarrassing for her, but plenty of people get annoyed and embarrassed without killing themselves. It’s like blaming the gun for the crime.
“The nurse obviously had other mental issues.”
Yet she was still working. Still a mother to her children. They pushed her over the edge with their stupid prank. What if a “prank” causes someone to have a heart attack. They are off the air now.
Very bad, misleading headline.
NO they didn’t kill her.
She took her own life.
Your Headline is tantamount to saying the gun killed the victim.
Granted, they may have (in her mind) ‘shamed’ her and I would imagine her peers were pretty harsh on her, but, if the original reports are correct, she did herself in.
Other than the loss of life etc the other ‘tragedy’ here is that we will now be cascaded with 9 months (give or take) nonstop reports and updates on every hangnail and headache Mz Middleton experiences.
Wrong. She was a private person made to look silly to the entire world within a few hours. This isn’t like an office prank or a prank among buddies ... this could be an enromous burden to a shy, sensitive person.
They should fire those DJ’s. I read that they were a little embarrassed by their prank at first until it went viral and then were just oh so enthralled with their wit.
It sure would happen here in the States with our HIPPA laws.
I heartily agree, dinoparty. Media should not ambush innocent people. In 1995, Jenny Jones invited a guy by the name of Jonathan Schmitz on her talk show to meet his “secret admirer, leading Schmitz to believe it was a woman.” It turned out his admirer was a gay guy named Scott Amedure. Schmitz was so distraught at being humiliated on national TV, he bought a shotgun, went to Amedure’s home and killed him. Jenny Jones claimed no responsibility.
This “Howard Stern” culture in the West is disgusting. Sick, stupid pranks & jokes passed off as “fun”.
Her job was over. Her life was over. She was about to be nothing more than a punchline to a joke all over the UK. You can bet there would have been more to it than that, if she were an immigrant she might be one of the few harrassed and expelled for embarrassing the royal family.
I think you are right. Not only was she made to look silly but I can imagine she got a chewing out from her employer, which would have added to her burden. I’m sure in her world people are not as cruel as those idiots who fooled her.
Those DJ’s are loving this attention I bet.
Horrible people.
People should consider that before they engage in 'harmless pranks'.
That certainly turned ugly.
Such a pity.
“Jacintha was a first-class nurse who cared diligently for hundreds of patients during her time with us” over the last four years, he said.
“Everyone is shocked by the loss of a much-loved and valued colleague.”
He said the hospital, a favourite of the royals for years, had been trying to help Saldanha “through this very difficult time” after the call had sparked intense media coverage.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/15584247/nurse-in-kate-royal-hoax-call-found-dead/
No mention of her employer “chewing her out” at all. Where did you get that information?
No, she killed herself.
This is the same as the agy guy whose roomate filmed him making out with a guy, put it on the internet, then the gay guy jumped to his death.
-The gay guy jumped to his death-
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