But their readers aren’t buying it. Comment from Peter Saxon
 
SCA Chairman Max Moore Wilton – widely known as Max the Axe from his days as Secretary of The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in the Howard government – has a reputation to protect. He’s not backing down from his now infamous comment regarding what his company refers to as “The UK incident.”
 
Mr Moore-Wilton was reportedly asked by a shareholder, “Just in relation to Eddie and King Kong, Kyle and obviously the UK incident, do we have a cultural problem?”
 
In answer, Mr Moore-Wilton told the meeting, “These incidents were unfortunate, no doubt about that. But in the immortal words of someone whose identity I cannot recall, shit happens.”
 
The comment drew an immediate reaction from British MP Keith Vaz who has been assisting the nurse’s family throughout. saying of the Chairman’s comments, “This is an insult to the memory of a loving mother and wife. The radio station has clearly not learnt the lessons from this incident. Mr Moore-Wilton must apologise for his comments immediately.”
 
Not backing down, Mr Moore-Wilton, told the Australian Associated Press the phrase was entirely Australian. “I don’t know whether it’s British but it’s certainly … been used by many Australians to express a point of view.
 
“I’m not here to be censored for my use of a word which is common in everyday parlance in Australia. If you don’t like it, or the media don’t like it, well that’s fine,” he said.
 
Apparently, many UK readers agree with him.
 
In fact, The Mail Online was one of the first to attack the SCA Chairman’s comments saying, The chairman of the radio station behind the hoax ‘royal call’ that resulted in the death of duped nurse Jacintha Saldanha crudely brushed the incident off today by declaring to shareholders that ‘s*** happens’.
 
A random bloc of reader comments from the Mail Online can be found below. Here’s mine.
 
If it were me, I may have wished that I had chosen my words a bit better but like Max the Axe, I would have stood my ground.
 
The fact is that ever since the British media made the prank call public they have reveled in portraying Aussies as a rude, crude bunch who mock their aristocracy and drove a respected nurse to suicide.
 
The first premise is arguable, the second, that somehow two idiots from an Australian radio station could cause an otherwise sane person to suicide because she connected their call to the Duchess of Cambridge’s room is implausible. What’s more, the implication that 2Day-FM announcers Mel Greig and Michael Christian were the cause of nurse Jacintha Saldanha’s death is slanderous and much worse than what Mr Moore-Wilton said.
 
With the agonisingly slow progress of the ‘on and off’ inquest due back in court soon, Mr Moore-Wilton’s choice of words have proved a bonanza for the British press who have been starved of angles to fuel this story that has already given them so much.
 
But no, reading Mr Moore-Wilton’s full statement in context, he was not laughing off any of the incidents regarding Kyle, Eddie or the on in the UK. Nor was his statement an insult to the memory of a loving mother and wife.
 
Soon enough, the long awaited outcome of The ACMA’s investigation will be handed down. Among other things it is likely to revolve around as to whether 2Day had permission from the participants to air the prank call and whether that matters if the call took place in the UK but broadcast here in Australia.
 
That may be when the shit really happens … or to use another “entirely Australian phrase,” hits the fan.