Comment from Australian announcer Fairlie Hamilton, currently working in the UK.
Australia/UK relations copped a beating this past weekend as the blame-game points it’s crooked finger at Michael Christian and Mel Greigfor the death of UK nurse Jacintha Saldanha.
It was warm-and-fuzzies early this week as the British Press went into overdrive announcing that 2013 would be the year of the Royal Baby. The paparazzi, in its un-rivalled London fashion, flooded into Ilford and placed tripods aloft awaiting the emergence of Prince William or Harry, Pippa Middleton, the grandparents-to-be, or alas perhaps even her Royal Highness the Great-Grandmother herself.
Tuesday morning came reports that the third-in-line to the throne will arrive mid-2013. Not great news for Prince Harry as regardless of the baby’s gender, it will take his place in the crown-queue. Breakfast TV shows proudly played footage of how the news had broken around the world. Mugs and t-shirts went immediately into production.
Wednesday’s newspapers carried a front-page by-line pointing to a prank by a couple of Aussie DJ’s with poor fake accents who managed to get closer to the royal couple than any of the reporters camped outside the entries into King George VII hospital could even dream. Bad joke Aussies, bad joke, was the general vibe.
Late Friday night the unprecedented tragic twist was being reported. It is worth noting that at this point, BBC reporters did acknowledge that there ‘were still a lot of unanswered questions’ in regards to the story, which laid the foundations for the concept that perhaps the prank was not entirely to blame for the very very sad decision made by Jacintha Saldanha.
Saturday, the front page of 9 out of 12 weekend papers shouted aghast that a couple of larrikin Aussies had blood on their hands, and a local hero was the tragic victim of a foolish and un-funny prank-gone-bad.
Have you ever fallen over in the street? It’s only embarrassing if you’re seen, right? By the same argument, it’s incredibly hypocritical of a national media here in the UK who brought attention to the prank-call story on Wednesday in the first place, to now turn around and point the finger at the Australian media, specifically 2DayFM, when the story goes bad.
Prank calling on-air is radio 101. Sometimes funny, and sometimes it doesn’t work. The fact that Mike and Mel managed to get through to who they did made their stunt a success…nobody, least of all them I suspect, expected to get that close to the source. Job well done by any program directors standards.
Certainly no body expected the final result.
So let’s talk about blame…
Shame on Mike and Mel for having a pretty good idea that they successfully executed.
Shame on anyone who has ever laughed at a prank-call on radio, and henceforth made the prank-call a staple of radio content.
Shame on the UK media for acting like vultures when any hint of a story involving the Royal family avails itself.
Shame on King George VII for not having a water-tight security protocol in place re: suspected phone calls from the QUEEN when royalty are being treated.
Shame on Will’s and Kate for getting pregnant. While we’re at it shame on Prince Harry who should have had them out partying rather than at home working on the family the night they conceived.
Shame on the citizens of the UK who love any story about the royal family, who drive the press to exhaust all nuggets of information about the royal-happenings.
While no one should forget that at the centre of all this lies a tragedy for Jacintha Saldanha, her children, husband, family and friends, there may be some good come out of it – perhaps for he people at Beyond Blue who for once see a huge amount of compassion in regards to the issue of suicide rather than the typical ‘it’s a selfish decision’ compassion-free diatribe.
It is being reported today on the front page of the UK’s Sunday papers that Mel Greig is herself on suicide watch.
It’s refreshing to know the Australian public have such a heart. It’s also absurd to simplify a complex issue such as suicide and suggest that Mike and Mel are to blame for the death of Jacintha Saldanha.
From what I can see online and from talking to friends in Australia, the Australian media have made this story much bigger than it needs to be. This is a big story in the UK because it has a royal family connection. It’s a much bigger story in Australia because it has an international connection.
One last comment though for Mike and Mel…..don’t worry guys. The most read story on tonight’s news websites, more looked-at than today’s updates on the prank-call gone horribly wrong, is this:
The making of a monarch: The REAL reason Kate bought cocker spaniel Lupo and a vow to stay off the Haribos – the definitive story of how the Duchess prepared for her very special arrival.’
Yep. A story about a royal dog and some gummy bears.
Fairlie Hamilton