There was no “attempt to subvert security” elbows. That implies that there was some kind of elaborate scheme devised to purposely and wilfully pass anticipated security checks. The hospital number available online and an amateur accent uttering the words, “I’d like to speak with my granddaughter Kate,” doesn’t even come close.
There was no intention to “obtain private medical information.” I think using the term “tummy bug” in the previously mentioned piss-poor accent precludes this.
As far as I know it’s not. It is illegal for your doctor to divulge such information to a third party, but I don’t believe that third party has the same legal obligation to protect your privacy.
Something I find interesting about the whole thing is the subtext in the British press of “These culturally-bereft louts from our colonial dumping ground still haven’t learnt their place.” There’s a kind of superiority and Imperialism running through the slant taken in the UK–not surprising really, given that the prank played on the tension between Australian irreverence and staunch monarchism.
Really? I honestly don’t see that. I do see the usual spittle-flecked ranting from the tabloids, and more so from the loons who dribble their invective all over the “right to reply” message boards on the newspapers’ web sites; all utterly and exhaustingly predictable given that this is a story more than tenuously connected to the Monarchy.
Any anti-Australian feeling you may be reading into the reports over here are undoubtedly just the gutter press attempting to elicit a response; the classic “poke-a-monkey-with-a-stick-until-it-throws-some-poo” school of journalism. I feel quite safe in saying that the buckets of loose-stool-water that is being poured over those Australian DJs would be poured over a pair of UK DJs with equal enthusiasm.
We’re not all self-important Imperialist anti-Australians over here*, any more than you’re whacky and irreverent anti-monarchists over there (didn’t Australia vote to remain a monarchy in the 90s?)
Well, anti-Vegemite maybe. Who do you think you are, exporting your nasty brown ointment over here when we’ve got perfectly good proper BRITISH Marmite.
Bullshit, it has nothing to do with it. Handy that you call it a subtext as then you have no obligation to actually produce any evidence to back up your baseless assertion.
The people who did this are dicks, their nationality has nothing to do with it.
I have no doubt they’re genuinely mortified, Baron Greenback. I’ve not listened to anything yet, and I’m not sure I’ll seek it out. As you, RobDog and others can appreciate I have my own public humiliation to deal with
Oh, I know, and I actually meant the tension between irreverence and monarchism is internal. Our women’s mags see Kate and William as some kind of dual reincarnation of Diana–we at once love watching the royals while simultaneously feeling ashamed that we actually care. And I think the prank, in its ham-fisted attempt at self-deprecation, played on that contradiction in our cultural psyche.
Listen up, fuckface: allow me my own interpretation of events while you get your raeg on. ISTM that people like you enjoy a lynching and any excuse will do, but don’t masturbate too hard–you don’t want blisters.
That’s not so different from the situation in the UK to be honest. I had a very strange feeling watching their wedding - I found that I was feeling very protective of them, almost as if they were members of my own family. I still don’t really know what that means.
Yeah, I don’t doubt what you’re saying. But I do think there’s an additional element of “Dude, I know you’re my cousin, but don’t talk smack about my sister (even if I call her a bitch occasionally, too).”
Only tonight I saw a British commentator saying “The media here would never do anything so horrid!” yet we all know they’ve done much, much worse.
No you are not - I think so too, there must have been a lot more going on in her life for her to leave her two kids like that. However, I also think the radio jocks are tiresome with their “gotcha” calls - puerile stuff and very boring. BTW, as a former hospital nurse and midwife, I can tell you that generally the nurses answer the phones in many wards, especially on night duty.
I’m wondering if the idea of a prank where the pranksters themselves are the intended targets is completely foreign to some people. There’s no “gotcha” involved when you’re the one who’s meant to be the idiot; someone like Stephen Colbert is a master at this sort of thing.
Forgive me if this has been addressed already, but I thought that phone calls couldn’t legally be broadcast without the victim’s knowledge and consent? Surely all such “prank calls” are pre-recorded and only later broadcast after the prankers own up and ask for permission? To the best of my knowledge that’s the way it has to work in the UK anyway.
It should be the case here and now the immoral bastards running the station are claiming they tried 5 times to contact the nurses involved prior to the airing of the tape. The station is known for shitbag antics.
Oh dear.
