Friday, December 07, 2012

Radio Hi-Jinks: Royal Edition

More media misbehavior:
A nurse who transferred a prank phone call from two Australian radio presenters about the Duchess of Cambridge has died in a suspected suicide – two days after being duped.

Mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, who was working on the switchboard when 2DayFM obtained intimate details about Kate, was found dead near the King Edward VII Hospital today.

...The station apologised for 'any inconvenience caused' but provoked widespread fury and disbelief by continuing to continuing to promote its hoax, calling it 'the prank call the world is talking about' before playing clips of the recording.

As the backlash grew the DJs both deleted their Twitter accounts. The radio station's Facebook page was bombarded with thousands of abusive comments from outraged users.

...The Australian station and presenters advertised the stunt worldwide and today Christian was continuing to boast about the prank 'making international headlines' on Twitter.

...The station is owned by Southern Cross Austereo, an Australian media group formed in a merger last year that has a collection of TV and radio brands, and claims to be able to connect with 95 per cent of Australians every week.

The prank call was pre-recorded and vetted by lawyers before being broadcast in Sydney.

...Hospital boss John Lofthouse confirmed his staff had passed on information about Kate, saying: 'This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore.'

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