I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDN’T BE TALKING ABOUT THE ROYAL BABY

12/07/2012 1:00 pm by

I’m sure you heard that, earlier this week, a set of DJs from 2DayFM in Australia were able to get through to some nurses at the hospital in England where Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness. They must not have read my post, where I urged everyone to just STFU already about poor Kate. Or maybe they did (more likely), and simply decided to be the most epic assholes in recent history in an effort to stress not only the royal family but also MY VERY FRAIL NERVES.

mcmel2day2012 590x363 I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDNT BE TALKING ABOUT THE ROYAL BABY

Insert dick here.

::faints on couch::

No, but seriously, I’m apparently not the only one who has been stressed by the whole ordeal, because some really awful, horrible, terribly sad and infuriating news broke this morning: The nurse who was initially duped by those DJs pretending to be the Queen of England was found dead of an apparent suicide.

The nurse, named Jacintha Saldanha, was a revered nurse at King Henry VII Hospital and was not being disciplined at all for the incident. At the time she answered the call of these idiot Aussies, she was simply helping with reception and forwarded them on to Kate’s nurse. What makes this worse is that this was a married mother of two.

So let’s think about this for a minute. What do we make of this situation? I feel like there are some inherent questions:

1. Should we burn the DJs at the stake?

2. Are the DJs complete and utter dipshits?

3. What should we do/What does this mean/Should I eat my feelings?

Valid questions, right? Because my knee-jerk was to LOATHE these DJs, Mel Greig and and Michael Christian. Well, not only to hate them bitterly, but also to blame them for the death of Jacintha Saldanha.

King Henry VII Hospital 590x384 I TOLD YOU WE SHOULDNT BE TALKING ABOUT THE ROYAL BABY

King Henry VII Hospital, Where Kate Vomited

But that’s not fair. (Dammit.) Here’s why:

They’re DJs, right? Shock jocks that hit the mother lode with a well-played, if not tasteless prank. That’s what they do. Maybe if the rest of the world wasn’t throwing a goddamn parade for a barely-there Royal baby that is currently sapping the life out of its host mother, then there wouldn’t have even been a prank.

So do we burn them? I guess not. Are they idiots? Probably.

What’s the blame, then? The Royal Culture? The obsession with these outliers of societal privilege and fortune?

Maybe. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

In the meantime, the dust will settle and we know this:

1. A mother is dead, and while I cannot pretend to know why this nurse chose to end her life, I can see that the only people paying the consequences for that choice are her grieving family members and friends.

2. Kate Middleton is still pregnant. She may or may not be currently vomiting.

3. We cannot put negative STUFF out into this world and think that it doesn’t matter.

4. Maybe next time I write a post, YOU (COLLECTIVE NEGATIVE-STUFF-PUTTING-INTERNET-PEOPLE) WILL LISTEN TO ME, YOU NUMBNUTS.

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About Kristine Cook

Kristine knows who Arcade Fire is. Sadly, she is also familiar with Teresa Giudice's bubbies, Justin Bieber's hair, and Kanye's tweeting habits. She blogs at Wait in the Van

Filed Under: News, Teh Sads, Things That Suck Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


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  • http://www.mommaruthsays.blogspot.com Mary R. Gilliam

    I’m on the fence with this one: part of me thinks they should have their toenails ripped off while fire ants eat away at their underwear but then the other part of me knows it was meant to be a harmless prank for ratings and publicity only. I agree with the DJs when they said they never really believed they’d be able to pull it off.

    That being said, I really do feel terrible for this poor woman (Jacintha Saldanha and Kate Middleton, actually) and her family. It’s a sad story all the way around.

    PS I’m not sure if it’s fair to say Mrs. Saldanha’s suicide is “made worse” by the fact that she’s a mother. Suicide is the loss of a human being, I don’t think one person’s can be compared to another’s as worse than/less than.

    • http://www.waitinthevan.com Kristine

      Point taken. I meant it as in: suffering innocent child with no mother. My compassion generally lies with the children of the world and not the grown ups who should “know better.” But yeah. Sucks regardless.

      It’s an awful situation.

  • http://www.facebook.com/traceygaughranperez Tracey Gaughran-Perez

    UGH. Just ugh. Were people tormenting the nurse about being duped?

    • http://www.waitinthevan.com Kristine

      I don’t *think* so, mainly because everyone was so shocked and the hospital never punished her for it…sooooo, yeah. I dunno.

      • http://www.facebook.com/traceygaughranperez Tracey Gaughran-Perez

        Guessing she must’ve felt pretty embarrassed/humiliated though. I don’t think anyone offs themselves because of a fairly innocent mistake – I’m sure there were other contributing factors – but if *this stupidity* was the straw that broke the camel’s back (so to speak), then I’ll say it again: UGH.

        • http://www.waitinthevan.com Kristine

          Right…I’m assuming (HOPING) there was more to it than a silly phone call FFS.

  • MollyGMartin

    I saw the news and my heart just sank… Yes, yes, yes — listen to Kristine, Earth.

  • HeidiT

    They are bullies. Plain and Simple. I hope they live the rest of their lives blaming themselves for what happened.

    • http://www.waitinthevan.com Kristine

      You think so? I dunno…I tell lots of jokes and don’t feel bad about it. In its simplest form, that’s all they were doing: joking around. I don’t see the bully angle.

      • http://www.facebook.com/kristin.standafer Kristin Grimes Standafer

        I feel like if you are deliberately trying to trick someone into doing something that is illegal (giving out confidential patient information) and may get them in trouble and/or fired, it can be called bullying. Telling a joke is totally different than playing a prank that can affect innocent people.

  • SuzyQuzey

    The fact that the DJs were able to get through and talk to the nurse came as a shock to everyone, including them, from what I’ve read. I can only imagine how horrified they are at what has now occurred. If I had played a joke on someone that resulted in her/him killing her/himself, I would be devastated and likely would carry the weight of guilt throughout my life.

    I imagine Kate and William are similarly devastated that, just because she is pregnant and had to be hospitalized, it set in motion this horrific sequence of events.

    This is just so, so bad.

    • http://www.waitinthevan.com Kristine

      Couldn’t agree more. Well put, SuzyQ. xo

  • Tyskkvinna

    Feels like bullying to me.

  • http://twitter.com/Avath Avath

    I’m MUCH less inclined to feel sorry for the DJs after reading this TMZ article… http://www.tmz.com/2012/12/10/australian-radio-station-2dayfm-kate-middleton-prank-djs-fired-history-of-pranks/

    • http://www.waitinthevan.com Kristine

      Eek, that is damning. To be fair, though, the DJs aren’t making the decisions about what airs and what doesn’t.

      • http://twitter.com/Avath Avath

        They are, seemingly, thinking up these ideas and deciding to take part though – even after all those horrible things happened. It seems like they had plenty awful consequence from their little joking larks before this. Obviously people have already been badly injured – like that 12 year old girl. Can you imagine? Good god.