Kate Middleton Pregnancy Watch: Duchess to name baby after Jacintha Salanha
KATE Middleton Pregnancy Watch – Day 10 of the Duchess of Cambridge’s womb news: Can we honour Jacintha Salanha by naming the Royal baby after her? Will DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian make a pilgrimage to see Lord Leveson on holiday in Australia? Who will win the PR fight for the nurse’s soul?
The front pages:
Who’s the most upset?
The Sun: “Hoax two in tears at nurse’s suicide”
Daily Mail: “Anguish of the Suicide Nurse’s family”
The Scotsman: “Family miss ‘Royal hoax nurse’ every moment of every day”
The Mirror: “Daughter’s tears for victim of Kate prank”
The Guardian: “A mother mourned”
i: “Australian DJs ‘gutted’ over hoax nurse death”
Daily Star: “DJ Mel Sobs for Royal Nurse”
The Star’s front page has Mel looking teary eyed up to image of Jacintha’s family.
Who can help?
The Times: “Hoax nurse family at Parliament”
Ben Barboza, husband to Jacintha Salanha, was with their children, Lisah, 14, and Junal, 16, in London yesterday.
Can we blame the station?
In emotional television interviews, Mel Greig and Michael Christian apologised repeatedly for the stunt that has been linked to the death of the nurse who fielded their call. But they insisted that more senior people at Sydney radio 2DayFM had vetted the pre-recorded call and decided to air it…
“It’s not up to us to make that decision (to go to air). We just record it and then it goes to the other departments to work out,” Greig said in a tearful interview with Australia’s Nine Network.
As Nazi rocketeer Wernher Von Braun might have out it:
Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department,” says Wernher von Braun.
Comparing them to Nazis is a bit off, of course. But given the hype this story has been given you’d be excused for thinking the DJs had murdered a Royal nurse with their bare hands as she tended Kate.
Asked how the call was vetted and processed, Christian said that “people far above us” approved the exchange. “I’m 100 per cent honest in saying I’m, we’re, not privy to what happens with this call,” he said. “Regardless of the content or the context or what’s been recorded, it’s the same process and I’m certainly not aware of what filters it needs to pass through. All we know is it’s passed on and then we’re told either yay or nay.”
Southern Cross Austereo, the company that owns the radio station, insists that it tried to contact the hospital five times before including the hoax call in the Hot 30 show, hosted by Greig and Christian. It was unclear if the station’s follow-up calls were answered.
But it has consistently refused to say who signed off on the decision to air the call.
Under the Australian radio code of practice, a radio station cannot broadcast any prank call without the ‘victim’s’ permission. The hospital said yesterday that it had not identified any member of staff who had taken any follow-up calls from the station.
We then hear from Wendy Harmer – the woman who called Mel and Michael “legends”.
Wendy Harmer, a former presenter at 2DayFM told The Times that most disc jockeys knew that prank calls could not go to air without the permission of the pranked person. But she confirmed that the decision to go to air would be taken by senior managers rather than the disc jockeys who made the call. “Within the chain of command there are a whole lot of people that pass these decisions along,” she said. “We have not heard from any significant person in that chain of command. The person who has to accept responsibility is the person in charge of content.”
What killed her?
BBC: “Kate hoax: Post-mortem after death of Jacintha Saldanha”
The hospital continues its PR drive:
John Lofthouse, chief executive of King Edward VII’s Hospital, said: “A senior member of staff is comforting the family and offering assistance and will continue to do so for as long as needed.
“We have also established the Jacintha Saldanha Memorial Fund. There has been an overwhelming outpouring of support for the family from around the world, and this fund will enable people to make a donation. The fund will go to helping Jacintha’s husband and children at this terrible time.”
Daily Mirror: “Kate Middleton prank call: Radio station cancels Christmas party after death of nurse”
A spokesman for the radio station’s owner, Southern Cross Austero, said it would be “inappropriate” to go ahead with the staff Christmas party.
A PR Triumph?
3AW: “Southern Cross Austereo to pay minimum of $500,000 to nurse’s family”
Southern Cross Austereo has announced all profits from advertising generated on 2Day FM for the rest of the year, at a minimum of $500,000, will be donated to a fund to directly benefit the family of nurse Jacintha Saldanha.
What about Mel and Mike?
Richard Littlejohn (Daily Mail): “Until they tried to present themselves as victims, I had a scintilla of sympathy for them. “But for Michael Christian and Mel Greig to invite the world to share their pain is unforgivable. I’m sure their remorse was sincere. Turning their public apology into a self-indulgent, self-justifying sobfest was, however, utterly nauseating.”
Got to agree. It was hideous.
What do we know about Jacintha?
Daily Record: “Husband of hoax call victim Jacintha Saldanha asked friend to check on her”
THE husband of nurse Jacintha Saldanha called one of her colleagues the day before she died to check on her after not hearing from her for two days. Benedict Barboza was so worried he rang a mutual friend who is also a nurse at the hospital and lives close to Jacintha’s central London flat.
Why was he so worried? Did he call the hospital? We ask because when someone commits suicide, might they have been troubled before?
Here’s oily Keith:
In a nation where the press are routinely muzzled when royal scandals erupt, a hero has finally emerged – Keith Vaz, Britain’s leading Asian member of Parliament. Vaz is now taking down names and demanding a fact-finding mission: “What is needed, clearly,” Vaz told BBC Radio today, “is an inquiry by the hospital into what has happened.”
Hero?
The other heros are the ones Jacintha left behind.
When your mum or wife commits suicide you become a hero.
Today Jacintha’s bereaved husband, Benedict Barboza, a bespectacled hospital accountant, attended a meeting in the House of Commons in London with Vaz. Barboza carried a photograph of his late wife in the crook of his right arm, and his left was around his and Jacintha’s 14 year-old lovely, doe-eyed daughter. Their son, who appears to be a few years old, stood at Barboza’s left side. Although looking shocked, he stared unblinkingly into the cameras, his dark eyes full of questions and full of intelligence.
Bloody hell.
M.P. Vaz had earlier criticized the hospital for not providing Mr Barboza and his children enough support. “The hospital has sent them a letter, which I have seen, but I’m surprised that nobody has made the journey to Bristol [where they live] to sit with them and offer them the counseling that I think they need.”
Vaz opined: “More support in my view needs to be given.”
Keith. Hero.
After meeting the family, he later spoke briefly outside the Commons on their behalf
Vaz further averred: “They just want me to say that they are extremely grateful to the public here in the United Kingdom and throughout the world who have sent them messages of condolences and support following the death of Jacintha – a loving mother and a loving wife. This is a close family. They are devastated by what has happened. They miss her every moment of every day but they are really grateful to the support of the British public and to the public overseas for the messages of support and kindness.”
While Keith turns one family’s tragedy into a national PR event, we need a celebrity take on it all. What does the Queen think?
Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the premiere of her new film ‘Hitchock’ in London on Sunday, Helen [Helen Mirren] said the death of the nurse was a tragedy, but she still feels empathy towards the two DJs.
She said: “I think that was incredibly tragic, and unfortunate, and silly. People do these silly things for a laugh. We’ve all done them, incidentally, and I don’t think opprobrium should be laid upon the heads of those two very, very silly Australians. [It was] just horribly, horribly tragic. You just don’t know what to say really. Just awful.”
The 67-year-old actress – who won the Best Actress Oscar for portraying Queen Elizabeth – also expressed her joy for Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge and she believes they will make great parents.
Yayy! Maybe Her Maj can endorse this: Jacintha Windsor?
Deccan Herald: “Chorus to name royal baby Jacintha”
Days after the nurse from Udupi lost her life in London, a Facebook page , “Name the Royal Baby Jacintha in memory of Nurse Jacintha Saldanha,” has sparked off a debate on the best tribute the UK royals can pay her…
The page that carries a photograph of Jacintha has so far received 136 likes. One post runs, “The name Jacintha I believe is of Greek origin, from the flower hyacinth. It is a beautiful name and one I believe would be apt to be one of the royal baby’s middle names. Please like and share if you agree and lets raise awareness in memory of Jacintha!”
Another says, “I think they should name it Diana Jacintha, after both the women they murdered.”
Such are the facts…
Posted: 11th, December 2012 | In: Reviews, Royal Family Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
