An Apology Must Match The Offence To Be Accepted
The DJs who made the call that Jacintha Saldanha passed on to her colleague at King Edward VII Hospital are very sorry. They regret that a prank to capitalize on the fame of Kate Middleton took such a terrible turn. A dedicated nurse killed herself and now many are blaming them.
The radio personalities Mel Greig and Michael Christian acted like a couple of school kids. It’s hard to imagine that at 2DayFM, a radio station in Australia, they got paid to pull silly stunts to draw audiences.
The fun only lasted for a few days before they did a television interview to apologize. (That was a strange thing in itself.) It was bad from start to finish. She cried. Then he cried. Then they both broke down, their bodies twisting away from the camera. The pair said they had no idea that things would turn out as it did. And who could blame them for anything more than gross immaturity and bad taste? Now we can fault them for turning their apology into a pity party. A sad affair, more about them than what they did.
Jacintha Saldanha deserved a more dignified “I’m sorry” for her loss of innocence and loss of self.
Posted by crisis communications management consultant, Bodine Williams.
Hi Bodine – It’s hard to match what they did but crying during a media interview sure doesn’t cut it. Like little school kids who play with fire, except these two are old enough to know that what they did would get someone in trouble. Of course, they didn’t mean for someone to die, but they should have known there would be consequences.
Joanne
Hi Bodine – I’m sure we all accept that the two DJs made the call in the name of fun expecting to be rebuffed at the first point of contact with the hospital receptionist. When that didn’t happen I can accept that in the heat of the moment they kept going.
However, once their prank call was over, they had to get permission to air the call, thus giving them time to consider exactly what they had done. Of course we know they didn’t get permission and aired it anyway, though they had no way of knowing what was going to happen. In making the decision to air the call without regard for the rules is where the true nature of the two DJs and their production crew and station management can be seen and the apology interview was simply more of the same.
Selfish, self serving and uncaring. Driven by ego and greed.
The operative word is “fun”. Fun is supposed to be funny but there was not a trace of either in what they did and how they went about it. I’ve lived in India for the last quarter of a century and had to agree completely with the shock and dismay felt by locals at this sad incident.
The thoughtlessness of the Ausies points up the need to think before you speak.
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