Monday 10 December 2012

Prank Call: Emotional Pornography

I seriously doubt Jacintha Saldanha "died of shame", and that the phone-call was the sole cause of her apparent suicide.
At the time of typing we still do not know how or why she died.
Whatever, for once I can take the moral high ground here, as I thought the prank call was painfully unfunny, and I didn't laugh along to its endless repeats.
Still, let's big it up to the media who turned a silly phone call into a global news story.
The media doesn't even miss a beat.
"Let's have a new witch trial!"
"She's got nice tits, can we get her to cry on camera?"
Emotional pornography wins the day.
Please accept our sincerest hypocrisy etc etc.
And meanwhile 20 people commit suicide in the UK every day.
Hahaha!
Posted by Fagburn at 08:19:00
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11 comments:

  1. Will10 December 2012 at 12:24

    Well Rich:

    You obviously don't know or understand much about shame and especially in the Asian community. Having worked with many Asian people both here and in Asia, something like this can quite easily profoundly affect a person.

    Add to that, the stigma of shame, family shame, community shame and the stigma of mental health issues in the Asian community, this outcome hasn't surprised me.

    I was shocked to the core when I heard the news - the death of anyone and especially in these circumstances is singular yet has wider ramifications.

    Culture plays a big part in this I believe, yet it does not excuse the cause. But there again, emotional intelligence doesn't sell well on radio stations or newspapers - well not most anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fagburn10 December 2012 at 13:13

    PS I I didn't mean to be flippant, I suggested there may be other things going on here.
    Which as you say - there probably were...

    ReplyDelete
  3. JB9K10 December 2012 at 14:35

    Sorry, not go Email here - this article is fantastic - bookmarked it for full read later.
    http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/07/the_chickens_and_the_bulls_the_rise_and_incredible_fall_of_a_vicious_extortion_ring_that_preyed_on_prominent_gay_men_in_the_1960s_.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BK11 December 2012 at 11:11

      Thanks for this; great piece (though, reading the comments, there does seem to be at least one serious error that's still been uncorrected four months on).
      Fascinating.

      Delete
  4. Will10 December 2012 at 14:48

    No I didn't mean to suggest you were being flippant. And perhaps other things were going on.

    And I know you care, anyway.

    W

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  5. Anonymous10 December 2012 at 15:36

    "I seriously doubt Jacintha Saldanha "died of shame", and that the phone-call was the sole cause of her apparent suicide"

    godammnit, richard, how can you be so arrogant as to presume to know what was in her mind? it's right to be sceptical about the narrative presently playing out -- and your idle SPECULATION may prove correct -- but you, like the rest of the media should reserve judgement until the fucking facts are in. such an act of unutterable desperation deserves that last dignity, at least.

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  6. Anonymous10 December 2012 at 20:41

    A moment for Patrick moore's tragic fiancee, please

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10 December 2012 at 21:20

    I see the Daily Mail never misses a trick, reprinting a story which it used a year ago. The absurd Patrick Moore is quoted much to the delight of the Mail which is a vehicle for promoting hatred as saying the only good German is a dead German. The German Air force had apparently killed his fiancee during the war , the fiancee whose name he couldn't remember.
    Patrick Moore of course was in bomber command which practiced a policy of area bombing during that time.

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  8. Anonymous11 December 2012 at 02:24

    But in more serious news, I see Patrick Moore's tragic fiancee rises again.

    ReplyDelete

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