[Sparkle]

I'm not a huge fan of reality television, shock jock radio or "entertainment news" - generally. Almost all of those shows make me uncomfortably embarrassed for the people participating in them. I can't even watch the 'Amazing Race', which is a great concept, because the amount of xenophobia that many of the contestants spew every time they're in a foreign culture makes me cringe and change the channel.

Don't even get me started on "real housewives" or "mob wives" or the Kardasians... or the billion dollar birthday parties for pre-teens ... or the spray tanned children ... What do those shows say about how we view women? And children? And what our values are?

...But that's me. they make *me* really uncomfortable.

I don't begrudge anyone the right to decide which shows to watch, books to read, magazines to buy, radio stations to listen to. BUT I do believe that we perpetuate it by "buying it". For example, the paparazzi only exists because magazines pay $100s of $1000s for photos of public figures, and magazines only pay that much for a single photo because those photos sell magazines.

I don't think there is anything wrong with enjoying shows or magazines or internet sites - but make no mistake your choice to participate as a consumer is not negligible, your participation is counted, it does impact what type of television shows are made, how far a photographer will go for a shot, how outrageous a act has to be in order to gardner audiences - it impacts what policies are in place and where the boundaries are...

The "entertainment news" industry is colossal and a multi-headed Hydra.

Murdoch himself has taken a huge hit in the past couple of years, his empire is starting to fall to pieces from the phone-tap scandals, but there are no lack of morally bankrupt media outlets ready to fill the gap.

The prank call that precipitated this tragedy was incredibly distasteful and indicative of how dehumanizing the "cult of celebrity" has become.

The radio hosts should be deeply ashamed of themselves because not only did they successfully invade the privacy of a person at a very vulnerable point in her life; they also acted with utter disregard, and a total lack of respect, for the medical professionals with whom they were speaking... all in the name of entertainment. All for a joke. Their act was distasteful and ill conceived and they should be held accountable for some of the blame for this loss of life.

Both of the nurses involved in the prank call would have been in serious trouble both legally and professionally. The UK does have very stringent laws (equivalent to HIPPA) surrounding patient confidentiality and access to health records. Those laws were violated. Their professional credentials and livelihoods would have been on the line, not just their jobs at that hospital. And while the nurse who killed herself may not have disclosed the information regarding the morning sickness she would have been complicit by the very act of passing the call on to another colleague (an admission that the Duchess was a patient). Beyond the legal violations of disclosing personal health information - the hospital administration would have been publicly embarrassed, they would be in the news for all the wrong reasons, they would have likely lost the patronage of the Royal Family, they would be facing legal fines for the disclosure, and it is quite possible that portions of their funding could be on the line because of the scandal; the hospital administration would have been looking to take swift and severe action against the staff involved.

I think there should be no doubt that this nurse would have been under considerable personal stress at the time she took her life.