The Princess Kate crank call fallout

[A Joseph Ross]

On 12/10/2012 10:57 AM, Kevin Vahey wrote:

> The 2 DJ's in question were terminated today which seems harsh as the call
> was looked at by station management before it went on the air.

The person lowest on the totem pole gets the blame, regardless of fairness.

In 1935, on a popular Sunday night variety show on NBC radio, Don Ameche 
and Mae West did a skit in which they played Adam and Eve. The skit was 
a bit racy for 1935 (though listening to it today, it's hard to see what 
the fuss was about), and NBC got called out by the FCC and network 
officials had to appear before Congressional committees.  They blamed 
Mae West and banned her from NBC for many years thereafter.

But why?  She didn't write the skit.  The writers wrote Eve as the kind 
of sexually aggressive character Mae West was known for portraying in 
the movies.  Whoever hired her for the skit knew what they were 
getting.  They blamed her because she was the easiest and safest target. 
And in those days, especially, it was easy to blame the woman.  To 
borrow a British phrase, "No damned merit about it."

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A. Joseph Ross, J.D.|92 State Street|Suite 700|Boston, MA 02109-2004
617.367.0468|Fx:617.507.7856|http://www.attorneyross.com