Hot on the heels of the Howard Sattler gay slur scandal comes another, much smaller kerfuffle involving another 6PR broadcaster. Jason Jordan has had to apologize over old tweets in which he implied that TV personality Charlotte Dawson faked a suicide attempt to gain more publicity.

Frankly I think he was probably quite close to the truth with his initial observation. Of course she was deeply upset by all that trolling. But while her suicide attempt may have been genuine it does seem to have been comparatively half-hearted.

And I doubt very much that the potential for publicity that such an act would no doubt provoke had absolutely nothing to do with why she did it. Remember that when even some non-celebrities top themselves they are motivated by the desire for publicity. (That is, they're often attempting to teach people who treated them badly a lesson by taking their own lives. The more widely known their deaths, the more powerful the lesson. In a nutshell: suicidal sincerity does not necessarily negate narcissism.)

Not unlike the sanctimonious and shameless egomaniac Julia Gillard, Charlotte Dawson remorselessly milked her victimization at the hands of her Twitter tormentors. And in so doing she hugely increased the intensity of their attacks on her. That's not to say that she's entirely to blame for their nastiness. But she's not entirely blameless either.

That's why I think the outrage over Jordan's comments was unjustified. And I don't think he should have apologized. It appears that he has been made to do so by 6PR management, who've now created a real problem for themselves by sacking Howard Sattler over what was primarily a taste issue.

This shows what happens when media outlets start making decisions based on the very subjective feelings of public figures. It's a recipe for disaster. Broadcasters will offend people they talk about on air and in other media from time to time. It's just an inevitable consequence of them speaking their minds. If the station gives any more ground they'll have to issue hourly apologies for what their presenters have said, and sack someone once a week to appease the offended!