The Art Of The Public Apology

When A Celebrity Behaves Badly, Americans Are Often Willing To Forgive, As Long As They Apologize Well

(CBS) 
"You have a sense of what the public accepts and does not accept," said Sitrick, who has been called the Wizard of Spin. "It's common sense. Murder, no. Genocide, no. Having sex with a hooker? Yes, if you apologize."

Which is exactly what actor Hugh Grant did after he got caught in a car with a prostitute. Grant not only said he was sorry, he said so on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show."

"I did a bad thing and there you have it," he said.

"Hugh Grant's situation was handled well," Sitrick said. "He has a personality to pull it off and he has a personality to deal with it. On the other hand, having sex with a hooker is not the same as abusing your wife, abusing someone, or having sex with a transvestite."

Randy Cohen, who writes the ethicist column for the New York Times, says the truth is that the American public can be quite forgiving if there's a whiff of sincerity and accountability in the air.

"I'm reminded that we are in many ways a Protestant nation, and that part of a certain kind of Protestantism is, sin, confession and redemption," he said. "That we've done something very wicked on Saturday. You go to church and on Sunday you confess it. And you confess it publicly. And you declare yourself determined to do better, and then on Monday you try to do better. We accept in this kind of Protestant tradition that we're flawed human beings and we respect people that acknowledge wrongdoing, and we do it in public."

Where things go wrong, Cohen said, is when the apology is perceived to be just an excuse, like Mel Gibson blaming his bad behavior on alcohol.

"There are people who have genuine problems with alcohol and there are dangers associated with alcohol," he said. "But I have never heard that excessive drinking turns you anti-Semitic. I don't believe there's any scientific research that would demonstrate that the more I drink, the worse the Jews will look."

Addiction expert Jeff Foote says alcohol has become a frequent scapegoat for bad behavior because it's something the public understands.

"It does seem to be easier in this society in this day and age to say, 'I have a problem with substances,' as opposed to, 'I have a problem with my character,'" he said. "People don't generally do things that aren't really a part of who they are. So one of the things the alcohol does is disinhibit them and allow them to act in ways they would normally keep very contained. So if the question is, 'This not really who I am, it's just the alcohol,' it's probably not true."

Danny Bonaduce knows all about the alcohol excuse. The child star of the TV hit "The Partridge Family" has been messing up with drugs and drink for so long he even created a reality show based on all his problems, VH1'S "Breaking Bonaduce."

After years of trying to make amends, Bonaduce has turned bad behavior into a blessing. In fact, he thinks it makes better TV.

"On 'Breaking Bonaduce' my therapist said I needed anger management classes, which I thought was ridiculous because that was the purpose of the show," He said. "If I had taken those classes we would have the most boring show. Instead we had a hit show, so he was bad for business."

An intriguing tactic, but the goal is the same as anyone else's: Winning back the public's goodwill.

"We like the admitting part but maybe we don't do as well as some other cultures in seeing the admitting is only the first step," Cohen said.

The key, Bonaduce said, is to keep your bad deeds, once they are discovered, out in the open.

"If you are a celebrity and you get arrested, never put a coat over your head because we always know who you are," he said.

[howlingzoe]

please make clips of the shows available!

[angryliberal-2009]

John Kerry and the democrats could take some lessons....

John Kerry first REFUSED to apologize and made it "CRYSTAL CLEAR". Then he said he later had one of his staff write an apology on his website, and that apology basically said he was sorry that people were offended by what he said, he never apologized for what he said. Kerry didnt even have the balls to apologize in person...lol, You cant expect to much out of democrat leadership as Bill Clinton and John Kerry have taught us.

[deanbooth]

The true test of journalism is whether the viewers/readers of your story come away with true beliefs. Unless one was informed about the entire context of Kerry's apology this week, one would come away from your story believing that Kerry disparaged the troops and then apologized. This is false -- unlike the other individuals listed in your story, Kerry's supposed misdeed was manufactured, propagated by intentional distortion of the facts by Bush himself.

Nobody, not even Bush or his friends in the media believe that Kerry intended to state that the uneducated get stuck in Iraq. In all likelihood, even the CBS reporters who created this story do not believe Kerry stated this, yet they included his apology in the story just because it fit the mold and clarifying the context would not fit the storyline.

The inclusion of Kerry in this story without significant clarification was a disservice to your viewers.