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Apologies
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Wednesday, December 29th, 2010By now, everybody knows that the big snowstorm that whacked the Northeast Coast a few days ago has created lingering havoc at the airports. People who planned to fly home after Christmas last Sunday are still sleeping on floors and wondering when they’ll ever make it home. Airline representatives claim they’re doing everything [...]
Was NPR right to fire Juan Williams?
Thursday, October 21st, 2010Frequent readers of this blog know that I’m a regular NPR listener and, ordinarily, a big fan. Right now, however, I’m struggling with mixed emotions about how the public radio service has handled one of its star commentators. Juan Williams was reportedly fired for saying on Fox News that he gets “nervous” on [...]
Anita Hill shouldn’t apologize
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010Talk about a bolt from the blue … nineteen years ago, Anita Hill grabbed the attention of the nation when she testified at the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She told an ugly story of sexual harassment, describing how Justice Thomas, her former boss, had made her working life extremely uncomfortable. [...]
The psychology, ethics and law of apologies
Friday, July 16th, 2010Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining reknowned psychiatrist Aaron Lazare and NY Times ethicist Randy Cohen on the Diane Rehm show on NPR. Our topic was apologies, and we spent about an hour kibbitzing the best and worst recent apologies. As a long-time fan of Ms. Rehm I had a ball, and [...]
Will Mel Gibson ever be able to apologize?
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010And we thought it was ugly last time … when Mel Gibson was picked up for drunk driving a while back and let loose with a barrage of ugly sexist and anti-Semitic slurs, it created a firestorm. After all, Gibson isn’t just any actor or director - he’s built his career around his allegedly [...]
Be nice to your staff
Friday, July 9th, 2010Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s talk about a mistake that managers make all too often. A friend of mine (let’s call her Sam) was complaining recently about her new boss. Seems that the boss who hired her has left for greener pastures, and her new boss [...]
How would you like to get an iPology?
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010Okay, now I’ve seen it all. It seems that a company called High Heels Productions has launched a new IPad app called iPology.app, an app that lets users generate semi-customized apologies based on what they did wrong and to whom they did it. The iPology offers both sincere and sarcastic “iPologies,” and allows [...]
Why General McChrystal couldn’t effectively apologize
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Let’s take a break from the Gulf oil spill to look at a mess that’s been brewing here in Washington. Seems that General Stanley McChrystal has been relieved of his duty as top commander in Afghanistan since word leaked out that he and his aides had been downright derisive about their civilian bosses in [...]
Why hasn’t Hearst Corp. helped Helen Thomas apologize?
Thursday, June 10th, 2010Helen Thomas used to be one of the most powerful people in Washington. The grande dame of the White House press corps played a starring role in five decades of Presidential press conferences. She was smart, tough, and articulate, and a worthy challenger to ten different Administrations - until she made some appalling [...]
Now we know why BP hasn’t apologized
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010For the past several days, I’ve wondered why British Petroleum’s CEO, Tony Hayward, has skipped the crucial words “we’re sorry” when discussing the oil leak that’s pouring into the Gulf of Mexico after one of his company’s offshore drilling platforms exploded. It seemed odd because Hayward had already said that BP would pay for [...]
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