Tory Shepherd: Alan Jones, that was not an apology
THE Opera House advertising furore has been topped off with a classic fake apology, the hallmark of an entitled mind that refuses to entertain the idea they could be wrong, writes Tory Shepherd.
RADIO head Alan Jones has made a mountain out of a molehill on this whole Everest saga (sorry).
Sydney’s schlockiest shock jock woke up and put on his grumpy pants last week over a plan to use the Sydney Opera House as a backdrop for a promotion of The Everest horse race barrier draw.
The 2GB star chucked a histrionics fit when Opera House chief executive Louise Herron had the temerity to suggest that projecting logos onto the cultural icon might breach their advertising policy. In an interview that he probably thought was blistering (but came across as more blithering) he said she should lose her job over her mild-mannered opposition. He even threatened to help her out the door by talking to Premier Gladys Berejiklian about her.
“We own the Opera House, do you get that message? You don’t. You manage it,” he thundered at her.
“Who the hell do you … who do you think you are. (If) you can’t come to the party, Louise, you should lose your job.”
Then he topped the belligerence off with a classic example of a non-apology apology (also known as a “sorry not sorry”, a fauxpology, or a nopology).
“I used some words … which in hindsight I now regret, having heard the impact they have clearly had on some people,” he said. “In relation to Louise I was tough regarding an issue that I and others felt (was) very important.”
He used the word apology, saying “to Louise and those people who’ve been offended, I apologise.”
But it’s a non-apology apology because, while he starts making apology-type noises, he uses the passive sense. They have “been offended”. It’s a close relative of “mistakes were made”. Not his fault it happened.
He’s even high-fiving himself for being “tough”.
The simplified version of the fauxpology which you’ll hear bandied about in politics, sport, and increasingly the #MeToo movement highlighting sexual assault, is: “I’m sorry if someone took offence”.
It’s saying “it’s not my actions here that are at fault, but yours, for taking offence.”
It could be that Jones is just being an utter troglodyte in the sense of being deliberately old-fashioned. See, an “apology” originally meant justifying yourself to others without accepting blame. It came from “apologia”. Maybe these people are deploying an ancient use of the term.
Or maybe they’re just gits who don’t know the meaning of mea culpa. It’s scary that the pseudo-sorry has started to echo through the #MeToo campaign. Men accused of sexual harassment saying they’re sorry if their behaviour made anyone feel uncomfortable.
“I apologise to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected,” actor Morgan Freeman said.
“I sincerely apologise to anyone who was offended by my behaviour,” famous architect Richard Meier said.
“I may have made some women uncomfortable … those were mistakes,” CBS chief Les Moonves said.
The fake sorry has become embedded in our public discourse. When it’s used in cases such as accusations of sexual harassment and assault, it becomes yet another attempt to silence people. If you look through the responses of men accused under the #MeToo movement, they almost all say the accusations are fake news, or they issue a fake apology. So either women are making it up or they’re taking it too seriously. And somehow the men end up the victims (Just yesterday US President Donald “pussy grabber” Trump apologised on behalf of the nation to his Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh for being accused of sexual assault.).
Whether it’s a radio talking head undertaking a PR exercise, a politician trying to smooth ruffled feathers, or someone throwing doubt on a sex-pest case, the no-apology apology should be seen for what it is.
It’s the hallmark of the entitled mind that refuses to entertain the idea that they could be wrong, and of privileged people who think apologising is beneath them. And it’s often intended to bully a woman into being quiet, into thinking they overreacted, or that they misinterpreted the situation.
What a sorry state of affairs.
Tory Shepherd is the State Editor for The Adelaide Advertiser.