Against public apologies

These pseudo-confessions, soaked in the language of therapy and addiction, offer nothing even approximating sincere contrition

Harvey Weinstein.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard)

The only detail of possible interest to be gleaned from the one-page document submitted by Harvey Weinstein to The New York Times following the paper's explosive report alleging his decades-long practice of paying hush money to women who have accused him of sexual assault is that the veteran Hollywood producer, or whatever grave-faced functionary is responsible for drafting the man's public utterances, uses, on the evidence of the font, a post-2010 version of Microsoft Word. Otherwise his statement is almost willfully content-free.

It was meant to be. For years now, any time a public figure in this country is credibly accused of some terrific wickedness, their inevitable responses have been tediously uniform in style and content. The most striking feature is that these would-be apologies are almost never apologies.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.