Deborah Coddington uses her Herald column today to declare "I wish I hadn't written that Asian Angst article". From the headline, you'd get the impression that she was actually sorry she had failed to meet the basic standards of her profession and misrepresented statistics in order to smear, demean and dehumanise a large segment of our society - but you'd be wrong. This is what she actually says:
I wish I'd never written that article. Not because I agree with all the criticism, but because I unwittingly pressed a button which unleashed the toxic nature of this country.She's not sorry she was wrong, she's not sorry for her failure of intellectual and moral standards - she's just sorry that people were annoyed and that she was subjected to the "media equivalent of gang rape" (I'll leave the Hand Mirror to deal with that odious hyperbole). In other words, this isn't an apology - it's simply more whining self-pity from someone who despite having it clearly explained to her by the press council [PDF], fundamentally fails to get it. But what I'm wondering is why she thought anybody else would want to read it...I am genuinely sorry for offending those members of the Asian community who are not engaged in criminal activity and who felt discriminated by the same stereotypical brush.
I never set out to upset them and I can't undo that hurt. I've been reminded of the salutary lesson - words have consequences and you can't take them back.
But my apology doesn't extend to those bandwagon jumpers who used the article to excuse their media equivalent of gang rape. These sadists, I suspect, will never be happy.
