Bad apologies in the news

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There should be plenty of events to add to the list. How about some general examples to start :

I apologize if what I said offended anyone.

Anyone who uses this line hasn't been paying attention. It doesn't even admit wrongdoing.

I'm sorry I let you down with my bad behavior.

This is fine as such, but it omits any apology to the people harmed. That should be the main point, not the attempt by the offender to salvage a damaged reputation.

Let's stick to actual ill-conceived apologies and their structure and not derail the thread over a recent notable apology.

Trump has too much of an ego to make an apology and actually mean it. A good percent of his "apologies" are because someone on his campaign said it was the thing to do.

It's so unfortunate that this election is such a joke. Trump can literally say anything and its fine because he fakes an apology later. If he doesnt apologize about it- he claims it was "out of context" or "I was being sarcastic" or some other nonsense.

USA is trying to elect a president, not a comedian.

A Hollywood mogul was in discussion with his screenwriter/director and said, why don't you write me any happy endings? You never write me any happy endings. The screenwriter replied, there are no happy endings in real life.

It's like that with US politics. There have been no happy endings since as far back as Kennedy. The people are fed up particularly with George W. Bush over the war in Iraq and the GFC, so they turn to a non-politician in Trump who promises a happy ending for the American people. Jobs will be solved, foreign participation in wars will be solved and immigration will be solved. You just have to trust me.

The advantage of what Trump says is that he has no record of public service to check on and so he can make the most outlandish claims and people will still believe him because they believe in happy endings, whereas they will dissect in detail anything Hillary Clinton says to justify their hatred of where the traditional politicians have taken the country.

Hence Trump says things that would normally be unforgivable coming from anyone else, such as his sexist comments about women. First he says it's really nothing compared to things his opponents do and say. Then he apologises for his comments because his party says he should apologise. When that doesn't work he trashes his own party for not supporting him, preparing the groundwork for his defeat in the presidential election in which he will blame his defeat on the lack of support from the Republican party.

And the sad thing about all this is that a little less than half the US population will go on believing in Donald Trump because they believe in happy endings.

By contrast, the resigning CEO of 500 Startups made an excellent apology. It does contain strong language.
https://500hats.com/im-a-creep-i-m-sorry-d2c13e996ea0

An excerpt: