BLOG: You have the right to remain silent...
Monday, September 18, 2006
Even the pope can't get by with obfuscation.
The pope's recent nonapologies are thin enough to read a newspaper through.One can argue the merits of what the pope said about the Islamic faith, but his inept "apologies" clearly indicate he
1) has no intention to apologize,
2) has no media-savvy advisors and/or
3) really thinks he can fool the public.
Perhaps he thinks the resulting riots will distract from his words. As too many CEOs have discovered, sincerity can't be faked. Nor are elaborately worded nonapologies believed. Rather than saying he's sorry someone was offended without apologizing for his words, what the affected individuals want to hear is that he regrets using that passage at all.
The truth is that he is one of the most powerful individuals in the world and with that power come extraordinary responisbility. He needs to make a straightforward apology. Literally, lives will be lost if he doesn't.
Comments:
Unfortunately, I suspect that the Pope DOES have quite a few media-savvy advisors. Maybe TOO many. And that he hasn't acknowledged the core problem, which is lack of understanding of the "mood of middle-eastern Islam" today. The resident Popes made similarly insensitive comments about Jews for years, only the Jewish population wasn't, for the most part, prone to violent reaction, and represented much fewer people.
Jonathan Bernstein
The Crisis Manager Blog
http://crisismanager.wordpress.com
http://
Well, said Pam!
Whether it’s the Pope speaking on the global scale, or a child being spoken to by a parent or a teacher, words DO have POWER!