Yesterday Liz Trotta of Fox News made a dangerous mistake on air. Today she apologized. Unlike Hillary Clinton, she did not say she "regretted" if "anyone was offended". She said she was "sorry". That is how it is done. Contrast her apology with Hillary Clinton’s non-apology for the RFK assassination remarks.
Liz Trotta made a mistake. She took responsibility for it and apologized. For many the apology will not be enough. For me it is.
When I heard and saw her remarks yesterday I was stunned. Coming from a respected journalist like Trotta it was mind-boggling. So, I am glad she apologized. The permission slip that Hillary Clinton handed out with her RFK remarks will be hard to withdraw, and these moments are likely to repeat themselves this election season, but at least Liz Trotta has stepped up and tried to repair the damage she caused.
With her apology she gets the benefit of the doubt from me. She also gets the benefit of the doubt because I am familiar with her early work in conflict zones, especially Bangladesh in 1971 and 1972. She was one of the few American journalists who were on the ground in Bangladesh reporting on the genocide that killed up to 3 million people. Of her many reports from Bangladesh, one stands out to me. I provide the below NBC News report from 1972 without comment:
I was a child in 1971 when the Pakistani army and their Islamist collaborators were butchering my people by the millions and raping Bengali women by the hundreds of thousands. I am one of the lucky ones because I live today. I, like my parents’ generation before me, live with the scars of genocide. As part of my own coping mechanism I document the history of 1971 for my child and future generations. To do that, I rely on reports from Liz Trotta and others. Journalists like Liz Trotta, against very difficult odds, played a part in keeping the perpetrators of genocide from burying the truth.
For her part in telling our story, I am sincerely grateful. I know that her comments yesterday are not excused by her brave reporting from decades ago. But, still, I thought it may be worthwhile sharing with you a different view of the person who made those comments yesterday.
[Cross posted at the Daily Kos]
Mash, that’s very big of you. Not to jump on the bandwagon of ‘how dare they’ but to be honest and let someone’s life stand as testimony of who they are as well. today from time to time I was thinking, did she mean to say about ‘both could or would be killed’ as in referring to others wanting to but it came out wrong? So I am glad you came out with this and show that inspite of this one comment, whether intended or one of those dumb comments that came out wrong than intended, her life’s work as a journalist in the trenches is not dismissed or forgotten. I am glad that with her work, you are dealing with the traumas that were inflicted in your childhood.. I cannot imagine how I’d deal with it.
hugs
Ingrid
File a complaint here: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm, with this information as the accused. LIZ A TROTTA, (212) 734-7543, 340 E. 66th St, New York, NY 10065, Born March 1937 (age 71). God Bless!
mash, wrote and quoted you, check it out..
Ingrid
woohoo..anybody home?
Ingrid I have though of a few possible reasons (please add more if you can think of some more) for Mash’s apparent silence:
*He has vowed to never write again till Hillary Clinton quits the race
*He has won $95 M in lottery and moved to a remote island where there is no internet connection
*He is in the witness protection program for helping the Feds nab some beltway criminals (who were secretly funding HIllary campaign)
*He has developed severe carpel tunnel syndrome
*His other personality (the evil one) took over and wouldn’t let him out again
*He had gone in hiding after the Feds found out that he was on the hit list put together by die-hard Hillary supporters
*He ran in to a brawl in a DC bar with Lanny Davis and is being held in the detention cell since then because nobody went to bail him out.
*He uttered the phrase “It’s the Gas Tax†1000 times at work one day and his coworkers had him institutionalized
*Bangladeshi secret police has finally caught up with him for writing against the military run government
*He fainted and hasn’t regained consciousness ever since Obama called him and asked him to be his running mate
LOL… ORRRR… he got busy at work and his daughter probably is about to be home for the summer holiday and life takes over. Talk about being spoiled when someone writes regularly! I know I know..he’s entitled to ‘a life’!!
(although your suggestions sounds more adventurous and james bond like, except for the institutionalization part!)
Ingrid
Oops. Sorry, I meant to post something about the brief hiatus but in my own disorganized way forgot to do so.
My explanation is unfortunately not as colorful as zm’s (although I could see the Lanny Davis thing happening :)).
I moved to my new place last week but ordered the Verizon FIOS too late. They are supposed to come today to hook up my Internet (I called last Tuesday and this is the eariest they could give me an appointment…talk about fast download times!). So, I have been sans Internet at home for almost a week. Allegedly they are supposed to be at my house between 1pm and 5pm today – so I expect they will show up at 4:59pm.
They better hook this up today because I would like to blog about some history that will be made tonight 🙂
(and Ingrid, got your note, and the short answer is “hooray!”. I will send you a longer response tonight from home.)
I hope you are considering StarBuck wifi as a backup.
Obama is 16 delegates away from clinching.
I am on the phone with Verizon (and I am very angry). It turns out they WILL NOT be doing the installation today (It was nice of them not to tell me about this minor detail). So, no blogging for me tonight.
btw, did I mention Verizon sucks.
Are you kidding me!!!???
There is nobody in DC area with a TV and internet connection that you can bunk with for one night? Great planning on your part!
CNN reports he is 11 delegates away.
I just posted something. I have TV (DISH network :)), but I will have to convince my neighbor to let me steal his wireless tonight.
Oh, and…Verizon sucks. They now say they have rescheduled me…for next week!