Rupert Murdoch’s burbling again. He got a lot of flak for tweeting, “Why is Jewish-owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?” which was presumably directed at the New York Times. (Flak, plus puzzled people saying “Huh?” But see Michael Wolff parsing Murdoch’s retrograde attitudes and distinction of world into good Jews and bad Jews.)
So he “apologized,” tweeting:
“,Jewish owned press” have been sternly criticised, suggesting link to Jewish reporters. Don’t see this, but apologise unreservedly.
That’s not what “unreservedly” means.
Unreservedly means without reservations. “Don’t see this” is a reservation. He’s saying he doesn’t agree, he thinks his critics are wrong – but he apologizes.
It doesn’t take highly trained experts like the SorryWatch team to detect the flawed nature of this apology. Flak continued.
So Murdoch called the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to apologize, and sent a follow-up letter. He called his original tweet “awkward and inappropriate” and described his indignation on behalf of Israel. “I do get very upset when I see coverage that I feel is unfair and biased towards Israel. But I should have stuck to the substance of the issue and not bring in irrelevant and incorrect ethnic matters.”
ADL director Abraham Foxman, said they accepted the apology. “After speaking with Mr. Murdoch, it is clear that he deeply regretted posting his remark on Twitter and understands how his reference to ‘Jewish owned media’ could play into the age-old anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about ‘Jewish control’ of the news media.
“We appreciate his effort to apologize, and to make clear that his remarks were an attempt to defend Israel made at a time when the Jewish state is under direct assault, and were not intended to hurt or to offend.”
I’d like to think “his effort to apologize” is a polite way of saying “his amateurish, dull-witted, unpracticed effort to construct a halfway decent apology,” but probably it’s not.
I do not think that word means what you pretend it means.
Actually, I assume Murdoch understands English well enough to know what “unreservedly” means, but he’s like a class troublemaker who enjoys any attention. His repeated inflammatory remarks get people talking about him – then if he issues an insultingly rotten apology, hurrah, more attention!
Well, maybe he’ll apologize again, and third time lucky? Naah.
