For Trump and Lochte, the delicate politics of contrition
In this Aug. 18 photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a campaign speech in Charlotte, N.C.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this Aug. 9 photo, United States’ Ryan Lochte checks his time in a men’s 4x200-meter freestyle heat during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
WASHINGTON >> Add two fresh entries to the increasingly popular genre of non-apology apologies.
In a span of 15 hours, politician Donald Trump and Olympian Ryan Lochte both coughed up carefully crafted words of contrition — each without fully owning up to exactly what he’d done wrong.
Trump, the serial insulter of the 2016 presidential campaign, said he’d sometimes said “the wrong thing” and acknowledged that his words had “caused personal pain.”
Lochte, the gold medal-winning swimmer, said he should have been “more careful and candid” in describing an incident during the Rio Olympics in which he claimed to have been the victim of an armed robbery that police said wasn’t really an armed robbery at all.
“What both are trying to do is take a topic out of the news and turn the page,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in the politics of rhetoric. “Neither one of them has done it in the classic form required of an apology.”
These days, laments Wayne Fields, a professor who studies political rhetoric at Washington University in St. Louis, popular culture is churning out apologies “that really suggest the problem is with you — not me — or the problem is with circumstances that I can’t control.”
“It’s essentially, ‘I’m sorry you don’t understand me,’” said Fields, calling it part of “the phenomenon of the public relations apology.”
Here’s a closer look at Trump, Lochte, and the delicate politics of contrition:
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TRUMP
“As you know, I’m not a politician. I’ve worked in business, created a great company, created lots of jobs, rebuilding neighborhoods, that’s what I’ve done all of my adult life. I’ve never wanted to learn the language of the insiders. And I’ve never been politically correct. … Truthfully, it takes far too much time and can often make it more difficult to achieve total victory. Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that. And, believe it or not, I regret it. And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues. But one thing I can promise you is this, I will always tell you the truth.”
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Trump’s remarks, read from a teleprompter during a speech Thursday night, were part of an effort to reset a campaign that’s slipped in the polls and lacking direction as the candidate picks one distracting fight after another. The candidate who in the past has declared he prefers “not to regret anything” apparently made the calculus that a little remorse would be good for the soul — and his campaign.
Linguists found several things lacking in Trump’s blanket mea culpa, starting with specifics about what he did wrong and to whom. Also, his contrition was prefaced by a litany of self-congratulatory statements designed to puff himself up and lessen the humbling aspects of his regrets. Further, Trump managed to suggest that part of the problem somehow rested with those who felt injured by his remarks. Finally, his declaration that he’ll continue to tell the truth suggested maybe he didn’t really regret what he’d said at all.
Robin Lakoff, a retired linguistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says Trump’s underlying message was: “If you have to have this politically correct expression of regret, I’ll give it to you, but really, you’re the one in the wrong.’ … Donald Trump is being magnanimous to the poor, sick person.”
Jamieson, listing some of those targeted by Trump’s verbal volleys, added: “The question is to whom is he apologizing? Is this an apology to Megyn Kelly? Is this an apology to John McCain? Is this an apology to the Khan family? Is this an apology to Hillary Clinton?
Fields, for his part, said Trump’s bottom line seemed to be: “If this is what I need to do to win, sure, I’ll apologize.”
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LOCHTE
“I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend — for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics. I waited to share these thoughts until it was confirmed that the legal situation was addressed and it was clear that my teammates would be arriving home safely.
“It’s traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country — with a language barrier — and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave, but regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that am sorry to my teammates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors, and the hosts of this great event. I am very proud to represent my country in Olympic competition and this was a situation that could and should have been avoided. I accept responsibility for my role in this happening and have learned some valuable lessons.”
“I am grateful for my USA Swimming teammates and the USOC, and appreciate all of the efforts of the IOC, the Rio ‘16 Host Committee, and the people of Brazil who welcomed us to Rio and worked so hard to make sure that these Olympic Games provided a lifetime of great new memories. There has already been too much said and too many valuable resources dedicated to what happened last weekend, so I hope we spend our time celebrating the great stories and performances of these Games and look ahead to celebrating future successes.”
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Lochte’s statement, posted on his Instagram account Friday, was designed to quell the global firestorm that erupted after his claims about being the victim of an armed robbery outraged his Brazilian hosts and were sharply disputed by that nation’s police.
The Olympic gold medalist, who initially said he’d been robbed at gunpoint, held to his view that a stranger pointed a gun at him and demanded money. But Brazilian police said he and three other swimmers vandalized a gas station bathroom while drunk and were confronted by armed security guards.
Lochte does explicitly say he’s apologizing. But linguists note that as with Trump, he’s fuzzy about what exactly he’s sorry for. There’s no admission that he didn’t tell the truth or of any attempt at a cover-up. He throws out factors designed to mitigate blame: he was far from home, he didn’t speak the language. He makes reference to “the behavior” of others, suggesting he’s not the only one blame. He works in prominent mention of the Olympic Games, where he brought home gold. And he makes the case it’s time to change the subject.
“It’s one of those mistakes-were-made apologies,” Fields said. “It doesn’t take full responsibility.”
The key unanswered question, Jamieson said, is “Did you lie to us?”
Lakoff credits Lochte for sounding “truly penitent,” but said he still manages to “work the apology thing around to ‘Look at how wonderful I am” with all his talk about the successes at the Rio Games.
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Overall, Lakoff said, Trump and Lochte offered “two different ways of weaseling out of making a true apology.”
“These are both masterly ways of talking out of one corner of your mouth but indirectly implying something else out of the other,” he said.
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Follow Nancy Benac on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/nbenac
69 responses to “For Trump and Lochte, the delicate politics of contrition”
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“Robin Lakoff, a retired linguistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, says Trump’s underlying message was: “If you have to have this politically correct expression of regret, I’ll give it to you,”
I think that the underlying message in Robin Lakoff’s statement, is her left-wing political bias.
R. Lakoff is a so-called “SOCIOlinguist” who has made a career out of slice-and-dice reality fabrication, and this statement seems no different.
Lochte would have been the perfect VP for The Donald.
More like Hillary.
What, exactly did Trump apologize for? Since he nor his are able to actually say it, he did not apologize. What part of that do you not understand?
I do not work for the liberal media.
So what is Hilary’s “short circuit” considered? An apology? Just an outright lie? Doesn’t matter because the media doesn’t harp on her shortcomings like they do the republican candidate?
I thought You should know as it reflects on our possible next President
https://www.youtube.com/embed/BdNHf1g4ivA
Jeez, they are freaking out. More AP/SA propaganda. Anything and everything bad that happens will be attached to Trump.
I expect the next storm that rolls into the state will be blamed on Trump too.
That is why AP stands for Asinine Press…read at your own risk. Maybe not blamed on Donald but the next storm will be named Donald.:)
Was it a good thing that he apologized? Yes or No.
If you said Yes, it’s good that he apologized: What statements did he apologize for? Right, he did not say that at all.
If you said No: then he’s a dummy to apologize.
Yes or No?
Apeman, no body cares what you have to say except Allie.
Dr. Lakoff, (BA Radcliff, MA Indiana, PhD Harvard) Has written widely about Language and Gender and Politics and Language. She actually knows what she’s talking about.
Interesting juxtaposition of two now public figures apologizing without actually saying “I’m sorry.” “for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning….” I think that’s supposed to mean “I’m sorry I lied instead of just telling the truth.” without actually saying so. Dr. Lakoff is quite correct in saying that they both weaseled out of making an actual apology. It didn’t have to be Trump and Lochte, it could have been any number of public figures speaking in the passive voice.
Well if the good dr is not bias would it be too much trouble to analyze all the blantant false statements from hill? Oh I don’t know lets start with ” I never emailed classified information” from my private server? Since that’s one the fbi has verified to be a lie.
Here, the FBI is stretching the definition of classified information.
Can it be that information in the news media is classified at a later time? In other words at the time the information was received it was unclassified.
Perhaps it should not be classified at all if the public already knows about it?
For people who don’t have a PhD: It’s like when a grade school kid gets caught misbehaving. He apologizes so that he can join the class when they’re having an ice cream party. The teacher knows the kid is saying “Sorry” just to get the ice cream, but she accepts it with compassion, hoping that the kid will eventually learn the true meaning of contrition.
The thing is, this is not grade school. No kind teacher. “No ice cream for you, Trump!”
Trump is guy who owns the ice cream factory….lol
“PhD”
Reminds me of the old joke: Ph.D. = “Piled higher and Deeper”
That’s the new Republican strategy. Denigrate and mock higher education. Why does a society need scientists and highly educated people?
“I love the poorly educated!” Go Trump!
“Denigrate and mock higher education”
Some kinds of Ph.D. research is intellectually vacuous; some is not much more than specializing in the obvious.
It is the Piled higher and Deeper kind of Ph.D. It deserves to be denigrated and mocked.
Some so called higher education, especially some of the “social sciences”, is based on a kind of failed thinking that has not been part of the hard sciences since the 16th century.
It provides the intellectual basis for Marxist thinking, and related social science theories.
It fails again and again and again, but those who make a living out of it or are addicted to its self-serving agenda keep it going.
More Piled higher and Deeper.
If I had to choose between someone who is “poorly educated” but has simple common sense, and someone who bases their decisions on Piled higher and Deeper, I would choose the former.
Some kinds of Ph.D. research is intellectually vacuous; some is not much more than specializing in the obvious.
It is the Piled higher and Deeper kind of Ph.D. It deserves to be denigrated and mocked.
If I had to choose between someone who is “poorly educated” but has simple common sense, and someone who bases their decisions on Piled higher and Deeper, I would choose the former.
Some so called higher education, especially some of the social sciences” is based on a kind of failed thinking that has not been part of the hard sciences since the 16th century.
It provides the intellectual basis for Marxist thinking, and related social science theories.
It fails again and again and again, but those who make a living out of it or are addicted to its agenda keep it going.
More Piled higher and Deeper.
Sorry for all this repetition. It was the result of the comment-being-moderated software.
I suspect someone will now reply with “Speaking of Piling higher and Deeper”
And the child learned nothing.
More would have been taught if the teacher told him, “No. Actions have consequences. Next time you’ll think first, then act, rather than the reverse”.
The expert doctor could easily have included Clinton’s “short circuit” incident to demonstrate non-bias. But…..no.
Monkeys talking about a pHd. Hilarious.
It’s Ph.D.
Klastri, how many times have you gone bankrupt? Still living in that tent on the bluff in Maui or the Brownstone stoop in Manhattan or was that the other alter ego Ikefromeli.
You guys make me laugh.
lespark – The simple mind is easily amused. Keep laughing.
for the female felon it’s the disastrous politics of denials, obfuscation and intimidation.
her health is a major issue. her frequent fainting spells, dizziness, coughing fits, seizure like movements of her head, inability to climb steps, blood clot in the brain, double vision and more point to serious liabilities when awarding the office of the president.
perhaps this is why the fluffer press is so eagerly printing whatever the female felon’s campaign staff is writing and sending out: to deflect attention to the legitimate concerns about her numerous and major health deficiencies.
Thanks for the Fox News version of Hillary Clinton’s health report. Heck what does her doctor who gave her a clean bill of health know. On the other hand you have no problem with Donald Trump’s letter from the doctor that he wrote himself.
OD, you’ve been out of the picture for awhile–I see you are back with your made up facts!!!
Yes, the Donald is quick to show the world a doctor’s note. Not so quick to show his tax returns. Maybe his finances are not so healthy, huh? Ya think?
Who cares, he will make America great again. HiLIARy looks like she is really suffering. The meds aren’t working. Trump 2016
sarge22 – Has Mr. Trump been able to recover from the heel problem that kept him out of Vietnam? You know … the heel problem on the foot that he can’t remember.
Good for him that he won’t need to walk much after he loses the election in a giant, orange heap.
No mercy, she asked for it, she’s got it. You can’t be POTUS if you take every other day off unless you’re Obama.
When is Clinton going to apologize for the numerous lies she has told to the American people? While Trump and Locthe may not have fully owned up to exactly what they did wrong, Clinton hasn’t even tried.
Locke’s true answer implies that he will never get Justice for charging the guard with armed robbery of his wallet. Lying is not exactly pretty but there seems to be an element of Truth in his statements.
@ wiliki – I agree. I really don’t like Lochte and wanted him jailed after finding out he might be lying. But, after hearing the truth, it really was traumatic for the swimmers going through that situation. Yes, they did vandalize the place but to have a gun drawn on them, in a foreign country, anyone would be scared. Especially with all those “off duty policemen” killing a lot of people in Brazil. Some people might choose to lash back in anyway they can.
Problem is that some reports are that one of the swimmers broke the door to the toilet from the INSIDE.
Could it be that you need to drop a coin to open the door to the toilet?
It makes it easier to collect it you can’t get out without paying. Big problem if you’re drunk and have no Brazilian coins.
And can’t read Portuguese.. can’t read Portuguese… I can see why They have aimed guards to keep the toilets from being vandalized out of spite, and other people desperate for money to live on.
Trump develops golf courses for a profit, but is not a “golfer”. Golfers learn and practice “golf etiquette” on and off the golf course which means you “count and record, all of your stokes” hole-by -hole and never complain or belittle your opponents. And never make excuses for your bad round! Golfer know what I’m talking about.
Somebody better explain the intricacies of golf etiquette to zero.
“For Trump and Lochte, the delicate politics of contrition”
Politics, yes. Contrition, no.
Well, more from the cesspit that the US media has come. Linking Trump to Lochte’s misadventures, seriously? Example number
10,345 of the disgusting press bias agains Trump or any Republican and for the immaculate Hillary (who is a proven corrupt, incompetent, compulsive liar).
Way to go, journalism. Continue to cover your institution with poop until no one reads, believes, or cares what you have to say.
They are both insincere liars, correct? So it’s a great idea to put them in the same article and save media space. Efficient reporting, connected theme.
I don’t know that Trump is particularly a liar. First one by Lochte that I know of ——But we do know that Hillary is and has been a compulsive, repetitive liar for all of her public life. Lied about her email national security lapses, then lied about the lies, then lied about what the Director of the FBI said. My favorite is lying to the families of the Benghazi dead at their funerals–a very special talent to do that, also a boat load of amorality. The lady has a history besides these examples.
So, to your point about efficient “journalism”, where’s the blurb in this story about Hillary, the hands-down winner in any lying contest??? The AP must have “forgotten” to include it, right???
you’re joking right? You don’t know that trump’s a liar? they’re BOTH insincere liars that only care about themselves. Why don’t we call a spade a spade? You’d vote for anyone that has a (R) next to their name, even if it was a pile of feces on the pavement.
Think you need to tighten up the old screws, Bob. I don’t see Trump as lying any more than the typical politician. Hillary on the other hand has made a professional career of it.
As to the invective, why dont you just stuff it.
I’ll be voting Trump, an accident waiting to happen, not Hillary, a disaster waiting to happen. Given the nature of the two candidates, the real issue is the Supreme Court. Clinton can’t be given that power.
Hillary has a habit of finding some way of wiggling around the facts to get some advantage or avoid some problem.
Trump has a habit of plowing his way straight into the facts and finding some way to take advantage of them.
The second can be insensitive in its directness. Apologies can be made for the way things were said, without denying their veracity.
I get the impression that some of the detractors of Trump’s apology think like Hillary, and are projecting their own way of thinking onto what he said.
It never ceases to amaze me at how the Star Advertiser can be consistently biased against Trump.
The entire media establishment, really.
These daily releases from the AP are getting tiresome. Next thing you know they’ll dredge up a meaningless Hillary speech from 1995 and attempt to give it relevance.
Nicely played.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa! AP is SOOOOOOOOOOO Desperate to dish the Dirt on Donald Trump,comparing him to an Olympic Gold Metalist. Are you kidding me? What Lochte did,you could have compared him to Millions of people.lol.
I hate to sound like a broken record,but didn’t i tell you? AP would not publish the story of Donald Trump and Mike Pence helping out and donating food to the flood victims of Louisiana!
And where were the “Dynamic Duo? One…..(Obama) was still playing Golf at Martha’s Vineyard and the other Johnny Come lately…..(Hillary),just came in the last minute to see What Trump and Pence were doing. Helping the Flood Victims. Then Hillary decides to “Phone” the gov of Louisiana to express her concerns to the people of Louisiana. Haaaa!
So who’s looking more Presidential Now?
Told ya so! The MSM lacks incredible Honesty. Naughty AP.
The Donald and his assistant going to Louisiana was strictly a photo op. The governor told them not to bother unless they bring lots of $$$ to help the victims which they didn’t do. Do you actually believe that their handing out food to those poor folks changed anything? It was all for show.
At least he should up on his own dime, not AF1. Where was the POTUS on 9/11-12?/2012? Hiding under Hilliary’s pants suit? No guts.
He was on the golf course, as usual.
He brought food, clothing and the idea that someone still cared about those people. He paid for it with his own money. He didn’t use government resources like the police to shut down roads for his team of people. He thanked those who were helping their neighbors.
All zero could do was have his DoJ minions send a memo dealing with racial discrimination (of course).
you’re just jealous Hillary didn’t think of this first. Donald simply Beat her to the Punch. Plain and simple.
Non-essential entities does not understand what, where and how to apologize. From a billionaire to a mere gold medalist swimmer. They are blinded by the glitters in their eyes and saturated with egotistical personalities. They can do no wrong. When looking in a mirror they see a reflection of a superior person of their own belief and creation. Some of us see a cad, others interpretations are not suited for print in a family newspaper!
“Sometimes in the heat of debate”, I will get us into wars.
“Sometimes, in the heat of a doob, I have gotten us into wars”.-King Zero
If Hillary had a son he’d look like Ryan Lochte.
You got that right.
LOL
Not even the worst natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy could pry President Obama away from the golf course Wednesday.
With 11 people dead and 40,000 homes damaged by floods in Louisiana, Mr. Obama did speak with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate Wednesday from his vacation spot in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
the female felon, when surprised by a loud noise or someone surprising her with a shouted question, reacts with seizure-like violent head wrenching. while her handlers ignore this behavior in public, her health is seriously deteriorating to the point where even the most controlled press conferences with only invited party reporters are not happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd4NH9jKNas
You are lying. Your constant lying about this is not going to help Mr. Trump.