It wasn’t always like this. The “Checkers” speech, with its low-key, almost sunny defiance, is a kinescope relic. Today, Nixon’s office would’ve issued a weasel-worded statement — and given back the dog. (…)
(Is anyone else beginning to suspect that GLAAD’s well-oiled outrage machine is just a Heath Robinson device designed to lure rough trade into their offices?) (…)
If anyone out there has some a Grand Unified Theory of 21st Century Contrition, tracing the origin of this latter-day (and decidedly un-American) predilection, do tell.
Sitting here wracking my brain, I remembered seeing a copy of the official apology for Kent State on the US edition of the Antiques Roadshow. I didn’t think anybody apologized for anything in the 1970s, and indeed, the brief document doesn’t absolve the protesters of partial responsibility.
With my mind on the 1970s, I think I figured it out…
