Page 140 - The Voice of Authority

so slow, bureaucratic, and
Words should be used as unconcerned. People and
tools of communication departments went down
and not as a substitute before they got any action.”
for action. Consider this: In our so-
—Anonymous ciety, inaction equates to
guilt and can often lead to
criminal liability. If you
know of a crime and don’t report it, you can be charged as
an accomplice. If you’re a corporate leader and permit sex-
ual harassment, the law holds that you are condoning such
behavior. If you’re a leader of a political party serving in
Congress or the White House and fail to bring appropri-
ate action against a colleague for misconduct, people ex-
pect your resignation or will demand your impeachment.
No action implies consent. Message sent: We don’t care.

Apologize: Do It Wrong and You’ll Be Sorry

Why won’t the latest celebrity flap go away? Situations call-
ing for a public apology come and go about once a month.
Some rock star, movie actor, athlete, or politician gets
caught shoplifting, driving while drunk, doing drugs, hav-
ing an affair, uttering prejudicial slurs over an open mic,
or taking a bribe, and the public becomes outraged about
the duplicity. The public persona and principles preached
don’t match the private behavior.
What further enrages us about such situations is that typ-
ically the celebrity involved first takes the stance: “It’s none
of your business.” When that line doesn’t work, he or she
tries to make excuses, “I was drunk/stoned/conned/didn’t
know that blah, blah, blah . . .”—fill in the blanks. When
those excuses don’t calm the waters, they finally come out
with a belated apology. Life goes back to normal. We once

128 The Voice of Authority