Today, Bloomberg TV's Mark Halperin inadequately apologized for his conduct and line of questioning during an April 30 interview of GOP presidential candidate which came off as rude and racist to many who saw it — well, basically because it was.
As Tim Graham at NewsBusters noted on Sunday, and as will be seen in the video following the jump, Halperin engaged in a "prove-you're-a-Cuban" line of questioning, and did so with "a grim visage during these questions, like ... an interrogation, not a friendly chat":
There's no getting around the fact that Halperin acted like a world-class jerk.
Given his conduct, his "sorry if I offended you" "apology" issued today is really, really lame (HT Twitchy):
Brief notes:
- They clearly weren't "casual questions."
- It's not that "some felt" the questions were inappropriate; they just plain were inapropriate.
- Halperin was indeed questioning the legitimacy of Cruz's heritage. Otherwise, he never would have asked the question about his college applications.
Apologizing "to those offended" is wholly inadequate. Simply stating, "I was wrong, and I am sorry" would be. But very few people any more have the integrity to unconditionally apologize when they screw up, and their failure to do so means that they really in their heart of hearts don't believe that they did screw up.
Sorry, Mark. You screwed up. You had the chance to own it, and you failed. Shame on you.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
