apologizes Archives

Report: Lewis Hamilton apologizes for joking insinuation of racism after Monaco GP penalty

Filed under: Motorsports, Celebrities

Lewis Hamilton at the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton may be best known for his racing, but in the wake of a controversial performance at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, it was another race card he played altogether.

The young Brit was called in to speak with the race stewards regarding an incident with Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado. Towards the end of the grand prix, Hamilton collided with Maldonado and the latter was taken out of the race. The stewards deemed Hamilton at fault and handed him a 20-second time penalty (the post-race equivalent to a drive-through), though with Adrian Sutil finishing far behind him a lap down, the penalty affects neither Hamilton’s sixth-place finish nor his position in the championship standings.

Speaking with the BBC after the stewards’ decision, the McLaren driver jokingly channeled Sacha Baron Cohen’s character Ali G and mused that the stewards were picking on him because he’s black. Realizing the joke could be misconstrued and taken seriously, Hamilton doubled back and apologized to the stewards for his remarks.

The Maldonado incident was one of several that marred Hamilton’s performance this weekend. After being docked several positions on the starting grid due to an illegal qualifying maneuver, Hamilton started in ninth place. Around halfway through the race, he tried to overtake longtime rival, Felipe Massa, but ended up colliding with the Ferrari that crashed out mere seconds later. The stewards had faulted a frustrated Hamilton for that incident as well and handed him a mid-race drive-through penalty.

Lewis Hamilton apologizes for joking insinuation of racism after Monaco GP penalty originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 May 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Detroit News apologizes

Filed under: Etc., Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Chrysler

“I owe our readers an explanation and an apology for the lapse that raised questions about our credibility” writes Detroit News publisher Jonathan Wolman today in a response to the blowback caused by the paper’s decision to weaken a review of the Chrysler 200 in response to advertiser demands. The decision to edit the online version of the review, which had already appeared in its original form in print, caused longtime auto reviewer Scott Burgess to resign rather than sacrifice his integrity. Burgess discussed the matter this week during a live appearance on Autoline After Hours and in a reader Q&A session at Jalopnik, which broke the story on Wednesday.

Wolman argues that Burgess was asked to “soften a few passages,” but that “there was no effort to change Scott’s verdict or his reasoning.”

Why bother, then? The excuse that “our intent was to improve the piece by making these passages less grating” is an exceptionally thin attempt to cover the paper’s backside. Nobody found it “grating” as the paper went to press, but suddenly, web readers are going to start bleeding from their eye sockets when Burgess rightly points out that while the Chrysler 200 is an improvement over the Sebring, that’s all it is? This affair hasn’t just “raised questions” about the paper’s integrity; rather, it’s all but ensured that The Detroit News will be viewed skeptically by many people going forward.

For his part, Scott Burgess states that he feels The Detroit News remains a source worthy of readers’ trust. In a comment to Jalopnik readers, he says,

“I think nearly every print publication — including The Detroit News — are trustworthy. The reason this became a big deal is because it is so rare, it never happened before and it certainly won’t happen again at the paper. In 15 plus years I had never had anything close to this happen to me. Journalists are a dogged group of people who work extremely hard, are typically underpaid and want to do the right thing.

In recent years, we’ve seen a lot of polarization of issues and I think that’s been more of a threat from online the changing ways people consumer media. There are a lot more voices out there and papers shouldn’t feel threatened by them, they should embrace them. I have always enjoyed the discussion, the debate, thoughtful response and evolution of ideas. There seems to less of that nowadays.”

Advertisers must sell product, and it’s natural for an auto dealership to complain about negative reviews of the wares it sells. It’s also not a stretch to understand how a newspaper would pay attention to an unsatisfied car dealer, as automotive ads are one of the biggest sources of revenue to newspapers. Still, that doesn’t get Wolman or The Detroit News off the hook, and a carefully-worded apology is too little, too late when the appropriate action would have been to back up the staff of “expert writers” the apology glowingly brags about.

[Source: The Detroit News]

The Detroit News apologizes originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Followup: BBC apologizes for Top Gear remarks about Mexicans

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Celebrities, MISC

Top Gear presenters

Ugh, fine. We’re sorry. Okay, so that’s not exactly how the BBC responded to Mexico’s Ambassador Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, but it certainly didn’t fall all over itself in making a formal apology, either.

In case you need a refresher, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond quipped on a recent broadcast episode of the hit television series, in reference to the Mexican-built Mastretta MXT sports car, “Mexican cars are just going to be a lazy, feckless, flatulent, oaf with a mustache leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat.”

Not surprisingly, a number of the country’s inhabitants were not amused… including the aforementioned Mexican Ambassador, who sent a letter to the BBC as something of a formal complaint. The BBC responded with a letter in return, which included the following statement:

Our own comedians make jokes about the British being terrible cooks and terrible romantics, and we in turn make jokes about the Italians being disorganized and over dramatic; the French being arrogant and the Germans being over organized. We are sorry if we have offended some people, but jokes centered on national stereotyping are a part of ‘Top Gear’s’ humor.

In any case, an apology was demanded and an apology (of sorts) was provided. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we lazy, over-fed and easily amused Americans are moving on. Hat tip to Jesse!

[Source: Associated Press via Google | Image: Gareth Fuller/AP]

Followup: BBC apologizes for Top Gear remarks about Mexicans originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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