174: Sorry, Not sorry: How to Apologize for a Crisis of Your Own Doing

Under duress, half baked, faked, tweeted, heartfelt, written by someone else. All these apologies seem to be everywhere this morning. More fallout for Whoopi Goldberg. ABC News suspending Goldberg from the View for two weeks after she made controversial comments about Jewish people and the Holocaust on Monday's episode, the Holocaust Isn't About Race, Whoopi Goldberg says, hey, y' all.

Can stop tweeting her.

She gets it. She was wrong for the comments she made about the Holocaust on the View.

Now you made some news this morning.

Yes.

On the View when y' all were talking about the Holocaust.

Yeah.

Spotify podcasting giant Joe Rogan apologizing for.

His repeated use of the N word.

Joe Rogan had to respond, finally, to the whole Spotify Neil Young thing.

Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast, where we use current events and tested media and PR strategies to help you manage a crisis and build an indestructible reput. Speaking of current events, I've been on a bit of a tear lately following a lot of the news stories that have been coming out left and right. And there's a reason why it seems like a lot of what I discuss in this podcast and even in my work on Instagram and on TikTok. More on that later. So many people are put in a position where they need to apologize. Last week on the podcast, I spoke about Jeff Zucker resigning from cnn. There was an absence of a truly heartfelt apology. Now we're cruising into another episode, and I want to highlight two more apologies that popped up in the news in recent weeks. Before we get there, let's talk about the crisis response. After all, that's what we focus on in this podcast. There is a key goal when it comes to crisis management. When you are in the middle of a PR crisis, a reputational crisis, whether it's an organization or a brand, the goal is to prevent or minimize damage. It's also to maintain your organization's operations and to repair any reputational damage. Now, the most important aspect of that process is the message, the response. It's essential that that message is clear, loud and clear. There cannot be any ambiguity in that message. When someone hears it, they need to know precisely what you mean. If there is an apology in there, it needs to be unmistakable. And that's why in this episode, I want to highlight two recent apologies that didn't quite qualify. The first one is from Whoopi Goldberg. As many of you know, she was suspended from ABC's the View for two weeks at the time of this release, she should be coming off a suspension. She came under fire for saying that the Holocaust was not about race. And she had made these comments during an episode of the talk show where she and the other hosts were discussing the graphic novel Maus. It's the Holocaust centered book that was banned by a Tennessee school board. That book, by the way, I couldn't remember when I first got it. I know it was in school, so maybe it was grad school. Could it have been college? I'm not sure. But I loved that book and I gave that book to my kids years ago. And when this story came out, my son and I were talking about it and he remembered it as well and how much it resonated with him. But as many of you know, that caused a bit of an uproar. So naturally, this means the ladies of the View needed to chime in about it. Whoopi Goldberg, in her statement, if you watched it live, or even if you watched a recording of the apology, you almost knew as you watched Whoopi wade into this area that she was going to cause a bit of a problem for herself and for the View. Take a listen to this clip.

Yesterday on our show, I misspoke. I regret my comments. As I said, and I stand corrected.

After all, the View is a talk show that survives on its ratings. Hot topics like they talk about create ratings. So on the one hand, this whole PR issue did not really hurt the View because they got a lot of viewership because of it. There was a lot of publicity over what Whoopi Goldberg said. And I'm sure some people even said, oh, my gosh, the View is still on the air. I'm not going to take this episode to delve into my opinion about what she said, but I'll just leave it here on the surface, because really what I was focused on when this came out was not so much about the issue. Because on the one hand, I can understand, as a black person, when you're raised to see color, why she would say that. It's not what she said, it's how she said it. She certainly could have couched it a little differently. She did say as a black person, but she could have layered more context there and added, it wasn't until I was older. I understand now that there's the ethnicity and the race piece of it, but to immediately go into the Holocaust, she just went into an area that was, was just. There was no return from that. So naturally there was an outcry and it was all over social media, all over Twitter. Even the Auschwitz museum, which is run from the largest Nazi concentration camp and extermination center, tweeted at Goldberg a photo of a Nazi era chart that shows how Nazi officials racially profiled people. So according to that chart, the description says the only racially pure people are those who have four German grandparents, as depicted in the four blank circles in the left hand column of the chart with the photograph. I'm going to include a link in the show notes, but that is. That's a serious response. So Whoopi Goldberg had to say something. So she really doubled down on the performative nature of the apology. She came back and she apologized. Take a listen.

Yesterday on our show, I misspoke. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected.

Also, she tweeted a statement with an apology. She said, on today's show, I said, the Holocaust is not about race, but about man's inhumanity to man. I should have said it is about both. She went on and then said, the Jewish people around the world have always had my support, and that will never waver. I am sorry for the hurt I have caused. Now, that tweet ending with written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg was an apology. Listening to her read off the teleprompter, reading that tweet, I think anyone could listen to Whoopi Goldberg, how she speaks, her cadence, her words, her articulation, and know that she did not write this, that some handler wrote it for her, which is fine, which would have been fine. But the problem, you see, is that she undid it by making an appearance on the Late show with Stephen Colbert. And that is where she attempted to explain the rationale for her comments. This is the part where you say, you should have stopped while you were ahead. What happened? She only exacerbated the situation.

Now, you made some news this morning.

Yes.

On the View when y' all were talking about the Holocaust.

Yeah.

And would you care to follow up, clarify what you said this morning?

I don't know.

Because it confused some people.

It upset a lot of people.

Yes.

Which was never, ever, ever, ever my name. I thought we were having discussion because I feel being black, when we talk about race, it's a very different thing to me. So I said that I felt that the Holocaust wasn't about race.

If you listen to this podcast at all, if you follow me at all, you know what I'm going to say here. What did Whoopi miss even in that clip? You could watch the whole Stephen Colbert clip. What did she Miss. And this is the reason why I think she failed at this apology and why this story became so much bigger. She missed the first step. Own it. She didn't own it. Her writers owned it. The PR people at abc, at the View, they owned it in the tweet, in the statement they released for her that she read on a teleprompter. But it was Stephen Colbert, which I thought was fascinating how all of this stagecraft happened, that she hit two apologies out of the park and then she completely botched it because her real feelings came out in the Stephen Colbert interview. That's where we got the real Whoopi, and that's where we got the non apology apology. She took it all back. She didn't apologize. She had to double down on her feelings. So she'll come back. She'll be back after two weeks. But here's the thing. In the age of a PR crisis, nowadays, people's memories are long. This will be a stain on her reputation. As I said in the beginning, what do you need to do in an apology? You need to be clear. There can't be any ambiguity. And if there's ever a part of it that causes damage or interrupts your organ operations, like filming of the View, and you have reputational damage. There is reputational damage on Whoopi Goldberg, and there it will remain. Next, there was another big apology. I discussed this apology on my new social media network, which is TikTok. I'm not linking my TikTok to the show notes yet. I'm still doing it in the dark because I'm working my way around it. And really, it's like walking around in the dark when you're my age, trying to figure out TikTok. But I went on it, tried it out, and it's quite the amazing platform. So I will, at some point this year, do a podcast about TikTok. I just need to get a couple talks under my belt. But, wow, I gotta tell you, in terms of engagement, in terms of reach, it is quite the platform. I did a very quick TikTok video about Joe Rogan and his apology. Now, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. Joe Rogan, you know, again, harking back to my age. I'm a Gen Xer. Joe Rogan, who is this huge podcast powerhouse. To me, he's still the guy on newsradio. He's still the guy that hosted Fear Factor. Like, it really amazes me that this guy has the base that he Has. It's quite remarkable. But there is no denying that Joe Rogan has created the most unbelievable brand and following, and that's why Spotify is paying so much money. They're not paying for Joe Rogan. They're paying for Joe Rogan's followers and listeners. Now, Joe Rogan is controversial. He is a controversial podcaster. And he had to step in it because he needed to issue a slew of apologies in these last few weeks for COVID 19 misinformation. You remember that Neil Young yanked his music from the streaming service. Joni Mitchell yanked her music, and then a number of other artists did as well. And then Brene Brown also pulled her podcast, sort of. So she made a mistake there. But let's just focus on Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan is still on Spotify. He was under. He. He came under the glare in this controversy because of using the N word repeatedly. He apologized via Instagram. There you go. Social media for all the racial slurs. So take a listen.

Now, I know that to most people, there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast. And I agree with that. Now, I haven't said it in years, but for a long time when I would bring that word up, like if it would come up in conversation and stay, instead of saying the N word, I would just say the word. I thought as long as it was in context, people would understand what I was doing.

All right, so you can see right there what is happening in the after apology. He still stepped away a little from the apology by trying to explain what had happened to him. He had said that in this video, there's a compilation of all the times that he used the N word. They mashed it together and released it. So he said that that video has always been out there, but it was like a political hit job. Now, he did. When you listen to that entire apology, you do hear him show some remorse. There is him apologizing, but again, he used the half baked one. I apologize if I pissed you off. Now, Spotify chose to remain with Rogan, which is not surprising for the listeners for the money that he brings in, because that's really what it boils down to. The CEO, Daniel Ek, he apologized to his employees in a memo that, of course was naturally leaked. And there is a statement on their website. Eck had addressed, you know, the elephant in the room. He said, I also want to be transparent in setting the expectation that in order to achieve our goal becoming the global audio platform, these kinds of disputes will be inevitable. This is an issue where Spotify, who gave Rogan $100 million to be on that streaming network, they're going to stand by that guy. So I'm not shocked at all that Spotify did it. They're trying to be a powerhouse in podcasting and not music. I hate to say it. And this is what what needed to happen is you really needed to hear from probably more modern day musicians, more powerful musicians. A Taylor Swift deciding to leave Spotify, Kanye deciding to leave Spotify, that probably would've sent more waves like a Bruce Springsteen, even Joni Mitchell, as much as people loved her, which is just crazy that I was listening to her album for the first time, like a week before she left, probably didn't have as much of an impact. So EK and Spotify doubled down. But what happened here with Goldberg and also Rogan and Jeff Zuckerberg, they're not exactly apologies, they're more or less explanations. They're not fully accepting responsibility. It's as if they regret the circumstances of what happened. Partly they don't understand it. There's some blame shift in there as well, but it's not the full apology. So where does this leave us? These are two examples of what you don't want to do and in your organization. The reason why Whoopi Goldberg and Joe Rogan can get away with it is, like I mentioned, Joe Rogan's a hundred million dollar guy. If you're a $100 million person at your organization, maybe you could get away with it as well. But most of you, I assume, listening are not. So if you do get into a crisis and it is of your own doing, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to get out of it if you do not fully apologize. Jeff Zucker, he didn't fully apologize because he was on his way out the door anyway. But for you, the listener, where that leaves you, where that leaves all of us. If you screw up, if you make a mistake, you need to apologize. You need to take full accountability. Because remember, to respond effectively in a crisis, that apology needs to come across loud and clear. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.