It's Only Fair
Pat Burson of the Chicago Tribune devotes
an entire column to Larry Summers' remarks at the NBER conference in January. The point is to demonstrate how to recover from a gaffe.
"No one is immune from saying something so clumsy, inaccurate, outlandish or uncouth that he or she regrets it," Burson writes. "Fortunately, foot-in-mouth disease need not be fatal, say psychologists, workplace coaches and communications experts, but certain steps are necessary to recover from such a misstep."
Unfortunately for Summers, Burson doesn't mention—and perhaps isn't aware of—Summers' April 7th speech entirely recanting his January remarks. (See "Talking the Talk," below.) And Burson isn't alone in this failing: outside of the Boston media, that speech hasn't been covered at all. Not even the New York Times, which paid enormous attention to Summers' original gaffe, has remarked upon his mea culpa.
This is entirely predictable media behavior—cover the controversy, but not the aftermath—and entirely wrong. If you think the original sin is worth covering, then you have to cover the attempt at redemption as well. It's only fair, and the lack thereof is the kind of thing that makes the general public so cynical about the media. If I were Summers, I'd be fuming....
