The Lede at the NY Times explores whether the response to Isaiah Washington's "faggot" comments was clouded with political correctness, given what happened to Michael Richards and Mel Gibson whose ugly outbursts were well-documented. The Lede's Tom Zeller asks the question:
Is Mr. Washington’s infraction being dealt with properly? Is it all being overblown, or should it have been met with more outrage? What does it suggest that it wasn’t?
Provocative questions, with some provocative answers that are worth reading.
Mark Harris at Entertainment Weekly explores the Washington situation from a different angle. He views Washington's apology and then entry into rehab as part of Hollywood's "Official Entertainment Remorse Machine."
For a while, Isaiah Washington was actually going to get away with it. I'm talking about how things felt before the Official Entertainment Remorse Machine kicked in — the denial, then the half-baked small apology, then the more impressive, bigger, ''I'm scared'' apology (the one that goes, ''I have sinned, I must look deep inside myself and deal with my issues, I shall summon leaders of the offended community to meet with me'') with a side order of official corporate rebuke, presumably followed by regret-soaked on-air interviews and a group hug.
Is rehab an appropriate place to for Washington? Or is it just a smokescreen and part of a PC solution to an ugly, but common, problem?
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