You can't take it back

Trying to get into the habit of blogging the week I'm moving isn't a good idea, but here goes...

OK, so Helen Thomas says this:

And then she says this:

I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.

I don't see how the same person can say both those things. Wouldn't it be truer if Helen Thomas had said, "I've realized that going public with my private opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was most unwise because they're far outside the bounds of respectable discourse on said topic for a public figure like myself. So I have decided to retire rather than be fired."

Stuff like this happens all the time. People say something crazy, racist or dumb, and after a firestorm of protest, they issue an apology. How do people suddenly disavow radical points of view? You have to work pretty hard to arrive at and maintain such opinions, and then you suddenly give them up? I'm thinking about Pat Robertson declaring that Ariel Sharon had stroked out because God was punishing him for going soft on the Palestinians. Statements like these are emblematic of a worldview. To disavow the statement is to disavow a worldview, but really: Can you unmake a worldview in one unfavorable news cycle?

If only these people had watched the opening scene of When Harry Met Sally, they'd know that once the statement's "out there" you can't take it back.

Something else: it's sad to see somebody descend from tough to cranky to just a crank.