No apologies needed

NZPA has a story on the wires, headlined:

NO APOLOGIES NEEDED, INCIDENT DEAD AND BURIED SAYS DEPUTY PM

Now anyone just looking at the headline would think that some awful slight was done to the Deputy PM, and he was being magnanimous in forgiving the incident and saying it is in the past.

But no. Unbelievably this is Michael Cullen declaring there is no need for him to apologise to journalist Nick Wang, and declaring on behalf of Mr Wang that the incident was “dead and buried”. Or as the PM would instruct – time to move on.

My God – how arrogant. Cullen publicly blamed Wang for being evicted illegally, and said he had been creating a disturbance. If it was not for the video tape, that stigma would have remained with Wang, whose only crime it seems was not to allow the Chinese Government to censor him.

It doesn’t matter that Cullen was given bad info from the Police. He could have asked questions of other journalists, he could have asked if there was pertinent information. But he chose to attack Mr Wang, and he owes him an apology, rather than declaring the issue is “dead and buried”.

Why is sorry such a foreign word?