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Forgive and Forget? What Would Jian Say?
Blog posts reflect the views of their authors.
“Along the way he intimidated others, he lied, he insulted and in some cases ruined the lives of those who dared cross him. That’s hard enough to forgive. Maybe it should be impossible to forget.”
With those words Jian Ghomeshi began the episode of Q that aired on January 28, 2013.
In his opening essay, he lambasted Lance Armstrong for his “convenient and well-managed admission of guilt” and discouraging his listeners from taking the bait.
It is hard to listen to that essay now without thinking about Ghomeshi’s Facebook plea for sympathy and the despicable acts he is accused of committing.
Unlike Armstrong, Ghomeshi’s guilt has not been proven… yet?
Nevertheless, I have to ask, how much sympathy would the Jian who wrote that essay* give the Jian who wrote the Facebook post?
Here are some other choice quotes from Ghomeshi's essay:
"He seemed to be able to discuss broad concepts of public anger and breach of trust, but as for the finer detail, the personal relationships he destroyed..., well let’s just say it fell short of the advertised 'no holds barred' full confession."
"And we might like the notion that everyone deserves a second chance… but does he?"
"Is it possible that a convenient and well-managed admission of guilt on one of the world’s biggest media stages is actually not enough?"
David Bernans is a Québec-based writer and translator. Follow him on twitter @dbernans.
* Update: It turns out that Ghomeshi generally did not write the essays attributed to him. This Globe article points out that "95% of the trademark essays" were not by Ghomeshi, but by his producers.
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