Here is a good indicator of the nadir which manners and morals in America have reached: AP reports the Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx unleashed a revolting, obscene public tirade against a teenage girl.
On his Sirius satellite radio show this past Sunday night, Foxx reportedly said of sixteen-year-old singer and actress Miley Cyrus, "Make a sex tape and grow up!"
He also criticized her appearance, and, AP reported, "A woman is heard calling Cyrus the b-word." MTV reports someone in Foxx’s group called Cyrus a "little white b—-."
The MTV report summarized Foxx’s contribution as follows:
"Foxx then went on to compare Cyrus to other former teen queens, saying that Cyrus should do drugs like Britney Spears, become a lesbian like Lindsay Lohan, make a sex tape and ‘grow up.’ Cyrus is known to ride around her neighborhood on a bicycle, and Foxx also suggested that she ‘catch Chlamydia on a bicycle seat.’"
Foxx, 41, has a teenage daughter of his own.
Certainly this is a trivial event in some ways, but public acceptance of such repugnant behavior only encourages a continued slide into the gutter. It’s important that people engaging in acts such as these receive appropriate public obloquy and loss of media sales for their despicable behavior.
—S. T. Karnick
Update (04/15/09 9:45 EDT): Foxx apologized publicly last night on NBC’s The Tonight Show. E! Online reports:
Jamie Foxx, knowing he was fighting a losing battle in the court of public opinion, apologized on camera to Miley Cyrus tonight for some random off-color remarks he made about the teen queen on his satellite radio show over the weekend. . . .
"I so apologize to [Cyrus], and this is sincere," he began. "I am a comedian, and you guys know that whatever I say, I don’t mean any of it. [Big laugh from the audience]. And sometimes, as comedians, as we do, we go a little bit too far.
"I have a radio show…. We’re really the black Howard Stern [Well, there‘s your problem.–ed.]. We go at everybody. There was a situation with Miley Cyrus, and I just want to say, I apologize for what I said. I didn’t mean it maliciously. You know I’m a comedian. You know my heart," he added, turning to Leno.
Then, looking at the camera, "Miley, I apologize, so I’ll call you. I got a daughter too, so I completely understand."
A sincere apology is acceptable, but the wrongdoing should still have consequences for the one who did it. If people could get away with murder simply by apologizing . . .
–STK
Excellent point, R. J.
In criminal law your attempt to abandon criminal behavior doesn’t absolve you of guilt if you do it after you’ve been caught. I sure wish more people would apply the same rules to apologies.