Apology, Not Apology

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Nir Rosen Shows Us How Not to Apologize

2/18/11 at 12:06 AM

On Tuesday, after tweeting that sexually assaulted CBS journalist Lara Logan was a "warmonger" and ridiculing her for trying to "outdo Anderson Cooper," Nir Rosen resigned from his post at NYU's Center on Law and Security and shut down his Twitter account in shame.

And that should have been it. He should have just slunk away and hidden. Instead, Rosen has launched an apology assault, attempting to prove that he's really not that bad.

First, there was his wildly uncomfortable appearance on Wednesday night's Anderson Cooper 360. What made it so hard to watch? Well, Rosen had tweeted that it might be hilarious if Cooper met the same fate as Logan. "Yes yes it's wrong what happened to her," he wrote on a now-deleted tweet. "Of course. I don't support that. But it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too."

He also denied knowing that Logan's assault was sexual in nature — despite linking to the CBS news alert about her attack from one of his offending tweets.

"No matter what I say, I look like a jerk," he said.

And perhaps with good cause. Rosen initially released a halfhearted apology over Twitter. But rather than just, you know, apologize, he instead went for a backhanded slap. "Ah fuck it, I apologize for being insensitive, its always wrong, that's obvious, but I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she will get."

During Wednesday's interview with Cooper, Rosen repeatedly attempted to position himself as the victim, with a basic message that "I ruined my own life." And that sentiment was perpetuated in a short essay that appeared on Salon on Thursday, again posing Rosen as the victim:

In the essay, "How 480 characters unraveled my career," Rosen took many more than his original 480 characters to paint a picture of himself as a progressive martyr. Rather than apologize and walk away, Rosen used Salon as a platform to attack his enemies, unfold a right-wing conspiracy theory, and pontificate on his new victim status.

And yet, in all the tweets, essays, and interviews, Rosen has yet to come across as truly contrite and apologetic. Maybe he should use some of his newfound free time to work on that.