My apology for something I wrote last week
I have no other explanation, but I was wrong.
Dead wrong.
It was the kind of unforced blunder that requires only forthright contrition.
Here it is.
Last week in this space, I referred to an NFL team called the Baltimore Colts.
There is no such team.
There hasn无毛视频檛 been a team in Baltimore named the Colts since March of 1984, when the team无毛视频檚 owner, Robert Irsay, loaded up 15 trucks and spirited the entire team out of Baltimore and sent them to Indianapolis in the dead of night.
When I wrote that the previous week无毛视频檚 Monday Night Football game had been played between the Baltimore 无毛视频淐olts无毛视频� and the Las Vegas Raiders 无毛视频� I meant to write Baltimore Ravens.
I don无毛视频檛 know what got into me. It was a terrible mistake.
I无毛视频檓 sorry.
This humility stuff is kind of liberating.
I无毛视频檝e seen that sort of thing in the past.
I recall listening to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game on April 23, 1998, and I heard the Pirates play-by-play announcer 无毛视频� Lanny Fratarre 无毛视频� report that the actor James Earl Jones had died that day.
Fratarre was lamenting the fact that Jones, among his many film and stage characterizations, had played a pivotal role in that classic baseball movie 无毛视频淭he Field of Dreams.无毛视频�
Fratarre sounded genuinely mournful after his announcement.
As I wrote in a column a few days later, 无毛视频淚 thought for a brief moment that Fratarre would ask for the day无毛视频檚 game to be postponed. Maybe even canceled,无毛视频� because of the dreadful weight of that development.
(That was in jest, considering what I wrote next.)
That Mr. Fratarre suddenly stopped himself mid-sentence and he said, 无毛视频淲ait a minute. I无毛视频檓 sorry. James Earl Ray has died. Not James Earl Jones.无毛视频�
James Earl Ray, who assassinated Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had died in prison.
What followed was a profuse and genuine apology by Fratarre.
无毛视频淚 feel like a fool,无毛视频� he said.
A fool? For what? He无毛视频檇 made an honest mistake, and he wasn无毛视频檛 trying to hide it. He corrected it without blaming anybody but himself. He got my respect that day.
It was certainly refreshing.
When you think about it, wouldn无毛视频檛 it be nice if politicians and their hired (political) guns were as capable of being as contrite as Mr. Fratarre?
Especially since there are certain politicians and their associates who无毛视频檇 do anything to avoid admitting they无毛视频檙e wrong about anything.
There have been 63 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and on Donald Trump无毛视频檚 behalf as an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
None has been successful.
More and more of them have been dismissed and called 无毛视频渇rivolous,无毛视频� and 无毛视频渨ithout merit,无毛视频� by the judges handling them.
Recently it was reported that there are court filings that indicate that three of Trump无毛视频檚 attorneys (Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Jenna Ellis) knew they were promoting false conspiracy theories about the election results, but they kept repeating them.
Shortly after the election, the trio had gone public with wild claims about the company handling certain voting machines 无毛视频� despite knowing those claims weren无毛视频檛 true.
That无毛视频檚 just how those folks roll.
They无毛视频檝e learned from the master 无毛视频� Donald Trump.
He无毛视频檚 incapable of being contrite about anything.
He无毛视频檚 still somehow finding the time to dispute the results of the 2020 election.
That could be why the results of a recent CNN poll are chilling.
According to the poll, 78% of Republicans still believe Joe Biden didn无毛视频檛 get enough votes to legitimately win the election.
That无毛视频檚 nearly 8 out of 10 of them.
There无毛视频檚 hardly anybody standing up and yelling, 无毛视频淚 feel like a fool,无毛视频� the way Lanny Fratarre did that day in 1998.
There are few Republicans with the kind of character, and standing, who would rip the cover from 无毛视频淭he Big Lie,无毛视频� and set the record straight once and for all.
Have we reached a point in this country where two disparate facts can coexist in the same space?
Joe Biden won the election. Donald Trump lost and continues to lose it.
Period.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.