galliano and the quasi apology

The artist formerly known as creative director of Christian Dior, John Galliano, has released a statement about his recent anti-semitic drunken rants, that includes an apology.  Well, sort of an apology:

"... I completely deny the claims made against me and have fully co-operated with the Police investigation ... However, I fully accept that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people ... I must take responsibility for the circumstances in which I found myself and for allowing myself to be seen to be behaving in the worst possible light." (Telegraph.co.uk)

You know what would be an absolute breath of fresh air?  If the next called for public apology turned out to be just that: a plain and simple apology, with no extra I'm-Not-That-Bad frills around it.  We could be spared extraneous bow tie/sweater combos in melon-berry-burst-skittle blue, and/or the part where we, the offended, are somehow the ones who got caught up "losing the point"  being made.  We could skip those bits all together, and just focus on the topic at hand.  Maybe then, these apologies would feel more real, and not so much like emergency public relations moves.

But to be fair, substance abuse is real and very rarely produces rational behavior, so Galliano's sort-of apology shouldn't come as a shock. We do love that he has chosen to go to rehab, and wish him the absolute best.

Read Galliano's full statement here .  What do you think?