Imus gave Sharpton the spotlight by apologising every 3 minutes and kissing Sharpton’s shoe for forgiveness.
Ever since then I’ve been experimenting in “proactive apologetics” with my people here at work. We engage in quite a bit of rather rough humor with each other, and sometimes I’ve said that “if I unintentionally offended anyone... I’m sorry.” I’m finding that even in jest, apologizing does nothing but weaken your position. For example, if I apologize for rough humor, that means the rough humor of my friends must be ok, and they’re just as bad as me.