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鈥檛 been a team in Baltimore named the Colts since March of 1984, when the team鈥檚 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鈥檚 Monday Night Football game had been played between the Baltimore 鈥淐olts鈥� and the Las Vegas Raiders 鈥� I meant to write Baltimore Ravens.
I don鈥檛 know what got into me. It was a terrible mistake.
I鈥檓 sorry.
This humility stuff is kind of liberating.
I鈥檝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 鈥� Lanny Fratarre 鈥� 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 鈥淭he Field of Dreams.鈥�
Fratarre sounded genuinely mournful after his announcement.
As I wrote in a column a few days later, 鈥淚 thought for a brief moment that Fratarre would ask for the day鈥檚 game to be postponed. Maybe even canceled,鈥� 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, 鈥淲ait a minute. I鈥檓 sorry. James Earl Ray has died. Not James Earl Jones.鈥�
James Earl Ray, who assassinated Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had died in prison.
What followed was a profuse and genuine apology by Fratarre.
鈥淚 feel like a fool,鈥� he said.
A fool? For what? He鈥檇 made an honest mistake, and he wasn鈥檛 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鈥檛 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鈥檇 do anything to avoid admitting they鈥檙e wrong about anything.
There have been 63 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and on Donald Trump鈥檚 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 鈥渇rivolous,鈥� and 鈥渨ithout merit,鈥� by the judges handling them.
Recently it was reported that there are court filings that indicate that three of Trump鈥檚 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 鈥� despite knowing those claims weren鈥檛 true.
That鈥檚 just how those folks roll.
They鈥檝e learned from the master 鈥� Donald Trump.
He鈥檚 incapable of being contrite about anything.
He鈥檚 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鈥檛 get enough votes to legitimately win the election.
That鈥檚 nearly 8 out of 10 of them.
There鈥檚 hardly anybody standing up and yelling, 鈥淚 feel like a fool,鈥� 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 鈥淭he Big Lie,鈥� 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.