Once again an apology makes the news:
From what I can tell, the text of the apology …
“The producers of ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere,” cable news channnel ANC quoted the statement as saying.
“There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines,” it said.
The incident that prompted the call for an apology?
The episode showed actress Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer, asking during a medical consultation to check “those diplomas because I want to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.”
ABC’s apology clearly falls short. It suggests that brief references should not be offensive. It then states that “there was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines”. What? What else could it be? It wasn’t a compliment! That was the point of their joke! Maybe they forgot that people from the Philippines watch ABC.
A better way? “We offer our apologies for the insensitive and racist comments we included in our premier. It was out of line, and those responsible for the decisions to include such material in our program have been disciplined.”
Now that’s an apology you rarely see.
Pondering Pastor.
Pondering Pastor 
insensitive perhaps, racist no. the suggestion is that medical training in the phillipines is not as good as the training received here in the states. i have no data to back this up, but i would guess this is an accurate statement. racism is entirely over-used these days with political correctness trumping all in other cases. i agree that it might be insensitive, but thats all.
add to the mix that just because one (fictional) character on a (fictional) tv show insulted the Philippines’ medical schools, that does not necessarily make it an abc network stance. i agree that the race card gets played all too quickly. this was a pathetic attempt at an apology. and though i never tune in to dh, i would stand by abc if they apologized to those who were insulted, but explained that this is not their stance and merely this (fictional) character’s opinion.
My postings about apologies come from a pastor’s perspective, and I’ll stand by it. Someone puts words into a fictional character’s mouth. Someone approves the script. Actually, a lot of people are involved. Apologies to those who were offended is a cheap and inconsequential apology. It implies there was something wrong with the person offended, not the person causing the offense.
I think the apology is already sufficient.
Let’s remove the mask of hypocrisy here, but isn’t racism/discrimination towards indigenous Filipino, Chinese-Filipino, Indian-Filipinos, Muslim-Filipinos, Visayans very rampant in the Philippines. Being part indigenous, I’ve witnessed many racial slurs against us indigenous people sadly, by fellow Filipinos and when you inform them that you are offended, they butt in that you’re being oversensitive.
Apologies have been offered. Filipinos should also look and ponder on the way threat each other..and move on.
Arleen,
I understand your thoughts on insensitivity and racism and agree that the statement is insensitive. A while “racism” might be “overused” it is also the truth and usually due to ignorance. Such as the comment you made that the statement regarding the training at Filipino schools is “probably” accurate yet you have no data. Assumption are dangerous and they only reflect poorly on the person making the assumption. In any country, there are good schools, not so good schools and “diploma mill” – yes, even here in the United States.
Believe it there are LOADS of ignorant people out there so it doesn’t surprise me that there is LOADS of racism out there by people who never intended to be “racist” – they just didn’t know any better and might of been raised to believe certain information was “the truth”.
Much better to ASK questions and to genuinely inquire than to ASSUME.
As a FMG, “foreign medical graduate”, I have a more philosophical view of all the posing and posturing of medicine in the USA.
There are good doctors here, and in every nation on earth, but the key is certainly not the country or the place you get your diploma, it is how much you want to become the best doctor possible to continue learning and whither you care about each of your patients getting better enough to do your best for them.
If you believe the USA has good health care, fine, it is like every soldier believing his unit is the best in the army.
That is helpful.
But compared with the rest of the world is the US the best health care or just earn the most?
I would say they earn the most.