Thursday June 28, 2012 AT 9:00 PM on CBC-TV
Friday June 29 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network
| Video Problems? | Video is only available inside Canada. |
Watch the promo or the full episode in the player above or on a mobile device. 
Who’s Sorry Now? explores big marquee moments of regret from public figures to take a sharp and timely look at the art, spin and billion-dollar business behind The Big Apology. The recent boom in public apologies is taking place against a backdrop where powerful people and interests have less and less privacy. With a mobile phone camera in every pocket and an internet audience instantly riveted to postings of fresh scandals, it‘s harder than ever for public figures to hide mistakes and misdeeds.
Inevitably when a crisis comes, an elite brand of "reputation managers" or "crisis control" specialists springs into action. They take control of the message by spinning the apology in an effort to "protect the brand" and salvage the image of the philandering politician, the cheating sports idol, or corrupt CEO. More often than not it all goes wrong.
With a focus on public apologies from celebrities such as Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson, politicians including John Edwards and Bill Clinton, and CEOs such as BP‘s Tony Hayward, Who’s Sorry Now? explores the harmful side effects of misbehaving in the information age, and the risks involved in trying to control a public relations disaster.
The documentary features informed and candid interviews with a range of experts in the fields of strategic communications, crisis management, journalism and politics. Interviewees include Allan Mayer, who, as head of 42West‘s Strategic Communications Division, has advised a wide range of corporate and institutional clients in the entertainment and related industries; Harlan Loeb, a nationally-recognized expert in corporate enterprise risk; Michael Sitrick, Chairman and CEO of Sitrick And Company, where he‘s provided advice and counsel to more than 1,000 companies; award-winning journalist Alison Fitzgerald, who co-authored In Too Deep: BP and the Drilling Race that Took it Down; and Barry Levine, Executive Editor of The National Enquirer.
Produced by Shaftesbury, Who’s Sorry Now? is written and directed by Marc de Guerre for CBC‘s Doc Zone.
