Writer calls Isaiah Washington mess a "sorry situation"

In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, the back page "The Final Cut" column by Mark Harris offers a very outspoken viewpoint of the entire "Grey's Anatomy" situation involving Isaiah Washington which he refers to as "the Official Entertainment Remorse Machine - the denial, then the half-baked small apology, then the more impressive, bigger, "I'm scared" apology with a side order of corporate rebuke, presumably followed by regret-soaked on-air interviews and a group hug."
"For get my skepicism, but I'm not a huge fan of apologies that come only after the evident threat to one's livelihood; I have difficulty believing that they spring spontaneously from a troubled soul...So at the risk of sounding uncharitable, let me hold off on accepting that apology for a moment...[and] mention a few regrets of my own:
- I'm sorry that the first time this happened, Shondra Rhimes, whose commitment to on-air diversity is evident, thought it was okay to write this off as a private affair rather than immediately let the offended fans of her show know how hateful she thought the epithet was.
- I'm sorry that T.R. Knight, the target of Washington's slur who came out following the incident, didn't have the instant, unqualified and loudly public support of every one of his colleagues.
- I'm sorry that ABC took half the TV season to remind itself that of it's corporate responsibility.
- I'm sorry that not a single sponsor of 'Grey's Anatomy' had the guts to speak up, even last week.
- I'm sorry that so many actors choose - and it is, whatever they tell themselves, a self-serving choice - to stay in the closet, since the more out actors there are, the less okay homophobia in entertainment becomes.
- I'm sorry that there aren't more gay characters on television: I don't want quotas or tokens, but I do think that shows like 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Lost' and 'Heroes,' which pride themselves on the variety of their ensembles, could expand their vision to better reflect their world, since series raning from 'The Office' to 'The Wire' have shown that it's not so hard.