Yesterday's "news" that Jay Leno would apologize for his insensitive (and, quite frankly, bizarre) remarks to Ryan Phillipe got me thinking: is apologizing the best tactic to take when you've said something stupid on air?

There certainly seems to be a double standard: guys like Charles Barkley or Donald Trump can seemingly say whatever they please, while "nice guys" like Jay Leno are constantly being taken to task for (relatively) benign transgressions. I've always wondered why that was the case, but didn't occur to me until today what the difference was -- Barkley and Trump never apologize for their insensitivity. In fact, they glory in it.

This is like something out of a sitcom. The BBC is apologizing for putting a cab driver on television as a computer expert. How does this happen? Well, the cab driver appeared at the BBC front desk and someone assumed he was the computer expert who was scheduled to appear on a news program. Without asking any questions, he was whisked onto the set and interviewed on live television. He made a valiant effort at trying to answer the anchor's questions! She only asked him three questions about downloading music before suddenly tossing to a reporter in the field. I think someone told her in her ear that she had the wrong guy on set.

It's especially funny when the cab driver is introduced as the editor of some tech magazine -- the look on his face is priceless. Apparently, the real tech editor watched the whole thing from the BBC reception area.

The YouTube video is after the jump: