The Emmy's got into a bit of hot water over a spoof in which Conan O'Brien is involved in a plane crash. The spoof comes a little uncomfortably close to the Comair Flight 5191 crash which left 49 people dead in Kentucky. "In no way would we ever want to make light of this terrible tragedy," the network said in a statement. I trust they wouldn't.

However, what if the Kentucky crash hadn't happened? Then it would be alright to do this spoof? No problemo, so long as nobody has had a rough encounter with gravity recently? Would the network have apologised if the spoof had been aired a little closer to the Pulkovo Airlines crash which left 170 people dead only five days earlier?

If we're going to pony up and apologise for doing a spoof then we either shouldn't have done it in the first place, or else we should take a look at what we apologise for. To use another industries example, if a game is found among the possessions of a murderer then the developers either shouldn't have made the game, or else they shouldn't have to apologise for it. Take your pick, but making something that won't be acceptable to the general public on one very unlucky day of the year either means you shouldn't make that thing any day of the year; or else you shouldn't have to make apologies for it at all.