I think people in this thread are talking at cross-purposes. On the one hand, you have the people who are talking about when you genuinely make a mistake, and

I think people in this thread are talking at cross-purposes. On the one hand, you have the people who are talking about when you genuinely make a mistake, and recognize it as such before public outcry. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people that maybe feel that they were acting / talking / behaving in a way that is normal but are being told that they made a mistake. In these circumstances, there is usually the issue that the nature of the mistake is quite subjective. In the former case, your strategy is probably a good one. In the latter, I think the "don't apologize" is probably the better way to go, for the reasons outlined by GC.