Rarely will you see a celebrity or politician confess as well as Marion Jones did.  Standing before a horde of reporters, cameras and microphones in White Plains, New York, she tearfully admitted to what had long been suspected: that she used performance-enhancing steroids en route to Olympic gold.

A few weeks ago, I wrote in this space about Senator Larry Craig and what he should have done when he was arrested at the Minneapolis airport for soliciting sex from an undercover cop in an airport toilet.  Marion Jones followed those rules almost perfectly.  And, as a result, she is already reaping benefits.  Her tearful confession and her request for forgiveness from her fans haves already shifted some of the weight of public opinion to her side. 

Of course, not everyone feels sympathy for her.  But reading blogs on several sites, it’s clear that a lot of people are on her side. 

To be sure, she has a long way to go.  She still faces sentencing in court on charges of lying to federal investigators. And she will probably be stripped of her five Olympic Gold Medals. 

But her heartfelt honesty will almost certainly result in something less than the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.  Prosecutors have already said they will only seek a six-month sentence.  I’d be surprised if she serves a single day behind bars.  That would be a very different scenario if she had not stood up and admitted her mistake and asked for forgiveness.

The only thing she did wrong was when she suggested she did not know the substance she was using was an illegal, banned steroid until after the Olympics were over: “In September, 2000, before the Sydney Olympics, (former coach Trevor) Graham began providing me with a substance he told me was flaxseed oil," she said. "I continued to use this substance until July 2001."

"By November 2003, I realized that what Graham had given to me was a performance enhancing drug," Jones told the court.  According to published reports, those dates are not the same ones she gave in a letter to friends and family.  But even if it’s true that she didn’t know what she was taking, the best strategy is to not try to shift blame.  It’s like when kids say, “I’m sorry, but…”  The words that follow “but” negate the apology.

But that aside, Marion Jones should serve as a good example of how to respond to bad press.  She (and whoever advised her) deserve a different kind of gold medal: one for PR bravery.