When is an apology not really an apology?

When it comes from “The View” co-host Joy Behar, when it’s done for all the wrong reasons — and when she doesn’t even tell her fans it happened.

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“Behar doesn’t owe an apology to [Disney] shareholders, but to the millions of Americans of all faiths,” said host Laura Ingraham Thursday night on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” during a segment on the topic.

“I think we need to hear an apology out of your own mouth, Joy, to make sure that it’s coming from you. And we’re not just ‘hearing voices’,” Ingraham added, alluding to Behar’s offensive slur against the vice president about his faith last month.

Ingraham aptly summed up what people across the country of many religions and backgrounds are feeling upon hearing the news late this week that Joy Behar apologized personally to Mike Pence for the patently offensive comments she made about him and his religious beliefs as a Christian last month — which denigrated people of all faiths. She has yet, of course, to apologize to untold viewers and people of faith for her hateful, bigoted slur.

Pence, who was raised a Catholic, has described himself as a born-again, evangelical Catholic. But what Behar said about him on the air was this — as most people in her audience yukked it up: “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you.”

Then she added that hearing voices is a “mental illness.”

The news about the apology to Pence came via Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was meeting with shareholders in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to a Fox News report. Disney owns the ABC television network, and in the meeting, Iger was confronted by general counsel for the National Center for Public Policy Research — who brought up a number of concerns about the decidedly anti-conservative bent of the media giant’s properties.

To his credit, Iger said, “I happen to take exception with what [Joy Behar] said. I don’t think it was right, and I was glad to hear that she apologized,” as The Washington Times reported.

Related: Franklin Graham Speaks of Danger in Joy Behar’s Remarks About Faith

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To his detriment, though, he apparently did not say what really needed to be said.

“Disney might not always listen to reason, but when money talks, that mouse is all ears,” Ingraham said on her show Thursday night. She noted that Disney had fielded an onslaught of angry complaints from viewers after Behar’s comments. That, of course, should be enough to make any savvy shareholder shake in his or her boots.

Brent Bozell, president of the right-leaning Media Research Center, was having none of it. He did not mince words.

Though Bozell describes the private apology to Pence as “a good first step,” he is calling on Behar to expand the apology to everyone she offended — and to do so publicly.

“The bigoted statements made about the Vice President’s Christian faith offended hundreds of millions of Christians across the country, the largest faith group in the United States. [Her] apology should, therefore, be as public as [her] insult.”

When Behar publicly maligned the whole of Christianity generally and Mike Pence specifically back on February 13, she took quite a (metaphorical) beating for it on social media. But despite overwhelming feedback that she’d crossed a line, no apology from her was forthcoming, at least not a public one directed to viewers.

Monitor yourself, Joy, to make sure you do not offend in the same manner again.

Pence responded to Behar’s comments in February by saying, “To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong … It’s an insult not to me, but to the vast majority of the American people who, like me, cherish their faith.”

So Behar’s job is not yet done.

Here are some tips to help the liberal TV star do this properly — and she can tuck this away for future use, too, in case she ever needs it again:

1.) Speak directly to the person or persons you’ve wronged.

2.) Render the apology as soon as possible after you come to realize that you’ve hurt, offended, or wronged someone in some way.

3.) Do not use the word “but” when rendering an apology (e.g., “I’m sorry, but…”).

4.) Specifically acknowledge what you did, demonstrating honest remorse.

5.) Offer to make amends — and ask what you can do to make it right.

6.) If the suggestion of the person you offended is reasonable, follow through on that request.

7.) Monitor yourself to ensure you do not reoffend in the same manner.

Good luck, Joy. Give it a shot — you can do this.

Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and regular contributor to LifeZette.