MSNBC has fired analyst Mark Halperin for calling President Barack Obama a “dick” on live television. According to Raw Story, Halperin, an editor at Time magazine, appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning. Host Joe Scarborough actually set Halperin up by lying to him about being on a seven-second time delay and asking what he thought of Obama’s scolding of Republican lawmakers for failing to raise the debt ceiling.
Halperin: “Are we on the seven-second delay?”
Scarborough: “Yeah, sure.Come on. Take a chance.”
Halperin: “I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday.”
The show then broke for commercial, after which Scarborough admitted what he’d done and apologized. “I’m sorry. It was a joke,” he said. “We made the joke before the show about the seven-second delay and we were going to try it out.”
Halperin also apologized, but for what, I do not know. He was merely expressing his opinion in what he thought was an off-the-record setting. “Joking aside, this is not a pro forma apology, it’s an absolute apology, heartfelt to the president and the viewers,” Halperin said. “I became part of the joke, but that’s no excuse. I made a mistake and I’m sorry and I shouldn’t have said it. As I said, I apologize to the president and to the viewers who heard me say that.”
MSNBC responded by indefinitely suspending Halperin. The cable news network explained its decision in a statement:
“Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the president, the White House and all of our views. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.”
HowardJuly 29, 2011 at 7:20 am
Scarborough was not alone in baiting Halperin. Brezinski was also part of the gag. Unfortunately Halperin got nailed.