Time Editor Halperin Calls Obama Vulgar Name; Suspended as MSNBC Analyst

By Jeff Schapiro, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, June 30, 2011

When Time magazine Editor-at-Large and MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin described President Obama in terms not appropriate for morning television today, he went one vulgar word too far.

“I thought he was kind of a d*** yesterday,” he said on MSNBC's Morning Joe program in response to a question about the president's attitude during Wednesday's White House press conference. To make things even worse the person in the control booth, who should have censored the word, hit the wrong button, broadcasting it over the airwaves and landing Halperin in a heap of trouble.

Shortly after, at the end of the segment, an apparently nervous Halperin backtracked and apologized to both the president and the viewers who overheard him.

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Along with being an editor and analyst, Halperin is also co-author of Game Change, a book about the 2008 presidential election.

Ironically, Halperin opened his comments about Obama by asking, “Are we on the seven-second delay today?” He wanted to ensure that if he used vulgar language it would get cut out, and he was told that it would. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, apparently joking, then urged him to continue, saying, “Take a chance. Have faith.” Still, after all that, producers failed to censor the material.

Afterward, Scarborough laughed and exclaimed, “I was joking. Don't do that! Did we delay that?” The answer was no.

He later apologized to Halperin. “We're sorry that we left you hanging out there. It's our fault,” he said. MSNBC handed down a punishment later in the morning.

The station released a statement that appeared on the show's blog this morning, saying that “Mark Halperin's comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. 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.”

Not everybody agrees with Halperin's suspension, however. The Washington Post's Greg Sargent says that Halperin's comment was “crude and dumb, but it doesn't deserve indefinite suspension.” He says that the comment was “trivial” as compared to other issues that hinder our nation's political discourse.

In another statement from Halperin, he added MSNBC to his list of apologies. “I completely agree with everything in MSNBC's statement about my remark,” he said. “I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate.”