June 30, 2011

Mark Halperin Calls President Obama a 'Dick' on Morning Joe Show; Suspended by MSNBC

Mark Halperin is a regular contributor to MSNBC and a senior political analyst for TIME. He wrote a great book about the 2008 election called, "Game Changer". I imagine that Halperin is also a big fan of George Carlin. He obviously bought into Carlin's rant about the '7 Words You Can't Say on Television'.

'Dick' isn't on Carlin's list. As such, Halperin thought it was OK to say 'Dick' on MSNBC earlier this morning. Not only did he use a word that doesn't have a place in our political discourse ... he decided it was good to use it to describe the President of the United States. Seriously!?





It didn't take long for Halperin to feel the consequences. He apologized to the President and the Morning Joe viewers before the show ended, saying:
"I can’t explain why I did it. It’s inappropriate, disrespectful. I’ve already apologized, and I will again to the President.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry to the viewers…It is disrespectful, what I said was disrespectful to the president and the office but it also lowers our discourse."
He also tweeted to his followers: “I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President and the viewers of Morning Joe. My remark was not funny. I deeply regret it."


MSNBC later released this statement:
"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."
Halperin followed up with this statement: "I completely agree with everything in MSNBC's statement about my remark. I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it."


I think that MSNBC did the right thing.   I don't have an issue if you disagree with the President ... or anyone else in the political arena ... but, you can disagree without being disrespectful.   Shame on you Mark Halperin!

2 comments:

Carolyn Moon said...

It's absolutely amazing the disrespect shown this President. Many naysayers of the Bush Regime..didn't go this far.

Again, I believe that many are still upset that Americans elected this President. It has certainly removed the smokescreens and outed those liberals who are duplicitous re: African-Americans and the securing of the rights and privileges afforded ALL Americans.
Those on the right and xenophobics have taken their bigotry to new heights and care less about hiding it!

2012 should be interesting, challenging and hopefully not tragic!

Unknown said...

Amina - More and more we are seeing people with less inhibitions against racial slurs or other disrespectful comments re: our president. I imagine it will get worse before it gets better.

I agree that 2012 will be an interesting election year. I think it is important for Barack Obama to be re-elected for a second term. I imagine that his likelihood of doing so is tied to improvements in the economy.