MSNBC suspended one of its best-known political analysts, Mark Halperin, on Thursday morning after he directed a derogatory comment at President Obama on the channel’s morning show, “Morning Joe.”
Sitting on the set of “Morning Joe,” Mr. Halperin smiled mischievously as he disparaged Mr. Obama’s behavior at a news conference a day earlier. “I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday,” Mr. Halperin said.
He apologized on the show a few minutes later and said he deeply regretted making the comment. Immediately after the show concluded at 9 a.m., a meeting was convened about the incident, and by 10:30 a.m., the channel said Mr. Halperin had been suspended “indefinitely” from his political analyst position.
“Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable,” the channel said in a statement. “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.”
At the same time, in his own statement, Mr. Halperin said he agreed completely “with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark” and added, “I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate.”
Time magazine, which employs Mr. Halperin as editor-at-large, issued him a warning but is not taking any further action. “Mark Halperin’s comments on air this morning were inappropriate and in no way reflective of Time’s views,” a spokesperson for the magazine said. “We have issued a warning to him that such behavior is unacceptable. Mark has appropriately apologized.”
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said Thursday afternoon that he had expressed his feelings to network executives that the comment was inappropriate. “It would be inappropriate to say that about any president,” Mr. Carney said at the daily White House press briefing.
Mr. Halperin is one of the media’s more ubiquitous figures, operating as something of a free agent with multiple vehicles for his writing and commentary in print, online, in books and on television. Never one to shy away from expressing his displeasure with the politicians he covers, Mr. Halperin has always walked a delicate line in his “Morning Joe” appearances.
“Morning Joe” often plays host to spirited political debate, but many of the guests it features are journalists for magazines and newspapers, not partisan pundits. And often they are put in awkward positions where they are asked to give their opinions. Mr. Halperin’s profane remark seemed to demonstrate how the show’s formula can strain.
Before Mr. Halperin made the quip on “Morning Joe,” he had asked if there was a seven-second delay available, a feature of television control rooms that can be used to bleep out stray curse words on live TV.
“Come on, take a chance,” the show’s co-host, Joe Scarborough, said, encouraging him.
After hearing the comment, Mr. Scarborough said, “Delay that.”
Mr. Scarborough later complained on the air that the show’s executive producer failed to bleep the word. “I would tell you what I think of him, but he doesn’t know what button to push,” he said.
Mr. Scarborough has spoken publicly in the past about his disagreements with producers and with MSNBC’s president, Phil Griffin, and Thursday’s incident could further heighten tensions within the channel.
In a tacit admission that the free-wheeling talk on cable television can sometimes go too far, MSNBC, a unit of Comcast’s NBC Universal division, has suspended other on-air figures in the past for incendiary comments. Most recently, Ed Schultz, the channel’s 10 p.m. host, was suspended for a week in May after disparaging Laura Ingraham, a conservative commentator.
Mr. Halperin is a paid contributor to MSNBC and a regular guest on “Morning Joe.” He is Time’s leading political reporter and one of the magazine’s most recognizable bylines, a visibility that could complicate the fallout from his profane remark.
Mr. Halperin often takes the lead role for Time in reporting on the presidential campaign and writes the popular political blog “The Page.” He is also co-authoring a follow-up book to “Game Change,” the best-seller about the 2008 campaign. In response to questions about how the comment could affect his objectivity as a journalist, a Time spokesperson pointed to a statement by the Obama adviser David Axelrod that suggested Mr. Halperin had made a mistake.
“What he said was obviously stupid and tasteless, and he exercised poor judgment,” Mr. Axelrod told The Washington Post. “I think he’d be the first to acknowledge that. I strongy disagree with his analysis. But I’ve known him for decades. He’s a decent person and a good journalist. I’m sure that no one regrets this more than he does.”