I am glad that Mark Halperin called the president a dick on Morning Joe this morning. I’m also glad the producer didn’t know which button to push to prevent it from being broadcast. I’m glad not because I agree with Halperin that the president was being a dick, but because it forever removes any doubt about Halperin’s political bias.
“I thought he was a dick yesterday,” Halperin, who also is a senior political analyst for MSNBC, said on Morning Joe, referring to the President’s conduct during his press conference.
Host Joe Scarborough hoped to prevent the comment from being broadcast, saying, “Delay that. Delay that. What are you doing? I can’t believe… don’t do that. Did we delay that?”
Just minutes later, Halperin quickly apologized to the president and viewers for his choice of words. “Joking aside, this is an absolute apology. I shouldn’t have said it. I apologize to the president and the viewers who heard me say that,” Halperin said.
“We’re going to have a meeting after the show,” Scarborough said.
According to Scarborough, there had been a mishap with the seven-second delay button – a new executive producer apparently didn’t know how it worked. “You are supposed to know how to do the job,” Scarborough said of his producer. “I would tell you what I think of him, but he doesn’t know what button to push.”
Later in the show, Halperin again apologized, 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.”
I’m not sure why Halperin thought the president was a dick. Maybe it was because he wants to raise Halperin’s taxes rather than cut money for college loans, food stamps, and unemployment insurance. Halperin should be careful. He might need that last one.
I wonder how the meeting is going.
not so good for marky-mark: douchebag got suspended indefintiely, and Greg Sargent thinks that’s “over the top”.
I saw and read the post by Greg S, and as much as I like Greg, I think he’s so wrong here.
I don’t. He’s not really saying that Halperin shouldn’t be suspended. He’s saying he should have been banned for hackery a long time ago.
With the update to the post, I do understand where he was coming from, but the title was obviously aimed at page views…still
Ironically, a former office colleague of mine would say that anyone who said something indiscreet or gratutiously provocative on the job had “stepped on their dick.”
That’s the first thing I thought of when learning of Halperin’s stupidity. By calling Obama a “dick” he stepped on his own.
And Halperin is suppossed to be the consummate objective beltway insider analyst with a seasoned mature view of the body politic. Is it any wonder the corporate media is such crap? He’s just a careerist with dividends in America’s corrupt kleptocracy.
this is exactly what I said on twitter just with less characters 🙂
if anyone had any doubt the Halperin’s bias hackery leaned against Dems, this “dick-assed” move should confirm it.
I guess it really is a slow news week.
Just one more piece of evidence, as if we need another, that the media is hard wired to look at all things from a right wing paradigm.
The right will, no doubt, call it political correctness yet again run a muck. And they will point to the suspension as another example of the rampant liberal bias in the media. You criticize Obama and you get suspended.
How you see this event really only depends on which ox you own that is getting gored here.
People like Halperin are never, ever unemployed for long. “Experts” who will say whatever you pay them to, and really believe it, never are.
Has anyone ever noticed that the Village is, essentially, a socialist economy? Guaranteed employment for life. Damn liberal media.
No doubt. Axelrod gave him an instant mulligan.
awesome. Way to go, Ax. Schmuck.
Isn’t he the guy who writes in the post and tells us what the wealthy people he lunches with to want us to hear, dressed up as news?
There are so many I get them mixed up: David Gergen, David Gregory, John King, Wolf Blitzer, the eternal spirit of Tim Russert, etc.
Quote: “We’re going to have a meeting after the show,” Scarborough said.
Ooooh, a meeting after the show! Hilarious. Tough boss, eh? Who’ll bring the donuts?
If he really managed to lower the level of Morning Joe’s discourse he deserves a Pulitzer, not a “meeting”. His accomplishment is akin to breaking the limbo record by tunneling. Why a designated wingnut whore thinking Obama’s a dick is worth mention, however, remains a mystery.
The real lesson here is, once again, that the left/liberal contingent is crazy to pin its “news” media hopes on a GE/Comcast throwaway that will do whatever it thinks will make money and not make its plutocrat bosses too mad. MSNBC is NOT “our Foxnews”. We need to focus on getting efforts like Current accessible to everyone, and funding public broadcasting to the point that they quit worrying about offending the Big Money by too much truth telling.
Pulitzer? Make it a Nobel, he discovered a way to go below absolute zero.
Halperin’s statements leading up to that exchange indicate pretty clearly where he was going. He simply had the “misfortune” of actually having his words broadcast.
In 2008 he called O a pussy. I just wish he’d make up his mind.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/13/times-halperin-apologizes_n_86504.html
At least that was him sort of reporting what someone else supposedly thought, as opposed to just coming out and calling him a dick.
If Obama was being a dick, he was the most soft-spoken, even-keeled dick I’ve ever seen. Perhaps Halperin was just projecting.
I rather thought that Obama was being a dick about the War Powers Act.
Whether he should have been fired depends on how “accidental” it was.