Mark Halperin will keep his job as Time magazine’s editor at large despite calling President Barack Obama a “d–k” live on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday morning.
“Mark Halperin’s comments on air this morning were inappropriate and in no way reflective of Time’s views. We have issued a warning to him that such behavior is unacceptable. Mark has appropriately apologized on air, via Twitter and on The Page,” a rep for the magazine told The Hollywood Reporter.
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Halperin was suspended indefinitely as the network’s senior political analyst Thursday after making his statement.
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Halperin released yet another apology through Time Inc.
“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,” he said.
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Halperin made the crude slur against Obama while discussing his Wednesday press conference about the economy.
“Delay that. Delay that. What are you doing? I can’t believe… don’t do that. Did we delay that?” host Joe Scarborough said right after.
Scarborough said the show wasn’t able to bleep the comment because the new executive producer, Alex Korson (who replaced Chris Licht), didn’t know how the tape delay works.
“You are supposed to know how to do the job,” Scarborough said. “I would tell you what I think of him, but he doesn’t know what button to push.”
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Scarborough apologized on air as well: “Certainly [host] Mika [Brzezinski] and I also apologize to viewers. And we hear this all the time – parents come up and say, ‘Hey, by the way, we don’t just watch the show, our kids watch the show.’”
