7-Second Delay Button Malfunction: Mark Halperin Calls Obama the D-Word on Live TV, Rush Limbaugh Weighs In (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 1, 2011
So much for that 7-second delay button… other than the juvenile profanity being allowed over the airwaves, I happen to agree with Mark Halperin’s appraisal on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” of Pres. Obama’s shameful behavior.
Although, I wouldn’t have used THAT word (except in my head).
H/t to Mcnorman’s Weblog.
Morning Joe: Mark Halperin calls Obama a DICK on live television
Halperin, once he found out the delay button didn’t work, has apologized for his comment, but he has been suspended indefinitely from MSNBC for using the D-word on the air — as he should be.
Wish he had used the word “jerk” or “fool” or “idiot” instead, but too late for that now. Heck, even leftist fruitcake Joy Behar was permitted on “The View” to call conservative senate-hopeful Sharron Angle a “bitch” who should die and burn in hell. Another leftist crazy, Bill Maher, is allowed to call conservative former Gov. Sarah Palin that nasty, misogynist word against women that starts with “T” and rhymes with “squat” or the word that starts with “C” and rhymes with “runt” without repercussions.
Maybe next time — if there is a next time — call the president the B-word, Mark. It works for Behar.
Just a thought.
I’d avoid the loathsome “T” and “C” words, however. Also, save the D-word utterances for a Republican president, like, oh say, George W. Bush. Then it would be hilarious to the MSNBC network heads.
MSNBC Suspends Mark Halperin After He Calls the President a “Dick” on Morning Joe
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh weighs in on Halperin’s D-word comment — Limbaugh shares info about his radio show’s own delay button, and evaluates what is and what is not acceptable language on MSNBC.
Here’s a partial transcript from today’s Rush Limbaugh Show:
The White House says an off-color remark about President Obama by MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin was inappropriate. I heard other people play it and they bleeped it out. I don’t know why anybody bleeped it out. They said it. Here’s something else now. I’m also being told that Halperin on MSNBC was told that what he was going to say wouldn’t be heard because there was a seven-second delay. Now, folks, I’m a highly trained broadcast specialist, you’re sitting there on live television, “Look, I want to say something, but can we bleep it?” You just don’t say it! (interruption) We use the deedle button. Is our deedle button even hooked up now? Let me hit the deedle button. Nothing happens. Okay, here’s the deedle button. (deedle) There we go. See, I can deedle myself. (deedle) Yeah, I’ll do it again here. You know what I love to do? You get some sweet little old lady on the phone, “Hi, Mr. Limbaugh, I just love you so much, I and my husband, we have been listening to you for 35 years, you are the greatest… (deedle).” I love deedling these little old ladies saying nothing wrong making everybody in the audience say, “What the heck did she just say that they had to deedle?” I have fun with the deedle.
We take no chances with our delay here. We’re on a 40-second delay. It used to be standard seven-second delay in the broadcast business. We, of course, are trend-setters. We went to 40 seconds, and the reason we went to 40 seconds, there’s two reasons. One, to have fun with it. If somebody says something we know we’ve got 40 seconds to on-air decide, while you can hear us deciding, “Gee, should we let that go by or not?” Count down, ten seconds to go, five seconds — okay, bleep it. Another reason why there’s 40 seconds is so that there is no panic on the part of anybody at the broadcast engineer console. We got time to make the decision. The point is that what you’re hearing me say now actually occurred 40 seconds ago. So any of you people on the phone attempting to corrupt the program or pollute it with your own profanity, you’re not gonna get away with it. It’s impossible.
[...]
So let’s take a look here. The word “dick” inappropriate. But “the Republicans will hurt disabled kids” is totally permissible. “The Republicans will hurt college kids.” “The Republicans will take food out of old people’s mouths.” Totally appropriate. “The Republicans want to take Social Security checks away from old people,” totally appropriate. “Paul Ryan will push your grandmother to her death over a cliff in a wheelchair,” totally appropriate. “The rich are selfish, mean-spirited, extremist racists,” totally appropriate to say. “Conservatives are racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes,” totally appropriate to say.
It is totally appropriate to make up quotes I never said and attribute them to me. It’s totally appropriate for left-wing sportswriters to invent things I never said, that’s totally appropriate.
The word “dick” is inappropriate. It’s totally appropriate for the president of the United States to tell a mother asking him about her 100-year-old mother whether or not his health care plan would give her a pacemaker, it’s totally appropriate for the president to tell that woman, we’ll just give your mom a pain pill. That’s totally appropriate. “I’m gonna bankrupt the coal industry. You can go ahead and open a coal-fired power plant if you want, but you’re gonna go bankrupt ’cause that’s my intention,” said Obama, totally appropriate. “You can’t just get on your corporate jet and go to Vegas anymore; those days are over.” That’s totally appropriate. “Don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, that’s not how things get done.” Totally appropriate.
It is totally appropriate to lie, to malign, to impugn people if you are a liberal Democrat from the White House on down. But it’s inappropriate to use the word “dick” on NBC.
[...]
The Scarborough show is not really live. There’s a seven-second delay. They are on tape. Now, they’re claiming that their board op failed and didn’t know how to implement the whole thing. I don’t think they set him up. I think they like Halperin.
From Dana Loesch at Big Journalism, White House Calls MSNBC, Complains About Halperin Remark:
Excuse me if I disregard the left’s outrage, the same side that screamed obscenities at a 14-year-old as she spoke during a pro-Walker Wisconsin rally; the same side who blamed the Tucson massacre on conservatives before the networks could accurately report whether or not Gabrielle Giffords’ was still alive (an action which caused Arizona tea partiers and Sarah Palin to get a wave of death threats). You all on the left act surprised at how much your #newtone has grown!
It’s hysterical to think that “dick” is an obscenity or that it in any way trumps the left’s verbiage the past several years; in fact, I thought it was comical that Scarborough and Halperin behaved as though they were pulling a George Carlin with a modified seven dirty words routine. Was Halperin wrong to suggest that the President had a tantrum and was rude to his audience by blaming corporate jets, evil, job creators, and condescending to congress by comparing them to his children? No, he wasn’t. (Dude, it’s your party that still hasn’t produced a budget, your homework, in two years.) Halperin could have phrased it differently. This isn’t “The Young Turks” on Youtube, this is is a professional network on … MSNBC. Yeah, OK. It’s still network television, though.
[...]
MSNBC didn’t suspend Halperin because he showed as much respect for the office as the office has shown Americans these past several years; they suspended him due to profanity. If this was about respect for the office of the presidency, a number of their talking heads and analysts would have been canned ages ago when Bush was in office. If this came down to respect, they would have been canned over calling Palin, Bachmann, INSERT GOP/CONSERVATIVE INDIVIDUAL HERE an “idiot,” “zombie” and other names.
Being that I’m a free speech purist, I’m offended more by the blatant double-standard MSNBC shows in cherry-picking which officer holders to defend from pejoratives. People can use whatever language they want to demonstrate their creativity, or lack thereof. However, I also support businesses’ rights, so if MSNBC wants to suspend Mark Halperin because his language was unacceptable by their standards, they absolutely have that right.
About the author
Jon Stewart was in top form on Thursday night’s show:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-june-30-2011-bill-kristol