After referring to President Barack Obama as a d-ck (short for "richard") on MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday, political analyst Mark Halperin (hardly a conservative, by the way) was suspended indefinitely by the network brass.
Personally, I have no problem with the network's move, given that such a harsh term assigned to a sitting President is wildly inappropriate. Halperin could have used any number of adjectives (i.e. arrogant, aloof, clueless) to describe the President's press conference/campaign speech Wednesday. But when one veers off into using nouns (even slang terms), it seems to be little more than petulant name-calling.
In the aftermath of this incident, I couldn't help but wonder what other line one has to cross before being suspended by MSNBC. Apparently, the following rhetoric isn't totally out of line when spewed by one the network's show hosts:
-Describing conservative commentator/blogger Michelle Malkin as a "...big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it."
-Continually using a vulgar sexual slur to describe a political movement with which the host disagrees.
-While working another job as a talk radio host, referring to a conservative woman radio personality as a "talk slut." To his credit, said MSNBC personality voluntarily took himself off the airwaves.
I know what some of you are thinking. All the people who were victim to those verbal barbs delivered by the likes of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz do not hold an office as prestigious as President of the United States. Yes, apparently there is a line regarding who is subject to such insulting verbiage and it is indeed drawn at our Commander in Chief.
If that's the case, then suspensions would definitely be handed down if a President was referred to as Fascist, murderous or a War Criminal, right? Apparently not so if the POTUS in question is not a liberal Democrat.
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