THE EDITOR-at-large of Time magazine and one of MSNBC’s senior political analysts called US President Barack Obama “a dick” on US national television, mistakenly believing the comment would be screened and removed before it aired.

However, the comment wasn’t blocked and was seen live by viewers of the Morning Joe show on MSNBC.

Asked by the show’s presenters to reveal how he really felt about Obama’s performance at a press conference yesterday and believing the show was airing with a seven-second delay, Mark Halperin said he thought the US president “was kind of a dick yesterday”:

Halperin subsequently apologised to both the president and the viewers for the comment while still on the show:

Business Insider reports that MSNBC later released a statement apologising for the comments and announcing the indefinite suspension of Halperin from the station:

Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologise 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. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.