Time magazine editor Mark Halperin called President Barack Obama a “dick” on Thursday’s live Morning Joe show on MSNBC.

Why would you do that? As you can see in the video below he quickly apologised, but the damage was done.

Halperin has become a trending topic on Twitter after apparently committing social suicide and then opening himself up to a world abuse as you can see in the Storify piece below.  As you can see he looks a little ashen faced in the picture above maybe realising the crap he is in.

The reaction from show host Joe Scarborough says it all: “What are you doing? I can’t believe you. I was joking! Don’t do that. Did we delay that?”

With social media, and its close relationship to TV, there really is nowhere to hide. Reaction is quick and often bitter, but in this case you can’t but feel Halperin is way out of line.

UPDATE The New York Times is now reporting that MSNBC has suspended Halperin. Funny that.

“Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable,” the channel said in a statement. “We apologize 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.”

In a fresh statement from the channel, Mr. Halperin said he agreed completely “with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark” and added, “I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate.” He said he deeply regretted using the slur.