Mark Halperin, a political analyst, was suspended by MSNBC after saying of President Barack Obama that he thought he’d been “kind of a dick” on the show “Morning Joe.” MSNBC’s stated reason was that the comment was “inappropriate.”

It was a crude comment uttered during a morning talk show that promotes itself as being a place where anything can happen. Shows like that are all over TV. Audiences are accustomed to negative remarks about politicians.

Lewd comments and insults that don’t include “swear words” are made on a regular basis on news networks. Are the audiences so young and innocent that “naughty words” will corrupt them irredeemably?

No, not likely. Those watching morning news shows tend to be adults.  The true message here? “Bad words” sully the pristine image of MSNBC. Thus, the network will not tolerate political pundits who say what they think or use words their viewers would use.

Rather ridiculous, really.

No, dropping f-bombs might not be the way to go when it comes to “professionals” discussing politics, but this isn’t really even about that.

MSNBC is the liberal response to Fox News’ conservative agenda. It was unhappy with a remark made by one of its paid consultants about a president who many of their viewers support.

This isn’t really about inappropriateness. This is another example of a “news outlet” trying to serve an agenda. MSNBC wants to sell itself to viewers on the strength of its political biases.  But this is nothing new, most major news outlets do this, but viewers and readers tend not to notice. This time, the silliness of the rationale MSNBC offered exposed the network’s true motives.