phil griffin has issued the following statement.uote, the tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. we immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. we have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet. i personally apologized to mr. priebus and to everyone offended. at msnbc, we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issue, and we invite voices from all sides to participate. that will never change. let me say this. you know, when i first started the show here and met phil griffin and talked around this station, one thing that was always clear to me is that you can take strong positions, but you cannot be against people and you can't be personal. and i learned that the hard way. one of the people that taught me that died eight years ago today, mrs. coretta scott king, the widow of dr. martin luther king jr. many years ago she embraced me and work i was doing in national action network because of my close working with her son martin iii. she told me, al, you cannot become what

. >> bob, they have -- msnbc has apologized, phil griffin has apologized.uld they apologize if this is something that they kind of do a lot of? i mean, it's who -- i -- i happen to think calling somebody a bigot, given my background and my dad's background in the civil rights, it's the lowest form of conversation you can have. i'm just appalled by it. you know, particularly are so many kids out there that need a home. i mean, you know, i don't care who adopts them, as long as it's a good family. >> true. >> so i give people credit and the idea of mocking it. i took my share of shots at romney, but i never would have done that about that. you just have -- you give the left a bend and most of the left don't believe that, in fact, and i find it appalling. >> but what he's saying is a larger issue, msnbc, this is like recidivism. it's not a one-off event. they are doing this. this has been multiple instances and that's why it's a problem. >> we have spent more time talking about nbc than anybody in america combined, so i don't know why we need to spend a whole

. >> well, it is who they are, it is nice phil griffin finally apologized for something, and that is good. it is not that it is unacceptab unacceptable, it is acceptable. and that is a problem. this network has a scurrilous attack against a conservative every week. if phil griffin is going to apologize he has to apologize for every single major figure on msnbc that has done things like calling mitt romney the kkk, accusing him of being associated with the grand wizards. ed schultz calling laura ing ingraham a slut, and they suggested somebody put a pellet in rush limbaugh's head and blow it off. martin bashir, who suggested in a produced piece on msnbc that someone should defecate in sarah palin's mouth. it took him 19 days to resign. and phil griffin, the same day he apologized, praised him when he resigned. >> the interesting thing is they came out and said they fired the tweeter, suggesting that this tweeter is sort of a rogue employee. but then to be honest, brent, i don't watch that channel, i don't have time. i have three kids. but in any event it was called to my attention tha

they're pushing this. >> phil griffin did apologize.i think we never had an ideology -- talking about at msnbc. an ideology is a single thought across all programs. we've never had that. obviously i hire people who fit this sensibility. we do stay true to facts. you have to build your argument. that's why i call it a sensibility. >> they hire people who say outrageous things about race and apologize for it later. that is the way i think they are trying to drive up their viewership and stay relevant. that's what they do. say racially inflammatory things over and over again. >> it's only the big stuff that gets the attention. but they do do it pert near every day. >> that's what they do. i think this is the identity politics as practiced on the left. this is what they do. >> jason reilly from the "wall street journal" editorial board, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> what do you think about this? e-mail us. coming up, do you still have your health insurance? maybe not for long. a whole bunch of people are about to get dumped. could y

sets the tone for fox, and i think we all try to live up to that, and i think at msnbc, you have phil griffinh phil at msnbc, he's always nice to me. i think it was in the early days from '96 to 2000 when i was there, and it was a different sensibility. it was kind of more edgy than lefty, right? you had a lot of conservative voices at msnbc at the time and it was a little bit more interesting back then, and now it seems as they've become more desperate, bill, in the quest to make some dent in these ratings, it's almost like people have to almost one-up each other. either that or they are just incredibly stupid, which could be a possibility. >> they are not incredibly stupid, i mean, they are not doing well. if cnn is -- cnn, by the way, doesn't do this stuff very much. >> no. >> but they are in big trouble ratingswise and msnbc beats them by a little, and i guess they feel that this far left approach they take is the reason why, but i couldn't to be amazed by comcast, the parent company of nbc, owns it, took it over from general electric, because i've dealt with comcast in the past, and it's

they always drop it and glad phil griffin apologized but something is really unhinged over there anded up. >> no doubt about it. >> yeah. >> you adopted three children from central america, sfrigt. >> my daughter from guatemala and two sons are from russia. we have a -- >> russia, yeah. >> we have a crazy mix at our house but it's fun. >> i think americans respect you for that. you saved three babies. you brought them to america and get a chance at a great life whereas in guatemala with all due respect, impoverished. russia is chaotic. >> yep. >> i think more and more americans celebrate this situation which is why the commercial is a positive for -- >> it's great. >> yeah. >> why can't we all just be happy there's a family on a commercial? >> right. >> i don't know how you get that from commercial to that comment except they're desperate because liberalism is having a bad several years and upset. it is about them hating what's going on to their movement versus what they really probably even think of us. >> it is just a vehicle to vept? >> yeah. >> in sven. probably the case, right.

>> yeah, phil griffin and you got the apology, where does it stand now? they're hitting all eight cylinders of intolerance. they started with melissa perry, and then the comments from martin bashir, about sarah palin. one of the comments was the physical disabilities of the soldier hero from tuesday night and using that as a political statement. so here is what we did. this tweet came last night and first thing in the morning i called mr. griffin, left a message. sent him a letter saying that we are not going to allow any of our surrogates or myself and all the other world of republican surrogates on the show, until they one, apologize, and number two, did something of some corrective action on their shows to take some action. now, to his credit, mr. griffin, to his credit, pretty quickly, number one, publicly apologized. and he also took corrective action and some administrative action. i never talked to mr. griffin until today. so i had that conversation and he took that action. >> now, let me play this for you. i think actually you have shown a lot of

signed phil griffin. we'll be back after this. we do? i took the trash out. i know.hink we should get a medicare supplement insurance plan. right now? [ male announcer ] whether you're new to medicare or not, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. it's up to you to pay the difference. so think about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they help cover some of what medicare doesn't pay and could really save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now. with a medicare supplement plan, you'll be able to stay with your doctor. oh, you know, i love that guy. mm-hmm. [ male announcer ] these types of plans let you visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. and there are no networks. you do your push-ups today? prepare to be amazed. [ male announcer ] don't wait. call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp medicare supplement plan to go the distance with you. go long. for a brief moment stand

. >> yeah, phil griffin. >> sean: you got the apology. where does it stand now?irou professed world of tolerance, you know, they're sure hitting on all eight cylinders ofwo intolerance. it started with melissa perry and comments about mitt romney's new grandchild, martin bashirrom and palin. a new host was talking about some of the physical disabilities of that soldiers hero from tuesday night, using that is a political statement. so here's what we did. this tweet came last night. and first thing in the morning i called mr. griffin, left ar. message. sent him a letter saying they were not going to allow our surrogates or myself or -- all of the other world of republican surrogates on their show until they, one, apologized. number two, did something of some corrective action on their shows to take -- to take someaci action. to his credit, mr. griffin, number onene publicly apologize, and he also took corrective action, administrative action on his staff. i never talked to mr. griffin until today. so i had that conversation, andr he took that action. >> sean: let m

phil griffin talks about this all the time. >> it's a shrinking demographic, joe. >> instead of 25 to 54, it should be 35 to 64. boomers are going to spend their money. >> but the 18 to 49 is -- the cbs network executive put it, who does research, 18 to 49 is a shrinking demographic. every year it is getting smaller. why would you deliberately pitch your programming to a demographic you know is shrinking? >> it used to be 40 was a benchmark for women that we didn't look forward to. i think that is extending for sure. >> well, get me back. i'm going to be 70s. 70 is pretty good. >> jane is not looking back. >> i'm 73 today. >> it's his birthday. >> we need a birthday cake. >> i was actually back with some high school friends a couple years ago in our hometown. we're all the same age. at the end of the evening, i said to them, who do we remember when we were 18 in this community who was a 70-year-old male? we were all 70-plus. we could name one guy. everybody had died by the time they got to 65, 66. so this life extension is having an enormous impact. also, as we've been talking about t

now, if you want me to answer that personally, i hope that phil griffin, the president of msnbc movesd august so i can have five days of week of fishing, but it probably isn't going to happen. our next question from peter wesly, do you think the publicly owned green packers will beat the privately owned san francisco 49ers in their playoff game? first of all, the high on sunday in green bay is going to be zero. wear your long underwear, 49ers, you're going to need it. look, i am for the packers, sorry the vikes and bears are out of it, but i like the pack, i like the way they play the game. and ownership has its privileges. i don't know how that fits in the competition, but i hope the pack goes past this round and gets to the super bowl. although, i do believe that seattle seems to be the team to beat. stick around, rapid response panel coming up next here on the "ed show." >>> i'm seema mody. stocks down across the board on the first trading day of 2014. the dow plunging 135 points. the s&p 500 losing 16 and the nasdaq down 33. a sign the labor market is improving, the number of amer

>> you do have to credit the president, phil griffin, with, one, apologizing, two, saying it was unacceptable, firing the unnamed staffer involved. but at the same time, given the string of recent controversies at msnbc which have resulted in a couple of other dismissals, you do have to wonder about the culture and whether there's such a loathing for conservatives that things that so clearly way, way, way over the line are somehow deemed acceptable. it was only a few weeks ago that melissa francis perry, a host on msnbc, herself had to apologize for leading a segment with her panel in which they mocked mitt romney's adopted black grandson. jenna: interesting. i took a look at the twitter page, and it doesn't seem like that's the norm for them, so it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here. just real quick, howard, i'm just curious because now we're in this age where one tweet, can it represent an entire media company? i'm just curious what you think about that and whether or not you on the side twitter is good for the news or whether or not, you know, maybe there's some negatives her

. >> i understand phil griffin is considering it and so there are leach working at msnbc that are excitedbout that. >> there is no way i'm wrong about this and no way you'd say it. i'm not hearing anything. oh, thank you! >> crickets. >> you agree with me. i'm going to go protest about it and you'll join me, won't you? >> i will not. >>> coming up, bill gates will join us and david miliband on the syria peace talks set to begin and oscar nominated actor barkhad abdi. we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is. worst morning ever. [ angelic music plays ] ♪ toaster strudel! best morning ever! [ hans ] warm, flaky, gooey. toaster strudel! really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat too, and has five grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i -- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? oops. [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. ensure high protein... 50% of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ ma

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