MSNBC President Phil Griffin has apologized to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for a tweet by the network that ignited a conservative firestorm
Griffin issued a personal apology for the entire episode on Thursday.
“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,” Griffin said in a statement according to The Huffington Post. “I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At msnbc we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.”
The tweet that started it all suggested that conservatives would hate the image of an “adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family.” It was a reference to a 2013 Cheerios commercial that featured a biracial family.
In response to the since-deleted tweet Priebus told conservatives to boycott MSNBC. According to Politico the RNC’s ban on MSNBC was lifted in response to the apology.
Read Spicer’s statement below:
Chairman Priebus recently spoke by phone with MSNBC President Phil Griffin.
Mr. Griffin apologized for the network’s offensive tweet from Saturday night. As outlined in the letter below, his network has taken corrective action.
We appreciate Mr. Griffin’s admission that their comment was demeaning and disgusting, and the Chairman accepted his apology. We will aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes.
We don’t expect their liberal bias to change, but we will call them out when political commentary devolves into personal and belittling attacks.
Thank you to everyone who joined in our efforts today.
This post was updated.
