During an ABC NEWS/Yahoo online broadcast covering the convention Tuesday evening, Yahoo’s David Chalian said, “”They’re not concerned at all. They’re happy to have a party with black people drowning,” while watching video of a smiling Mitt and Ann Romney. He was referencing the fact that the Republican Convention was taking place as Hurricane Isaac was making landfall. Naturally, Chalian had no idea that his mic was hot and meant for the comments to be heard off air as a “joke.” They weren’t.

Yahoo moved swiftly to fire Chalian and he issued an apology on his Facebook page on Wednesday evening. He says, “I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke. I was commenting on the challenge of staging a convention during a hurricane and about campaign optics. I have apologized to the Romney campaign, and I want to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Gov. and Mrs. Romney. I also regret causing any distraction from the exceptional coverage of the Republican convention by Yahoo News and ABC News.”