Via Newsbusters. He’s now the former bureau chief:

Yahoo News confirms:

“David Chalian’s statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!. He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”

It’s interesting that ABC, which was initially blamed for Chalian’s remark, was so quick to identify him as the culprit. They could have gone the NBC route and refused to say, insisting only that it was “someone who doesn’t work for our news department.” Maybe they got enough grief for Brian Ross’s insta-scapegoating of tea partiers after the Aurora shooting that they decided they weren’t going to take any new heat from the right on this, even if that meant naming Chalian as the offender.

Anyway, an important lesson here for the media: The next time you’re riffing with your colleagues about how much Republicans hate minorities, check the mics in the room first. Or take Patrick Brennan’s advice and jump to a network where the last tattered pretense of objectivity was discarded long ago:

Whatever it's worth, I'm pretty sure the joke this ABC/Yahoo guy said could be said *on air* without repercussions at MSNBC.

— Patrick Brennan (@ptbrennan11) August 29, 2012

Exit question: Was Chalian’s comment really the most egregious smear of convention-goers yesterday? Read Timothy Carney’s post before you answer.