It didn’t take long for Melissa Harris-Perry to reconsider her attempt to ridicule Mitt Romney by using his black grandchild as a target during her segment on MSNBC yesterday. While some of her contributors attempted to defend the segment as fair game because the real target is Mitt Romney — who has retired from politics since the 2012 election, it should be noted — their salesmanship was singularly lacking, especially with former CNN reporter Roland Martin:

http://twitter.com/#!/rolandsmartin/status/417852194353061888

http://twitter.com/#!/rolandsmartin/status/417856809597411328

From the other side of the political spectrum, Sarah Palin blasted Harris-Perry and MSNBC in a Facebook post this morning:

The LSM’s pursuit of “shock ratings” is unreal. Governor Mitt Romney ran for higher office with what I believe is a servant’s heart. He was saddled with some sup-par campaign tactics. That does not make him a bad person nor does it open his children or grandchildren to attacks over a year after the fact. This latest attack from the Left is despicable.

Leftist media hounds are not expressing an opinion with this attack; they are expressing a prejudice that would never be accepted if it came from anyone else but the lib media.

You really need a conscience, yellow journalists. May your 2014 New Year’s Resolution be to find one.

And once again, one has to demand answers from MSNBC’s editors and producers. Clearly, this wasn’t an off-the-cuff segment, but a planned discussion centering on a black infant sitting on Mitt Romney’s lap. This is the best MSNBC can do with its time? Between this segment and the Joy Reid Christmas tree embarrassment (that one targeting Palin, who’s also not in office or running for one), the channel’s executives should be too ashamed to show their faces at the New Year’s Eve parties tonight. What’s next, finding something to make fun of Bob Dole?

Anyway, Harris-Perry threw in the towel this morning:

I am sorry. Without reservation or qualification. I apologize to the Romney family. #MHPapology

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) December 31, 2013

I work by guiding principle that those who offend do not have the right to tell those they hurt that they r wrong for hurting. #MHPapology

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) December 31, 2013

Therefore, while I meant no offense, I want to immediately apologize to the Romney family for hurting them. #MHPapology

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) December 31, 2013

As black child born into large white Mormon family I feel familiarity w/ Romney family pic & never meant to suggest otherwise. #MHPapology

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) December 31, 2013

I apologize to all families built on loving transracial adoptions who feel I degraded their lives or choices. #MHPapology

— Melissa Harris-Perry (@MHarrisPerry) December 31, 2013

Time’s Zeke Miller wondered what the hashtag was supposed to signify:

hashtagging an apology? RT @MHarrisPerry: I am sorry. Without reservation or qualification. I apologize to the Romney family. #MHPapology

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) December 31, 2013

Perhaps Harris-Perry plans an entire series of apologies. There isn’t much lack of material here. She could start with the accusation that the term “ObamaCare” is more of a racial slur than pointing out a black baby in a family picture for ridicule, or something. An apology might be in order for her insistence that children belong to communities rather than parents or families. (But not Romney’s grandchild, apparently.)  How about Detroit being something that Republicans foisted on America? Or that it “drowned” because Detroit’s government was just too darned small?

Something tells me that #MHPapology has a long and glorious lifespan ahead of it on Twitter. Unless #MSNBCapology eclipses it. But it’s probably not going to convince people who watched the segment, for the reason noted by the Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo:

If a show host takes clear joy in saying something offensive w/her guests, it's tough to make an apology sound sincere after shes criticized

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) December 31, 2013

The structure of the apology is sincere, but it still has that whiff of “sorry I got caught.”