WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A television panel on MSNBC has been slammed by conservative groups for poking fun at 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's black grandson.
Conservative bloggers Monday called upon MSNBC to apologize for the segment that was part of a comedic review of 2013 and included a panel of comedians, Politico reported Tuesday.
The review, which aired Sunday, included some of the most talked-about photos of 2013, such as President Obama's "selfie" snapped during a memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela. Toward the end of the photo segment, MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry pulled up a Romney family photo that included their recently adopted grandson Kieran Romney, who is black.
"MSNBC should apologize for this wildly inappropriate incident. Viewers and the Romney family deserve better," former Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., wrote.
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Conservative blogger Caleb Howe posted Monday on The Right Scoop on that MSNBC used the child as a "token."
"A lot of people had emotions about this baby picture this year," Harris-Perry said.
One of the panelists, actress Pia Glenn, sang "one of these things is not like the others," while Harris-Perry laughed.
"He's not a child adopted by loving parents prepared to provide him with a better life in keeping with the family's values. Nope. He's just a token," Howe wrote. "A punchline, not a person. But it's funny, because Republicans are racist, see? So it's all fine!"
Glenn at first defended her comments on Twitter, but later apologized, CNN reported.
"Adoptive parents giving a child of ANY ethnicity a loving home, I apologize. I absolutely did not intend to harm you but it seems that I have," she wrote.
Harris-Perry, whose mother is white, posted on her Twitter page Tuesday, "I am sorry. Without reservation or qualification. I apologize to the Romney family," later posting, "I apologize to all families built on loving transracial adoptions who feel I degraded their lives or choices."
