A few hours ago, Rick Sanchez on CNN referred to President Barack Obama as “the cotton picking president”. As bad as this sounds, the intent was clearly not there and the context was not even close to how bad it sounds.

Sanchez used the phrase while in discussion with Jessica Yellin, where they were talking about the many lies that are being spread about the president, such as him being a Muslim. As Sanchez clearly becomes frustrated, his tone of voice rises and he says, “He is the cotton picking president of the United States! If the president of the United States doesn’t have enough of a bully pulpit to convince people that…a lie is a lie…what the hell is going on here?”

After the discussion, CNN went to a commercial break. When programming returned, Rick Sanchez immediately apologized after being contacted by numerous people on Twitter during the break, bringing his attention to the matter. His apology went as follows, “You know I didn’t even realize it? I was just saying ‘cotton picking’ because it’s a term that I’ve used because I grew up in the South…however, I apologize for using it, in case it was taken by anyone as an act of disrespect.”

It is unlikely much fuss will be made of this incident because of the way in which the phrase was used. It was clearly an innocent slip up.