An Anchor at WXMI (Grand Rapids) broke the cardinal rule of acting if the mic is always on. 

The Anchor blurted out an inappropriate word during Sunday evening's 11 p.m. news. But, it appears that most viewers didn't hear the profanity on air, that didn't stop News Director Brooks Blanton from posting an apology on Facebook, that went over like a lead balloon.

Blanton posted this on Facebook:

During our 11 p.m. news on Sunday night, one of our staff members used an inappropriate word which inadvertently was broadcast over the air. The staff member did not realize her microphone was open. However, we have a "no tolerance" policy when it comes to the use of offensive language on any of our media platforms. We sincerely apologize to our viewers and are taking corrective action to make sure this does not happen again.

Blanton refused to say what the word that the anchor used, but his apology seemed to do more harm than good and many people came to the Anchor's defense:

Marc Oppenheimer, of Muskegon: "Mistakes happen. A simply apology would have sufficed. Advertising that you intend to discipline an employee is extremely unprofessional however. I am more offended you decided to publicize your decision making and intent to discipline than I am by anything you said."

Chris Smith has drawn more than 300 "likes" for posting, "I will stop watching FOX 17 if she is fired. Everyone makes mistakes."

The station has not commented on Facebook since the original post. However, Blanton clarified that he did not mean to imply anyone would be disciplined for the mistake. 

"We've taken corrective action to make sure it doesn't happen again," he told MLive. "It was a mistake and that doesn't mean that someone is being fired or disciplined, as people have assumed on Facebook.

"We have apologized to our viewers and have already moved on from this issue to cover the news of the day," Blanton said.

Oh....and Blanton deleted the original post on Facebook.

Huh?!

H/T MLive.com