 "The New York Times" public editor Margaret Sullivan, while defending Silver's analysis, characterized the wager as "a bad idea" as it gave the appearance of a partisan motive for Silver, and "inappropriate" for someone perceived as a "Times" journalist (although Silver was not a member of the newspaper's staff).After a post-election appearance by Silver on Joe Scarborough's "Morning Joe", Scarborough published what he called a "(semi) apology", in which he concluded