Using a toilet break to slag someone off is something we've all done. Doing it during a speech by the President of the USA on the anniversary of an immense natural disaster is something less of us have done. And doing it on live TV… well, only Kyra Phillips has done that.

By now, there's a huge chance that you've seen a clip of George Bush's live speech to mark the first anniversary of the New Orleans flood being interrupted by CNN's Kyra Phillips, hiding away in the bathroom with her microphone still on, calling her sister-in-law a "control freak" and a group of other people "assholes". Now CNN has decided to apologise to its viewers and George Bush for the mistake, although the apology was not extended to Kyra Phillip's sister-in-law, who CNN agrees is kind of a bitch.

Science has shown that we are never more than three weeks away from a news story about people saying something dumb when they haven't realised that their microphone is still on. Britney Spears apparently once stopped writing mental poems for long enough to be heard by 170,000 Brazilians calling something "retarded" offstage at a concert, while recently her husband Kevin Federline seemingly by accident left his microphone on during his performance at the Teen Choice Awards, allowing everyone to see what a godawful rapper he actually is.

George Bush himself was recently caught on microphone beckoning the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with the words "Yo Blair," and the most recent case of a live-mic cock-up also features George Bush, although he wasn't the one who looked a tit this time. During George Bush's address to mark the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, CNN presenter Kyra Phillips went to the bathroom to freshen up and slag off some people she was related to by marriage, while her every word was relayed to everyone watching the speech at home. And those words, as if you didn't already know, were these:

“Assholes. Yeah, I’m very lucky in that regard with my husband. My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving, you know, no ego (unintelligible) you know what I'm saying. Just a really passionate, compassionate great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They're hard to find. Yup. But they are out there… Brother – of course, brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I've got to be protective of him… He's married, three kids, but his wife is just a control freak."

Needless to say, you can't move on YouTube for videos of Kyra Phillips in the toilet. Now CNN has responded by putting out a statement saying:

"CNN experienced audio difficulties during the president's speech today in New Orleans. We apologise to our viewers and the president for the disruption."

However, the attention afforded to Kyra Phillips has meant that George Bush's speech has instantly become one of his most famous ever, prompting his team of media advisers to suggest that his speech to mark the fifth anniversary of September 11 in New York should be conducted entirely in a washroom and peppered with slurs against a bunch of people in his family.

Read more:

CNN Says Sorry For Live Mic Gaffe - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]