An offhanded, but definitely ill-informed, comment by View co-host Joy Behar about a nurse wearing a “doctor’s stethoscope” has resulted in one of TV’s biggest advertisers pulling its commercials from the ABC chat-fest.

Earlier this week, the View panel was looking at footage from the recent Miss America pageant, and when Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson came on screen in her nurse’s uniform, Behar remarked, “Why has she got a doctor’s stethoscope on?”

The answer, as she soon found out (and as anyone who has received decent medical care probably already knew), is that nurses frequently carry stethoscopes with them… because they are often a vital tool for doing a nurse’s job.

The online backlash against Behar was swift, with nurses and other medical professionals posting photos of themselves and their colleagues wearing the stethoscopes that are not solely a tool for people with medical degrees.

After kicking an Internet hornet’s nest, Behar apologized, saying she was being “stupid and inattentive” during the segment.

“I did not know she was a nurse. I’m used to seeing (the contestants) in gowns and bathing suits so it’s not like I was trying to be funny,” she explained. “I just was not paying attention… I didn’t know know what the hell I was talking about.”

Then last night, Johnson & Johnson posted on its Facebook page that it is “pausing our ads on a certain daytime program.”

A rep for the company explained to AdAge that this halt includes all J&J brands. The company had been advertising its Johnson’s Baby, RoC, and Tylenol products on the show as recently as Wednesday.

The ABC show attempted to do damage control on Friday morning, playing host to dozens of nurses:

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