by guest blogger Purple
CNN suspended CNN political contributor, Roland Martin on February 8th for tweets deemed homophobic by the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and other groups. Martin made comments about an H&M underwear commercial during the Super Bowl on February 5th. The commercial is a black and white ad featuring soccer star, David Beckham. One of his tweets about the ad read:
"If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl."
Apparently, Martin also made a tweet earlier about a football player, tweeting:
“Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass”
CNN issued the following statement on their decision to suspend Martin:
“Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”
Apparently Martin is set to meet with GLAAD. I’m not certain of other tweets from him that might have been involved in the outrage and his suspension, but more on the story can be found at the following links:
What do you think about the situation? Do you agree with CNN’s decision to suspend him?
CNN did the right thing in suspending Martin for his insensitive remarks. It just amazes me to think that people think it is ok to express homophobic attitudes and laugh it off. I don't know what discussions with GLADD will have other than it just being a PR maneuver to make people think he's sincere in educating himself.
ReplyDeleteThis will keep happening over and over again until harsher punishments are implemented.
In my opinion, Mr Martin should have been warned and reprimanded cordially than just being harshly suspended at once by CNN! I am sure if he knew the repercussion of his tweets he would have retreated from his actions. Even in the work environment, we have heavy flaws and get corrected. I feel like he could have been suspended if he continued to tweet such comments after corrections were given to him.
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