Roland Martin may have been joking about Super Bowl-related topics with some off-color Tweets Sunday night, but his bosses at CNN definitely didn’t find it funny.
The political contributor has been suspended by the network after his remarks – most notably about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad – were called homophobic.
Gay-rights powerhouse GLAAD pushed hard for CNN to fire Martin. That did not happen, but disciplinary sanctions were taken, and his return date is not clear.
In a statement, CNN said:
“[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 Martin will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”
Martin fired off the controversial tweet (above) during the Super Bowl.
In another, he wrote, “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.”
Martin tried to backpedal by issuing an apology Monday.
“Based on several tweets I made on my Twitter feed on Super Bowl Sunday yesterday, I have been accused by members of the LGBT community of being supportive of violence against gays and lesbians and bullying,” he wrote.
“That is furthest from the truth, and I sincerely regret any offense my words caused.”
GLAAD, for one, seems satisfied, saying in a statement: “CNN today took a strong stand against anti-LGBT violence and language that demeans any community.”
“Yesterday, Martin also spoke out against anti-LGBT violence.”
“We at GLAAD look forward to hearing from CNN and Roland Martin to discuss how we can work together as allies and achieve our common goal of reducing anti-LGBT violence as well as the language that contributes to it.”
What do you think? Should Martin have been fired?