MUMBAI: CNN has suspended its political analyst Roland Martin three days after he posted Twitter messages that were said to be anti-gay.
“Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive,” the cable news channel said in a statement. “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,” it read.
In one of his many Tweets,Martin had said that if a “dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, he should be smacked.” In another message he made a similar statement about a football fan wearing a “head to toe pink suit” on TV.
After angry comments from online readers about the Beckham remark started pouring in, he defended himself by saying that he was mocking soccer players and not gay people.“I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham ad, and I’m sorry folks took it otherwise,” he wrote.
Later on Monday, Martin issued a longer statement late Monday night that Erik Wemple of The Washington Post said was “old hogwash.”
By then, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation had highlighted other comments by Martin and insisted that he be fired from CNN.
The next day, CNN indicated that no punishment was forthcoming as Martin had apologized in a statement and noted that the original comments were made on Twitter and not the television network. “For the moment we’re letting him apologize and we’re hoping that people will understand that he is sorry for what he said.”
Along with him regularly appearing on CNN, Martin is the host of “Washington Watch,” a weekly broadcast on cable channel TV One.
