February 8, 2012

CNN suspends Roland Martin: Are you surprised?

A Case of Cultural Misunderstanding and Out of Control Social Media

(CNN) -- CNN said Wednesday it has suspended political analyst Roland Martin for "regrettable and offensive" Tweets written during the Super Bowl that critics said appeared to call for violence against gays.

"Roland Martin's Tweets were regrettable and offensive," the network 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." The statement did not specify how long Roland would be suspended.

-Sounds like CNN caves in to unwarranted pressure... Isn't this really much ado about nothing? How much different was Roland Martin's tweet than one of those "Man Card" Miller Lite Beer commercials...minus the "smack" statement. Let's see what's going on here...

A heterosexual man (David Beckham) advertised underwear on a commercial during a heighten televised NFL event and a man who sports an ascot (Roland Martin) reacts to it by using a colloquial urban term that essentially means "snap out of it." A term that doesn't literally mean to be violent against gay men or any other kind of man. It's just talking "smack." So GLAAD must be suggesting that any male that is the least bit interested in the commercial or might even purchase those underwear is homosexual.

Now Roland the world knows you were not talking about soccer- (that was weak) but for sure as a public figure you should have used better judgment and you probably need to learn how to filter your comments on social media, but where is the gay bashing??? Next time you might want to drop the hashtag #Superbowl.