On Wednesday, Feb. 8, CNN indefinitely suspended commentator Roland Martin for homophobic tweets he sent during the Super Bowl, reported the Washington Post.
One tweet, in reference to a underwear ad with soccer star David Beckham, said "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him," according to the Associated Press (AP). The AP added that Martin issued an apology on his website, saying, "I'm disheartened that my words would embolden prejudice."
According to Time magazine, on Wednesday, Feb. 8, CNN issued a statement, saying "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."
In the wake of his suspension, Martin agreed to meet with GLAAD, the gay rights group, reported the Huffington Post.
Martin is not the first CNN commentator to land in hot water over prejudicial comments. CNN's Rick Sanchez was fired in 2010 for anti-Semitic comments, and long-time CNN journalist Octavia Nasr also was axed in 2010 for a controversial tweet in which she showed respect for a Hezbollah leader the U.S. considered a terrorist.
See this Knight Center Twitter feed for other cases of journalists fired for what they tweeted or posted on Facebook.
