CNN has punked out under pressure from the gay community to suspend analyst Roland Martin after he tweeted off a little joke about David Beckham’s underwear ad.
A CNN spokeswoman confirmed the suspension with this statement issued today:
“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.”
Martin came under attack from gay groups after tweeting a wisecrack about Beckham’s underwear commercial which aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl telecast on NBC.
Martin seemed to suggest in his tweet that his followers “smack the ish out of” any male Super Bowl fan who is “hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad.”
Martin added that “real bruhs” would not purchase underwear advertised by Beckham.
A network suspension is usually the first step towards a contract termination. Martin was a CNN political analyst for 4 years.
Meanwhile Fox News lets their analyst say whatever they want about black people..
As a gay advocate I must say that gay people are starting to get on my damn nerves.. Seriously? You are mad over that? Tracey Morgan can’t even make a joke about gays taking one up the @zz. The word GAY can no longer even be used in place of the word happy.. This is just pushing it a bit too far. Gay rights have came a looong way. But if incidents like this keep up it’s really going to make people not like the gays…
Then you have all these young gay teenagers killing themselves after being teased and ridiculed. The gay community should be spending time in the classrooms instead of monitoring twitter accounts.. I am disgusted.. I’m going to exercise my freedom of right to use the word as I see fit. CNN’s decision was hella GAY!! What do you think?
Source: Washington Post blog
6 Comments
Was Cnn's Decision Hella Gay or what?
They are now forcing this world on us…all gay all the time. Straight is becoming the new gay. to bad we accept this when we need to sit them down on their light ass's.
Honestly this is the most pathetic thing I've seen in a long time. Nothing he said warranted him being suspended. This is certain powers over reaching in some lame-ass attempt to make some sort of statement on gay rights. You don't infringe on people's free speech in an effort to protect someone else's rights. Especially when no "gay rights" were actually violated here. Talk about overkill.
Some words have more than one meaning which is most often determined by the context of its use. In that regard, I think it is errant to be offended by the use of a word when its meaning can clearly be distinguished by the context. For example, the word "gay" has at least three commonly known definitions. One refers to a state of happiness, one refers to sexuality, and one refers to behavior found to be distasteful.* The problem comes not in the use of the word, but whether or not it is used derogatorily, particularly when referring to sexuality. It is one thing to call a person gay (as there is nothing wrong with being homosexual) or even calling the commercial gay (especially if it is obviously targeting gay people). However, it is another thing to advocate "smacking" gay people or to say that a gay man is not a real man. The bottom line for CNN with Roland Martin, in this context, is that offending a large viewer demographic or a major sponsor is just not good for business, as well as a social faux pas.
*I realize that my third definition of "gay" may be considered offensive to gay people if one correlates a disapproval of homosexuality with distasteful behavior, in which case, it would seem there is a conflict of interest in its use as a legitimate term that was sullied by homophobia. People of African descent had a similar experience with the term "black." Terms like "Black is Beautiful," "I'm Black and I'm Proud," and "Black Power" all came to be used to counteract the negative connotations ascribed by the xenophobic and conditions created by slavery. Similarly, the term "Gay Pride" is used to counteract the negative connotations ascribed by the homophobic. However, today people are capable of determining whether the word "black" is referring to a person or to any of the following definitions:
• of a period of time or situation characterized by tragic or disastrous events; causing despair or pessimism : five thousand men were killed on the blackest day of the war | the future looks black for those of us interested in freedom.
• (of a person's state of mind) full of gloom or misery; very depressed : Jean had disappeared and Mary was in a black mood.
• (of humor) presenting tragic or harrowing situations in comic terms : “Good place to bury the bodies,” she joked with black humor.
• full of anger or hatred : Roger shot her a black look.
• evil or wicked : my soul is steeped in the blackest sin.
While some people of African descent, for clarity, have replaced the term, "Black" with "African," still others of African descent find being considered "African" an offense, because they have been socialized to not respect their own culture and falsely view Africans as savage or uncivilized. In this vein, the definition of "Gay" as "distasteful" should probably be abandoned.
I am tired of seeing brothers like Isaiah Washington and Roland Martin lose their jobs because they offended the gay community in some way. In my opinion, this is creating an antagonistic environment between blacks and gays.
you can call the president of the united states a monkey, hitler draw all kinds of ugly pictures of him. but yet if one of your contractors say a WORD ABOUT A JEW OR A HOMOSEXUAL HE MUST APOLOGIZE AND BE FIRED.