CNN suspends Roland Martin over Super Bowl tweets

Roland Martin, the CNN commentator, tweets a lot. On Super Bowl Sunday, he tweeted even more -- about the game, about the commercials, about Kelly Clarkson's well-regarded version of the National Anthem not being as good as Whitney Houston's or Marvin Gaye's.

Among his tweets were these: "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl" and "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.

The tweets raised the ire of gay-rights advocates, many of which sent their objections directly to his open Twitter feed. Martin shot back, saying that his Beckham tweet wasn't homophobic, it was just another example of him "cracking on soccer," which he'd been doing all day, and told people who objected to the tweets to read his entire timeline to get some context.

On Monday, though, Martin -- who is a former Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter -- issued an apology on his Roland Martin Reports website. Here's how it starts:

"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.

That is furthest from the truth, and I sincerely regret any offense my words have caused.

I have consistently said on television, radio, and in print, that I am steadfast against bullying. As I wrote on CNN.com, as well as said on the nationally-syndicated Dr. Phil Show, I believe parents and schools need to take an active role in ending this epidemic that afflicts kids nationwide, gay or not.

In fact, I was bullied in school, and watched another middle schooler pulled a knife on my father when he boarded our school bus and came to the defense of me and my brother. My position has been unequivocal on this issue, and will remain so."

GLAAD, which was one of the groups calling for an apology, reported on the apology but said that it didn't go far enough, and has been calling for Martin to meet with advocacy groups.

This afternoon, The Washington Post and others reported that CNN had suspended Martin in the wake of the remarks. The Post's Erik Wemple quotes this CNN statement: "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.”

But Martin is still tweeting -- granted, some of it looks like an auto-feed into his Twitter timeline, but that doesn't make him any less vocal on Twitter. During the time it took me to write this post, three new tweets appeared in Martin's timeline. One of them is about a victim in a filmed anti-gay beating speaking up for his rights.