CNN Also Stops Booking White Commentators for Controversial Comments
When CNN contributor Roland Martin got suspended for what many perceived to be a homophobic tweet during the Super Bowl, some wondered why he got punished for his off-hours comments but others, like Taliban-corpse-hater Dana Loesch, don't. Could race (Martin is black; Loesch, white) have been an issue as some commentators wondered? Today we have an answer -- though only a partial one.
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Per research from Politico's Dylan Byers, we learn today that CNN quietly stopped booking Loesch for appearances from January 12 to January 30 after she caused controversy for giving "a million cool points" on her radio show to the U.S. soldiers photographed urinating on dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Martin, on the other hand, was formally suspended for telling Super Bowl viewers to "smack the ish out of" any guy who liked David Beckham's underwear ad -- not because they might be gay, but, as Martin later claimed, but because they might be soccer fans.
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The two commentators' somewhat equal treatment suggests CNN is being consistant about policing its contributors' tweets, but then why did the network formally suspend Martin and not Loesch, especially when Loesch never recanted her remarks? CNN declined to comment to Byers, so whatever accounts for the unequal punishments remains a mystery.
