Roland Sebastian Martin is an American journalist. He was a commentator for TV One, the host of News One Now, and Washington on Watch With Roland S. Martin. He was also a CNN contributor, appearing on a variety of shows, including The Situation Room, Anderson Cooper's AC360, and many others. In October 2008, he joined the Tom Joyner Morning Show as senior analyst. Books authored by Martin include Speak, Brother! A Black Man's View of America, Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith and The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin.
Life and career
Martin was born in Houston, Texas. His maternal great-grandparents had migrated from Haiti to Louisiana, where his family originates. He graduated with a B.S. in journalism from Texas A&M University and a master's degree in Christian communications from Louisiana Baptist University. He is the former executive editor of the Chicago Defender. Martin hosts a morning radio talk show on WVON in Chicago, and was with CNN as a contributor from 2007 to 2013. He guest-hosted while Brown was on maternity leave in April and May 2009. He became the host of TV One's first Sunday News show Washington Watch with Roland Martin in 2009. It ran for 4 years and is currently off the air. In March 2013, Martin announced on Twitter that he was leaving CNN. His last day was on April 6, 2013. It was announced on July 9, 2013, that Martin would be the host of TV One's first live one-hour, weekday morning news program titled News One Now. The program premiered on November 4, 2013. On December 7, 2017, Martin announced on air that TV One had canceled the show due to low ratings from Black viewers, but that he would still remain involved with the network. On January 14, 2018, it was announced that Martin had won two NAACP Image Awards for the show. Also, Roland hosted a three-hour radio show called The Roland Martin Show. He currently hosts a web series, Roland Martin Unfiltered on YouTube.
Issues
Martin has defended Michael Steele and other black Republicans against charges of being "Uncle Toms", arguing that the label is inappropriate.
Controversy
On February 5, 2012, Roland Martin's Twitter account responded to an underwear advertisement featuring the association football playerDavid Beckham, stating "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!" GLAAD responded on its website: “Martin’s tweets today advocating violence against gay people weren’t an accident — they are a part of a larger pattern for Martin. Anti-gay violence in America is a serious problem". In response to the tweets, it was reported that Roland Martin had been suspended by CNN for the controversial remarks. His suspension was lifted on March 14, 2012. In 2016 Martin was revealed to have leaked CNN town hall questions to former DNC Chair Donna Brazile, who then leaked them to Hillary Clinton's camp when he was acting as guest-moderator. According to Politico, in an email the day before the March town hall to senior Clinton staffers, then DNC Chair Donna Brazile wrote: “From time to time I get the questions in advance” and included the text of a question about the death penalty. An email later obtained by Politico showed that the text of the question Brazile sent to the Clinton campaign was identical to a proposed question Martin had offered CNN.
