Glenn Beck unleashed a torrent of invective against CNN's Roland Martin — who is under fire for a series of tweets which some have said are anti-gay — on his Tuesday radio show.
Martin has come under fire for several messages making fun of men who may have liked an underwear commercial starring David Beckham. One tweet said that people should "smack the ish out" of such men. Gay rights group GLAAD initially called for Martin's firing. Martin eventually apologized for any "offense" he may have caused.
Beck was clearly in a deeply uncharitable mood, at least when it came to Martin. He said he had known Martin when the two were at CNN together, and proceeded to criticize him in aggressively nasty terms.
The radio host called Martin "a dope," an "idiot," and a "bad guy," among other things. "He's harmless because you see him coming a mile away," Beck said. "You're like, 'really, Roland, you think that you're fooling anybody? You're a clown.'"
Beck and his co-hosts agreed that the tweets could only be interpreted as anti-gay statements. He smacked down Martin's claim that he was mocking soccer fans, calling it "the most ridiculous thing" to say.
He also pointed to Martin's history of dicey statements about gay people, and said, "If they're in context, the guy clearly, clearly has issues."
Beck agreed that Martin should be fired from CNN for "a myriad of reasons," including that "he's an idiot." But he said he did not support GLAAD's call to fire Martin for the offending tweets. "You don't fire people for what they say in their personal life or what they happen to believe," he said. "You fire them because they're idiots."