Earlier today the news broke that CNN contributor Roland Martin will not be appearing on the network indefinitely for what GLAAD perceived to be a homophobic tweet. Despite his personal ideological bent, the reaction from the conservative media was a swift defense of the longtime CNN pundit. But the conservative reaction to Martin’s suspension is no surprise because the conservative movement has long abandoned the left/right divide for a new war front: that between individuals and the media elite.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has called out columnist and CNN contributor Roland Martin for a Tweet he made during last night’s Super Bowl.

There are some topics around here at Mediaite, like Kim Kardashian and Snooki, that only end up here tangentially, much to the chagrin of those of us that would rather talk about more dignified things like Mitt Romney doing laundry and Sarah Palin‘s Facebook doodles. But outside of his feuds with the diminutive Jersey Shore star, Gov. Chris Christie is a beloved and respected political entity who may be our next-next president. If we report it every time Christie entertainingly yells insults at random people, surely a scrape with Snooki merits attention.

Roseanne Barr’s candidacy for the Green Party’s presidential nomination is off to an auspicious start with her bid drawing a shout-out from the star of Nickelodeon’s hit show iCarly, Jennette McCurdy.

Donald Trump is a reality TV personality who was the frontrunner in national Republican polls last February. That was back when his “people in Hawaii” “couldn’t believe” the stuff they were finding about the President’s birth certificate, creating a national idiom (“Where did you hear that silly rumor, Donald Trump’s people in Hawaii?”). Then Seth Meyers killed Trump’s presidential hopes, but the ghost still haunts us today, and refuses to go away. Tomorrow, in Las Vegas, Trump has promised a “major announcement,” on pertaining to the Republican race.

Early Wednesday morning, Nicole Polizzi — known to legions of reality TV fans as “Snooki” from Jersey Shore, or, “the one who was arrested after being drunk on a beach in the middle of the day” –sent out a tweet voicing her non-endorsement of New Jersey governor Chris Christie:

Jake Tapper took RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to task for comparing President Obama to Captain Francesco Schettino, the Italian captain of the Costa Concordia. “Help me out here,” Tapper tweeted. “It’s ok to make light of horrific ship crashes if the people who died weren’t Americans?” He added the hashtag, “#stayclassy”

Much has been written in the past few days about concerns over Google’s new privacy settings, with some even theorizing that this was the final nail in the coffin for the company’s much hyped “don’t be evil” policy. However, it now seems that another big tech company may be making an even bigger and more discomforting shift in policy. For the past few years, during the enormous uprisings and protests across the world, one of the main threads has been how essential Twitter has been to the proceedings. Well, we’ll see if that continues now that the social media platform has announced that they will be giving governments the ability to “withhold” tweets from their citizens.

In order to reach young people these days, companies often have to utilize social media to promote their brand, but one of the inherent dangers of using Twitter is that the message can quickly come right out of your hands and get hijacked by other users in a flash. McDonald’s learned this the hard way this past week when it launched its #McDStories Twitter campaign.

If you’ve been wondering how exactly Twitter has revolutionized the way we experience politics, look no further than this photo to prove the point. This, we are led to believe by the Twitter account of Mitt Romney‘s son, Tagg, is his father, doing laundry on the day of the South Carolina primary. There is so much that can be said about Mitt Romney performing this commoner’s task that we figure it’s best to let you all have at it. The “dad” jeans, the gingerly dangling of the Tide powder box over the bottomless pit of dirty clothes, the meticulous passing of the paper towel over the top of the machine, so as to ensure not a drop of detergent falls where it doesn’t belong– there is a lot happening here to be amused by. The younger Romney must have sensed this, as he tweeted it out with the caption, “Nothing like the glamorous life on the road.”

Today, January 18th, is an important day. It’s the day that a number of huge Internet properties band together in an unprecedented show of unity to defeat a common foe and protect the freedom of information from encroaching political and corporate hoards. It’s also, apparently for some, the day right before that big History test. Yes, as websites like Wikipedia and Reddit shut down for the day to protest SOPA and PIPA, many students are tweeting angrily about their inability to study. Some of those tweets have been collected and, as you imagine, it’s a pretty hilariously awful list.

Former governor Sarah Palin has some strong words concerning the writer of Newsweek‘s most recent cover story, which asks “Why Are Obama’s Critics So Dumb?”

A series of homophobic and racist tweets were sent out by the Huffington Post’s Twitter account on Sunday. The tweets jabbed Wes Anderson, used the N-word and claimed the publication was hacked by The New York Post. “The New York Post rules!” exclaimed one of the anarchic tweets. Read the missives the hacker sent out [...]

Like every election, the 2012 race has given us a chance to really see who has strength in their convictions. We’ve discussed the accusations that Mitt Romney completely flipped some of his personal beliefs just to become the GOP candidate and talked about the way Ron Paul has never strayed from his ideals over the years and just how that can both hurt and help him. But Ron Paul’s desires to, say, legalize heroin are nothing compared to the way Buddy Roemer has handicapped himself. In a time when you can’t make a dent in the campaign without millions upon millions of dollars, Roemer won’t accept any donations over $100. Instead, he’s asking voters to donate their Tweets.

Congress is set to return later this month, and one of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation it will be facing is the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill was authored by Republican Lamar Smith, and has received bipartisan support and opposition in the House. There has been a lot of talk about internet- and technology-based companies that support the bill, including GoDaddy (up until recently) and the video game industry.

Controversial Wegmans pitchman and 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin has rejoined Twitter after deactivating it following last month’s incident on an American Airlines flight, where he was ejected from the plane after playing Words With Friends against the wishes of the crew.

It is difficult at this juncture in the political process to imagine that the 2012 Republican primaries can get more outrageous than they have been for the past year, and yet every day brings a new, unexpected twist to the drama. This morning comes the news that fashion icon/legendary drag queen RuPaul is getting in on the action in New Hampshire. Sick of being confused for Rep. Ron Paul, apparently, RuPaul is “campaigning” in a New Hampshire diner this morning (in Ferragamo!) to distinguish himself from the libertarian top-tier candidate.

We’re pretty preoccupied with the election over here but we should all remember that there’s another big even coming up in 2012 that’s not just important to America but to the entire world. And, no, I’m not talking about its fiery destruction come December; I’m talking about the Olympics! It’s that time again and one athlete has come up with a very 2012 way of raising money for his expensive training costs. American Track and Field star Nick Symmonds will be holding an eBay auction and will tattoo the Twitter handle of the winner onto his arm when he competes.

It’s pretty brilliant but I’ve got to imagine the guy will be kicking himself once someone tells him Kickstarter exists.

Surging Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum downplayed President Obama‘s role in the good news that the unemployment rate fell to 8.5% in December, the lowest level in three years. According to a tweet by Politico‘s Dave Catanese, Santorum claimed unemployment was dropping as a result of widespread “optimism that Republicans will take the White House.”

Jon Huntsman‘s relationship with the media personally– as if his moderate stances were not enough– stands out among Republican contenders for its cordiality. And for those who thought only the candidate felt that way, top Huntsman fundraiser Ann Herberger made it clear tonight that there’s something very bipartisan in the water over at Huntsman HQ. The Weekly Standard, among many conservative Twitter viewers, quickly noticed that, after a fairly favorable segment on Huntsman on The Rachel Maddow Show, Herberger responded in kind, telling Rachel Maddow that she was her “new hero.”

The night after Iowa has been spent on cable news mostly interviewing candidates about their results there, and probing them on problematic issues. Piers Morgan opened his program tonight with a chat with Rep. Ron Paul, in which he asked the candidate to assess his performance and challenged him on his weaknesses. He also brought up a gaffe from earlier in the week– a mocking tweet at Jon Huntsman Rep. Paul claimed not to know about, and scolded Rep. Paul for being uninformed about it– as Huntsman himself looked on.

If you thought the battle between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney* for top spot in Iowa was the roughest exchange of the night, you should probably start following some cable news personalities on Twitter. This time, it was Piers Morgan and Keith Olbermann who found themselves locking antlers via social media because of tonight’s Iowa caucus

In perhaps the biggest lapse in Twitter’s verification history, the Wendi_Deng Twitter account, purporting to be News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch‘s wife, has been confirmed as a fake. “It’s time to confirm that yes, this is a fake account,” revealed the impostor in a tweet. “I’m not Wendi.”

After joining the unwashed masses of the Twitterati just this past weekend, media mogul Rupert Murdoch discovered the downsides of telling the whole world what’s on your mind on a moment’s whim. Murdoch slammed Brits for taking too many holidays despite the poor economy: “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!” RELATED: Rupert [...]

Actor Don Cheadle, who has managed to help bring us both the heartbreaking Hotel Rwanda and the perplexing Hotel for Dogs, is currently in such a situation. In an interview with Jet magazine, Cheadle, who has a new TV show coming out soon, shared that he believes President Barack Obama “inherited an impossible situation. I wish he had not been so much of a consensus-seeker. I just wanted to see a more ‘gangsta’ president.”