BBC, Sky News and CNN Grapple With Twitter Rules

The BBC, Sky News and CNN are trying to figure out how to make Twitter play nicely with traditional newsrooms. Sky News and the BBC released new social media guidelines this week, while CNN has suspended an analyst for controversial tweets.

The BBC's new rules require journalists to file a story and tweet simultaneously instead of tweeting before submitting a story. According to a report from The Guardian, the rules apply to all the company's corespondents.

The new policy is designed to get stories into the editorial process as quickly as possible.

"We prize the increasing value of Twitter, and other social networks, to us (and our audiences) as a platform for our content, a newsgathering tool and a new way of engaging with people," the BBC's social media editor told The Guardian. "Being quick off the mark with breaking news is essential to that mission. But we've been clear that our first priority remains ensuring that important information reaches BBC colleagues, and thus all our audiences, as quickly as possible – and certainly not after it reaches Twitter."

The BBC's updated social media rules come a day after Sky News instructed its writers not to retweet anything from rival organizations or outside a particular reporter's beat. That means a Sky News journalist covering, say, national politics couldn't tweet about his or her favorite soccer club on a personal account.

Sky News cited similar reasons for its new Twitter policies, while adding that content retweeted from other news outlets have not been vetted by the company's own internal editorial process.

In an email seen by The Guardian, the company says that news desks have learned "from Twitter details that should have been first passed on to them."

The new social media rules of Sky News seek "to ensure that our journalism is joined up across platforms, there is sufficient editorial control of stories reported by Sky News journalists and that the news desks remain the central hub for information going out on all our stories."

Meanwhile, CNN's Roland Martin was suspended by the company Wednesday in response to a series of controversial tweets he sent during Sunday's Super Bowl. Many gay rights organizations took offense to Martin's comments about soccer star David Beckham's H&M commercial and a New England Patriots player's pink jumpsuit.

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

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

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

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 5, 2012

Roland was almost immediately lambasted by Twitter users for those tweets. He defended himself by claiming that he was making fun of soccer fans, not gay people.

I made several cracks about soccer as I do all the time. I was not referring to sexuality directly or indirectly regarding the David Beckham

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 6, 2012

However, that wasn't enough to prevent CNN from suspending Roland.

"Roland Martin's tweets were regrettable and offensive," said CNN in a statement. "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."

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RomanOkopny