As KTVU’s suspension of popular anchor Frank Somerville continues to provoke a social media uproar, the incident has raised more questions than answers.

Somerville, 63, was “suspended indefinitely” last week by Channel 2 management after a disagreement with KTVU’s news director over coverage of the Gabby Petito homicide case. He was not on the air Sunday night and wasn’t expected to be back Monday. It’s not clear when he might return — if ever.

The disagreement, said sources at KTVU who declined to give their names because they were not authorized to go on the record, occurred when news director Amber Eikel rejected Somerville’s proposal to tack a brief commentary about racial inequity onto a straight news update of the Petito story. Somerville had wanted to point out the glaring disparities in media coverage of White crime victims versus people of color.

While not necessarily dismissing the validity of Somerville’s proposal, Eikel and newsroom producers concluded that it wasn’t the proper time or place to run the “tagline,” which would have taken less than a minute of airtime.

Somerville apparently protested the cut and was overruled. The following day, Somerville was informed that he was being suspended.

Meanwhile, the conflict has sparked outrage from Somerville supporters who believe he is being censored and that KTVU is perpetrating “missing White woman syndrome,” a term coined by the late PBS anchor Gwen Ifill to describe the media’s often lopsided focus on the disappearance of White women and girls.

But others have sided with the station, insisting that Somerville is “paid to report the news, not his opinion.”

What isn’t known is how heated the newsroom spat became or what exactly was said — and if this is an ongoing trend between Somerville and management.

One KTVU source, requesting anonymity, bluntly described the newsroom environment as “a total (expletive) show.”

Complicating the situation is KTVU’s long-standing practice of refusing to publicly address such matters. Both Somerville and Eikel have declined to speak on the record, and repeated calls to a company spokesperson have gone unanswered as of this writing.

This is par for the course at KTVU. When Somerville abruptly left a June 3 newscast in which he slurred his words, four days passed before Victoria Gurrieri, a New York-based spokesperson for Fox — the network that owns and operates KTVU — finally announced that he was taking some time off “to focus on his health.”

And when Somerville returned to the anchor desk nine weeks later, neither he nor the station addressed his lengthy absence.

It’s a stance that stands in stark contrast with Somerville’s typically open approach to interacting with the public. The veteran anchor has a history of expressing his personal opinions — often passionately — on social media, and it has paid off in a massive fandom.

For example, no Bay Area TV news personality can match his reach on Facebook, where he has nearly 600,000 followers. (Julie Haener, his Channel 2 co-anchor, has 33,000.)

That fan base is obviously a major plus for Somerville — and KTVU. But his openness can also be a source of friction. In reporting about Somerville’s suspension, The Chronicle cited sources who said he recently had been disciplined by KTVU for what the station deemed to be inappropriate political opinions about the new Texas abortion law and the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Somerville’s suspension comes just six weeks after his return to the anchor desk and will undoubtedly trigger speculation about his future with the station. Raised in the Bay Area, Somerville joined KTVU in 1991 and inherited the anchor position from KTVU icon Dennis Richmond in 2008. He and Haener continue to preside over the top-rated nightly newscast in the Bay Area, so he obviously carries some clout.

Somerville’s contract is up in March. He has said in the past that he wants to work “two or three more years” and would like to finish his career at KTVU. That goal now could be in danger.