Bozell Column: Hollywood's Gay-Marriage Thank You Card

So Barack Obama declared he’s all for “gay marriage.” Really, was anyone surprised? Did anyone doubt it? Still, it’s official, and Obama is now the rental property of Hollywood. Obama’s doing all sorts of fundraisers with Hollywood and Manhattan millionaires and billionaires to get re-elected, the latest at George Clooney’s mansion. One of every six of his “bundlers” is openly homosexual.

At the start of this drama, Vice President Biden openly declared (accidentally or not) he was entirely comfortable with men marrying men and women marrying women, and credited Hollywood. “When things really began to change is when the social culture changes,” Biden syntax-garbled on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He added, with a nod toward NBC, “I think ‘Will & Grace’ probably did more to educate the American public than almost anybody’s ever done so far. People fear that which is different. Now they’re beginning to understand.”

So let’s get this straight. Network executives and TV critics and their public-policy defenders have insisted for decades that raunchy TV shows have zero effect on the audience (including young children), and that complainers are paranoid to accuse the networks of promoting a social or sexual agenda. Then, when the president “evolves” to support “gay marriage,” the politicians send Thank You cards to Tinseltown for “opening the minds” of the masses.

What does he think NBC is? “Masterpiece Theatre”? They began airing “Will and Grace” in 1998 at 9:30, then moved it into the family hour. This was the kind of sexual raunch they promoted as comedy, and which our Vice President presumably considered “educational” for families.

– The most outrageously gay character Jack announced he needed "a new pair of shoes, preferably with a six-foot, gorgeous hunk of man in them." Later, he took Will and Grace's dog for a walk in the park, where he said the dog "checked out butts and I checked out butts."

– Jack joked: "I get a little funny in the tummy around the Washington Monument."

– Jack said he and a boyfriend had agreed to attend the Greenwich Village Halloween parade. "We had a whole Biblical thing planned," Jack explained to Will. "We were gonna go as Adam and Steve." Later, as Jack left for the parade, Will lectured, "Don't put anything in your mouth that isn't wrapped."

On the day Obama proclaimed his change of heart, The New York Times published a promotional front-page article headlined “Gay TV: It’s All In the Family.” Readers were treated to “Modern Family” co-creator Christopher Lloyd asserting “What this is about, really, is how far America has come, not how far television has come.”

Inside the paper were large pictures of two marrying women on “Grey’s Anatomy” and two gay men with their adopted toddler on “Modern Family.” In large text, the Times proclaimed “An implicit recasting of the American family is welcomed by viewers.” They claimed complaints “barely ever bubble to the surface.”

How desperately did the Times want to hide the traditionalist view? Reporter Brian Stelter claimed “Mitt Romney is known to be a fan of ‘Modern Family,’ and a Catholic group gave it a media award this month.”

But when the Times linked to evidence Romney loves “Modern Family,” their own story only claimed that young Romney aide Garrett Jackson recommended the show to him, and Romney got Jackson hooked on “Friday Night Lights,” the canceled high-school football drama.

As for the “Catholic” group awarding a pro-gay show, this same “Catholic In Media Associates” (for entertainment industry insiders) had previously honored both “Glee” and “Ugly Betty,” two other “educational” shows promoting homosexuality. If that’s a Catholic church group, then Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are Catholics in good standing, and Kathleen Sebelius hasn’t been excommunicated.

The Times writer did not explain one reason gay characters can be portrayed as “welcomed by viewers” is that any audience of any size can be generalized into a groundswell of mainstream support if the press wants it so. Just how much of a blockbuster, how popular, is Fox’s “Glee,” the current rage of Hollywood? Well, it’s drawing six million viewers, what we are to believe is an avalanche. But in a nation of 311 million, that means 98 percent of Americans aren’t watching.

Obviously, Hollywood has played a part in eroding America’s moral character on “gay marriage.” It’s about time somebody admitted that Hollywood isn’t just persuading people into buying Wrigley’s Gum or McDonald’s burgers. In between the commercials, they’re selling a radical devolution in moral standards.