NBC's New Hire Lisa Bloom Once Implied Prop 8 Supporters are 'Lunatic-Fringe Bigots'
MediaBistro's TVNewser blog reported on Thursday that NBC's Today hired former CNN legal analyst Lisa Bloom as their new legal analyst. Bloom, the only child of notorious celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, is a chip off her mother's block, given her liberal record both on the air and online, particularly on the issue of same-sex "marriage".
The attorney blasted California's voter-approved Proposition 8 in a January 28, 2010 editorial for CNN.com titled "Prop 8 is simply unconstitutional." Bloom used personal anecdotes to contrast "reckless heterosexual nuptials" with the 16-year relationship of her friends Wilbert and Carlos, who, in her words, are "second-class citizens in their own country." She dropped the inflammatory hint at Prop 8 supporters later in her piece:
Our gay and lesbian friends and neighbors are entitled to respect for their private lives, and the state cannot demean their existence, even by majority vote. Seven out of 10 Americans supported laws banning interracial marriage at the time our president’s black father and white mother married.
But the Supreme Court knew that our federal Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law was a bedrock American principle that sometimes requires the courts to lead, and so lead they did, striking down antimiscegenation laws in 1967. Now, only lunatic-fringe bigots would support those laws.
My favorite anti-Prop 8 placard read: “When do I get to vote on your marriage?” Same-sex marriage may be a politically volatile and complex issue, but as a matter of federal constitutional law, it’s simple: Fundamental rights must be granted equally across the board to all American citizens. Equal means equal. The rest, constitutionally speaking, is just noise.
Bloom also voiced her support for the left-wing homosexual lobby during a May 27, 2009 on-air segment on CNN:
LISA BLOOM: I think it’s a huge civil rights issue, and this is the first court ruling that I'm aware of that says that a majority vote – a bare majority vote, can take away the constitutional rights of a protected minority group. You know, Brown versus Board of Education was very unpopular at the time. It wasn't up for a majority vote, and not – neither have any of the civil rights of American minorities ever been up for a popular vote. That's the beauty of our constitutional system. So this is – that's why it doesn't surprise me that Ted Olson and David Boies have joined together now to make a federal civil rights case out of it.
The liberal attorney also once served as a legal analyst for CBS. The MRC's Kyle Drennen pointed out the "outrageous generalization" Bloom made when she likened male police officers to convicted murderers on the February 21, 2008 edition of The Early Show.
