12News, Florida: Marriage is 'Controversial' In Florida

A short section of the run down of the winning and losing Amendments in Florida contained a perfect example of liberal slant. In this case, a Channel 12 News piece reports on the passage of Amendment Two, an assurance that marriage shall be defined as between one man and one woman only. (For a full definition of Amendment Two, see Ballotpedia.org)

As far as News 12 is concerned, Amendment Two is "the most controversial, but it sure doesn’t seem like the people of Florida agree with channel 12 -- which is a bit of a controversy in itself there.

The most controversial-- the Florida marriage protection amendment. Voters in Florida decided to identify marriage as the union between a man and a woman, nothing else-- banning gay marriage and extra benefits for domestic partnerships. Florida will now be one of approximately 30 states with a definition of marriage in its constitution.

It's "controversial," TV 12? Apparently, however, it isn't so controversial to the citizens of The Sunshine State because Amendment Two passed with about 62% of the vote. So, as we can see, a strong majority passed Amendment Two in Florida.

Now, it may be seen as controversial by those that oppose a law that states that marriage shall be only between one man and one woman, but that group stands decidedly in the minority. And, since it is a minority that finds it controversial and not a majority that finds it so... it really isn't controversial much at all. After all, for something to be controversial in the sense that TV 12 is using the term, there has to be far more argument than 38% annoyed with the theme.

Certainly "controversy" can be applied to any idea that finds more than one stated opinion. If I say the sky is blue and you say it is whitish-blue, we have a controversy in the strictest sense of the word. But when applied to a societal issue, something ceases to be much of a controversy once numbers overwhelmingly favor a single idea. If 62% of the people in Florida agreed with me, for instance, that the sky is blue, your claim that it is whitish-blue is suddenly less of a controversy than it was when it was a 50/50 split between just the two of us.

This is the case in Florida where a mere 38% disagreed with Amendment Two. This makes it not much of a controversy at all in the electoral sense. Yet, TV 12 had to make it a point to call this Amendment "the most controversial" one on the ballot.

And Florida isn’t alone in seeing this issue as pretty uncontroversial. 30 states now have passed similar bills and Amendments to constitutions all across the land. Even nationally, this issue isn’t so controversial since the largest number of Americans stand against gay marriage and against the alteration of traditional marriage.

The truth of the matter is, Amendment Two might seem controversial to the media, but it didn't to the voting public of the State of Florida.