Same-sex marriage

This morning (saved here at host for future reference), Philip Elliott and Kasie Hunt at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, demonstrated how apparatchik propagandists work.

In their recast of reality, it's Mitt Romney whose presidential campaign has been focused on gay rights, not Barack Obama, his administration, his campaign, and the lapdog establishment press which have been obsessed with it for days. As to the 5,400-word hit piece prepared by Jason Horowitz and published in the Washington Post on early Thursday which portrayed an incident Romney says he does not recall during which he allegedly forcibly cut a classmate's hair against his will with the assistance of others -- It's "a news report" about which there are no stated doubts (there are lots of' em). Samples of the AP pair's misdirection and opportunism follow (bolds are mine):

Obama booster Gayle King attacked conservative Dennis Prager on Thursday's CBS This Morning for his opposition to same-sex "marriage." King channeled the left by equating such opposition to opposing desegregation: "You recently wrote...that you can be against same-sex marriage and not be anti-gay...it's sort of like saying to a black person...I want you to sit at the back of the bus, but I'm not anti-black." [audio available here; video clip below the jump]

The morning show slanted in general towards the cultural left by bringing on three supporters of same-sex "marriage" or civil unions: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; Chris Hughes, the publisher of The New Republic; and Max Mutchnick, co-creator of the TV show "Will and Grace," which was recently cited by Vice President Joe Biden as he announced his support of the redefinition of marriage on Sunday's Meet The Press. Hughes and Mutchnick are both open homosexuals.

After President Obama publicly supported gay marriage on Wednesday, CNN continued its cheerleading well into Wednesday evening, including a happy interview of openly-gay congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) where he proudly showed the audience his engagement ring.

During CNN's 6-9 p.m. coverage, 9 of the guests voiced their support of President Obama's position on-air, while only two objected. Another guest, Mike Signorile, did not give verbal support but writes for the Huffington Post "Gay Voices" blog and has called for President Obama to "kick down the closet door" and publicly support same-sex marriage. [Video below the break. Audio here.]

On ABC's World News, Wednesday, Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts hyped Barack Obama's endorsement of gay marriage as a "historic," "riveting" "cultural event." The exclusive interview played more as an infomercial for the President, featuring long stretches of Obama talking with no pesky, interrupting questions.

Anchor Diane Sawyer enthused, "Well, as we said this is a historic cultural and political event in this country." In the tease for the interview, Sawyer trumpeted, "Tonight on World News, a historic ABC News interview. President Obama takes a stand on same sex marriage." In the segment, Roberts didn't push the President on why his "evolution" took 17 months.

To get reaction to President Obama's flip-flop on gay marriage, Thursday's NBC Today brought on openly gay left-wing MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, who quickly attacked Republicans on the issue: "It's a very, very conservative Republican Party on this issue....Mitt Romney, who wants to roll back gay rights nationwide."

Co-host Ann Curry helped Maddow along by asking series of questions from the left:  "...[Obama's] leaving it to the states, there's no movement to do something federally, in terms of making a change, I mean, what actually changes?....Is it clear, though, that this will not satisfy gay marriage activists?...that there's going to be an increase in their demands to push this further forward? Have it be on the platforms for the Democratic Party?"

New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney departed from his L.A.-beat to comment on Obama's announcement yesterday in support of gay marriage, and didn't hedge on its "historic significance." The president's statement, delivered to ABC reporter Robin Roberts, predictably led Thursday's edition, and Nagourney's "news analysis" also made the front: "A Watershed Move, Both Risky and Inevitable."

President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage on Wednesday was by any measure a watershed. A sitting United States president took sides in what many people consider the last civil rights movement, providing the most powerful evidence to date of how rapidly views are moving on an issue that was politically toxic just five years ago.

In a panel discussion on Thursday's NBC Today about President Obama announcing his support for gay marriage on Wednesday, co-host Savannah Guthrie confessed to the group of all liberal pundits: "...so many people in the media seem to uniformly support same-sex marriage." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

That fact was made blatantly obvious by the discussion that preceded Guthrie's admission. The panel featured openly gay CNBC host Suze Orman, who voiced her support of the President's move: "Yeah, part of me is like, 'What took you so long, President Obama?' This is something that should have been done, in my opinion anyway – obviously, I would think that – a long time ago."

In a rather blatant show of a double standard, CNN's Soledad O'Brien interrupted and grilled the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins over his opposition to same-sex marriage, but she gave an exceedingly soft interview to a guest who was "elated" at President Obama's open support of same-sex marriage. The interviews kicked off Thursday's 7 a.m. hour of Starting Point.

CNN was quite one-sided in its Wednesday afternoon coverage of Obama's announcement in favor of gay marriage, and O'Brien simply carried that bias into Thursday morning. She sought the "reaction" of guest Mitchell Gold to the President's remarks, and Gold told her he was "still elated" and lauded the President's "courageous" action. [Video below the break. Audio here]

Good Morning America's Robin Roberts on Thursday made little effort to hide the excitement she felt when Barack Obama came out in support for gay marriage. Touting her exclusive interview with the President, Roberts marveled that, just talking about it, "I'm getting chills again." She added that the moment "was not lost on anyone" who was in the White House, Wednesday.

Co-anchor George Stephanopoulos hyped the "watershed moment." Roberts deemed it to be the President's "historic stand." During the GMA segment, she offered several softball questions, including one about Mother's Day. On people who might actually oppose gay marriage, Roberts could only manage: "You realize there are going to be some people that are going to be saying [you made this decision for political gain]. Do you see where some people might consider that the same thing?"  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Yesterday morning, the Washington Post published a drawing by Tom Toles in which the liberal cartoonist depicts a minister marrying two men, with the speech bubble reading, "If anyone here objects to the marriage of these two men, speak up now because opponents are aging and dying off and soon won't matter anymore..."

In his trademark depiction of himself in the corner reacting to the graphic, Toles depicts himself asking "Is it okay to yell 'Hurry Up'?" So to borrow from the former Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson (Fla.),  does Tom Toles want same-sex marriage opponents to "die quickly"? [Cartoon depicted below page break]

"Do You Believe Obama Actually Changed His Mind About Gay Marriage?"

That was the question posed in the title of a column written by Slate editor David Plotz. And here is his succinct answer:

I don’t.

In sharp contrast to the misty-eyed hallelujahs offered up by most of the mainstream media in the wake of President Obama's "evolution" to the point where he announced his support of gay marriage, Plotz remains extremely skeptical about his supposed conversion:

National Public Radio did a classic pirouette of one-sidedness on All Things Considered Wednesday night. For comment on Obama' s "evolution" on gay marriage, NPR invited only a "leading advocate of same-sex marriage," gay activist-pundit Andrew Sullivan, now writing for Newsweek/The Daily Beast. There is no time for the social conservatives, just the gays.

Sullivan oozed about Obama: "I think he let go of fear today, the fear that somehow by embracing this natural, obvious and I would say conservative development he was sometimes -- somehow embracing political calamity. He wasn't, he isn't, he won't." NPR anchor Audie Cornish asked him if this was about fundraising, but he just praised Obama's (and America's) evolution:

On Wednesday's Piers Morgan Tonight, CNN host Piers Morgan mocked Catholic League president Bill Donohue's declaration that Catholicism demands that gay children should still be loved by their parents by suggesting in a later segment that he would have more respect for Donohue's opposition to gay marriage if he would just claim to "hate" homosexuals instead of being "wishy washy." Morgan:

The print and online guardians in the establishment press may have to open a new case of ellipses and order extra pairs of paraphrases to deal with this one. Video and audio editing will be easier, if not ethical (NBC has taught us that during the past several weeks).

Declaring what everyone with a functioning brain has known all along -- namely that President Barack Obama supports same-sex marriage but hasn't had the political integrity to admit as much until now -- the commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces told ABC News that "when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines (sic) or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married." Yes, he said that our military is out there fighting on his behalf (links are later in this post; HT to an emailer).

It didn't take long after President Obama voiced his support for same-sex marriage for CNN to gauge the enthusiasm of those in favor of the move. After the news broke at 3 p.m Wednesday, the first three guests CNN interviewed were all openly-gay and supported Obama's decision. It took well over two hours for a guest to appear who opposed the decision.

And in the three hours of coverage following Obama's "historic" announcement, five of CNN's guests expressed their support for his decision. Only one, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, opposed it. And the three openly-gay guests were pampered with soft questions, like "What was your first reaction" and "Did you start to cry?"

President Obama once again flipflopped on his position regarding same-sex marriage Wednesday, and his adoring media couldn't be more pleased.

On MSNBC, Hardball's Chris Matthews actually called for "gay men and women who now work for the election of Republican members of Congress, Senators, and [Mitt] Romney himself...to stand up, walk in the direction of their bosses and candidates, and ask them to join the president on this" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

President Barack Obama has apparently completed his evolution on gay marriage.   On CNN Newsroom's 3:00 pm segment today, anchor Brooke Baldwin spoke with chief national correspondent John King on the subject and he began by noting "we should say up front it's a bold, personal choice for the president to decide to do this publicly."  His analysis included what he perceives as possible risks:

Critically to me, Brooke, in this calculation, African-Americans and Latinos. Many Latinos who are Catholics. They go to Catholic Church, where their priest tells them every Sunday homosexuality isn't just wrong, it's evil. That's what their priest tells them. It's evil.
 
A lot of African-American preachers in the Southern Baptist -- Southern churches across this country, but particularly in Virginia, North Carolina, states the president carried last time, say the same thing.

Minutes after Barack Obama came out for gay marriage, Wednesday, Chris Matthews appeared on MSNBC to compare opponents of such unions to "wolves" and to link them to supporters of slavery. Warning of political danger to the President, Matthews spewed, "The dens are opening. The gates are opening of wolves coming out for this, the Karl Roves."

After describing liberalism as the force that brought all social change to America, the Hardball anchor warned about the armies that feed off "resentment." Matthews lectured, "That army has been out there during Jim Crow. It was out there during abolition, during suffrage. There's always an army that feeds on change and feeds against it." [See video below. See MP3 audio here.]

Ron Reagan, the son of late President Ronald Reagan, came down strongly on Tuesday against Barack Obama's unwillingness to definitively support same-sex marriage.

Appearing on Hardball, the MSNBC political analyst said, "He’s taking more time evolving on this issue than humans took evolving from apes" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Bill Plante forwarded the Obama administration's spin on Tuesday's CBS This Morning concerning Vice President Joe Biden's support for same-sex "marriage." Plante omitted any clips for conservatives or even moderate Democrats during his report, and mentioned social conservatives' opposition only in passing. While Obama officials expressed support for same-sex "marriage" in the piece, no leftist critics of Obama's apparent opposition were included.

The CBS program was the only Big Three morning newscast on Tuesday that reported on the controversy over the Vice President's recent statement on the issue, as well as the ballot initiative in North Carolina that would codify marriage as between one man and one woman in the state.

After Vice President Joe Biden voiced his support of same-sex marriage over the weekend, CNN jumped all over the news on Monday and expectantly wondered if President Obama would follow suit. In fact, prime-time host Piers Morgan went so far as to admire the "brave Catholic" Biden for dissenting from Church teaching on the issue.

During every hour save one from 5 a.m. all the way through 10 p.m. on Monday, CNN hyped that Obama administration officials had come out in support of same-sex marriage. They hosted the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for a soft interview and aired quotes from the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign and a parent with a lesbian daughter.

Perhaps inspired by comments made by Vice President Joe Biden on Meet the Press a day earlier, Andrea Mitchell continued MSNBC's drumbeat of activism on gay marriage on her May 7 program. Mitchell seized on Biden's categorical support for same-sex marriage as an opportunity to litigate the issue with Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus.

During her interview with the chairman, Mitchell tried to excuse President Obama’s "evolving" position on gay marriage by suggesting that Mitt Romney has an authenticity issue himself.  Mitchell showed her liberal colors, disgustingly attacks conservatives like Romney and Priebus who oppose gay marriage by claiming that, "as a conservative, as a true conservative, what could be more conservative than a committed relationship between a man and a man or a woman and a woman who want to embrace the sanctity of marriage?"  [Video follows page break;  MP3 audio here.]

Talking to Meet the Press host David Gregory on Monday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry pushed for Mitt Romney to move away from conservatives: "...does he have to work really hard now to backtrack off of some of his positions in the past, as he was trying to win the primary...?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In a stunning double standard, in her very next question, Curry fretted about President Obama distancing himself from Vice President Biden's support of gay marriage: "There's been some backtracking, it seems, by the White House. Is it possible that the White House could cause itself some damage in backtracking too much off of this?"

An openly gay adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney resigned last week, and the Obama-loving media interested in discussing anything but the poor economy jumped all over it.

NewsBusters associate editor Noel Sheppard discussed this with Don Lemon on CNN Newsroom Saturday (video follows with transcript and commentary):

What is it about liberals and gay jokes?

On HBO's Real Time Friday, the host once again took a homosexual jab at Marcus Bachmann saying, "He would also like to get behind Romney" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

"Eleven Democratic state party chairs will announce their support today for a proposed 'freedom to marry' plank in the 2012 Democratic platform," Politico's Alexander Burns reported this morning. Among other high-powered backers of the platform petition is none other than former House Speaker and current Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Yet nowhere in Burns 9-paragraph story did Burns seek comment from the Obama White House about whether the president -- whose 2008 campaign position was that he is "not in favor" of it because marriage is "between a man and a woman" -- takes a stance on the issue of adopting the platform plank. What's more, Burns failed to note that a recent survey shows only 49 percent of African-American voters -- who are among the most loyal of Democratic voters and staunchest Obama backers -- support same-sex marriage. The same survey shows that 42 percent of Catholic voters, a key swing voting bloc, oppose same sex marriage. Thirty-eight percent of political independents also oppose gay marriage.

Leave it to MSNBC to attempt to guilt socially conservative African-American Christians into acting against their religious convictions on same-sex marriage in the name of civil rights and "tolerance." Anchor Thomas Roberts, who is openly gay, conducted a softball interview with an African-American Baptist pastor from the Tar Heel State who opposes Amendment 1, the pro-traditional marriage ballot initiative going before North Carolina voters on May 8.

"For African-American churchgoers, this creates quite a quandary... while some religious leaders are urging their congregations to stick with tradition, some high profile ministers are speaking out against it to promote tolerance," Roberts noted in his introduction of Dr. Ricky Woods. With his first question to Woods, Roberts described the disagreement among African-American Christians as pitting those in favor of "social justice" against backers of "tradition" and "moral values" (emphasis mine):