Paul J. Weber of the Associated Press made his liberal slant clear in a Wednesday article detailing how a pro-traditional marriage bill failed to pass in the Texas state legislature. Weber played up the supposedly "divisive efforts by Texas Republicans to defy the U.S. Supreme Court if same-sex marriage is legalized." He clearly labeled the proponents of the bill as conservatives, but failed to identify the socially liberal agenda of opponents.
The correspondent led his item, "Divisive anti-gay marriage bill falls in Texas Legislature," with his "divisive efforts" and "defy the Supreme Court" phrases, and noted how the effort to pass the bill on Wednesday "ended...with conservative finger-pointing and opponents feeling relieved." He continued by noting that the legislative session "will end next week without a measure that gay rights activists considered one of the harshest in any U.S. statehouse: restrictions that would prohibit government officials from giving marriage licenses to same-sex couples."
Weber soon added that "Republicans made no secret about seeing the bill as a path to new legal challenges if the Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage later this summer." He also pointed out how Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who supported the proposed legislation, is a "tea party leader who controls the Senate."
The AP journalist later underlined that the Texas House of Representatives is "more moderate than the Senate." He also included a quote from State Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Democrat, who blasted the bill: "It is offensive to my constituents, it's offensive to me, and it's offensive to our constitution."
However, Weber failed to point out that Rep. Coleman is a longtime supporter of the left-wing LGBT agenda in the Texas state legislature. A December 2014 article in the Houston Chronicle noted that the Democrat has been trying to repeal the Lone Star State's definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman since 1995.
