CNN's 'Balanced' Coverage of Obama's Support for Gay Marriage: 5 Guests In Favor, 1 Opposed
It did
n'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?"
In
contrast, when Perkins appeared on The Situation Room at 5:35 p.m.,
anchor Wolf Blitzer challenged his position on homosexuality. "What's
wrong with giving gay Americans the same rights as heterosexual
Americans?" Blitzer demanded of Perkins. He asked Perkins if he thought
people were born gay, and lectured him on the topic.
Blitzer was much, much more sympathetic to lesbian Democratic activist
Hilary Rosen. "A lot of my gay friends were moved by what the President
had to say," he told her. "So when you heard the President utter those
few words, did you get rather emotional? Did you start to cry?" he
asked. "Because I've been getting a lot of messages from friends out
there saying they actually started to cry, they were that moved."
After the initial news broke of Obama's statement at 3 p.m., the first
guest to appear – aside from CNN analysts and reporters – was Michael
Cole-Schwartz of the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign. Then at 3:37 p.m.
openly-gay columnist LZ Granderson came on the air. He compared the
situation gay couples have faced to the struggles of the civil rights
movement.
Then during The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer hosted Hilary Rosen and
later on a supposedly-balanced panel of Democratic strategist Paul
Begala and GOP strategist Alex Castellanos. Only, Castellanos expressed
his admiration and support for Obama's decision.
"Well on this particular issue, I actually don't disagree with the
President. I'm on the President's side on this one, and have been for
quite a long time," he revealed. "I have to say I admire him [Obama] for
standing up for something that he believes in today," he declared.
Blitzer declared it "a historic day. A lot of us will remember what the President of the United States did on this day." Democratic strategist Paul Begala followed by pointing to the camera and saying "Thank you, Mr. President."
