ABC Shills for Same-Sex 'Marriage'

During Good Morning America's Tuesday broadcast, ABC's Mike von Fremd covered two ballot initiatives California voters will decide on this Election Day – San Francisco's Proposition K, which seeks to decriminalize prostitution, and the state-wide Proposition 8, which would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. 

Can you guess which one received fair treatment?

von Fremd briefly covered Proposition K, featuring arguments from those in favor of decriminalizing prostitution and those opposed.  No such balance on Prop. 8.

von Fremd featured a clip of an ad with talk-show host Ellen Degeneres opposing Prop. 8:

ELLEN DEGENERES: I got married. It was the happiest day of my life. There are people out there raising millions of dollars to try to take that right away from me.

While von Fremd briefly noted that 70,000 people gathered in San Diego to pray for the measure's passage, he did not give any air time to a Prop. 8 supporter. 

von Fremd's treatment of Proposition 8 shouldn't shock too many people.  After all, ABC has a history of treating homosexuality favorably.  Earlier this year GMA failed to note that more than a million people signed a petition to get the proposition on the ballot [1].  ABC's World News with Charles Gibson gave very little time [2] to opponents of same-sex 'marriage' during reports of the California State Supreme Court case that granted homosexuals the 'right' to marry last May.  Former American Idol Clay Aiken's coming out garnered an exclusive two-part [3] interview on GMA.  ABC's morning show also devoted [4] significant air time to Thomas Beatie, the pregnant “man,” last spring. 

ABC's entertainment programming has promoted homosexuality as well. Brothers and Sisters was the first network series [5] to feature a same-sex 'wedding' between regular characters.  Two female characters in the Thursday night drama Grey's Anatomy explored a lesbian relationship [6]. 

The full transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:04 AM EDT, appears below:

CHRIS CUOMO: Voters across the nation are weighing in on controversial ballot questions today. For that, we go to Mike von Fremd. He has more from Los Angeles. Good morning, mike.

MIKE VON FREMD: Good morning, Chris. With more than 150 propositions on ballots here in California and across the country, voters today will be making some crucial decisions on economic and social issues. Question one for Massachusetts voters is a sweeping plan that would eventually eliminate the state's personal income tax. One of the most controversial questions is in San Francisco, where Proposition K would decriminalize prostitution.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It will mean that sex workers will be safer.

VON FREMD: But a former prostitute says making the world's oldest profession legal is dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Other johns come into the city because they know that they won't be prosecuted. It could be more violent toward the girls out there.

VON FREMD: Perhaps the most passionate ballot fight in the nation proposition is here in California, over proposition 8, which would make it illegal for same-sex couples to get married.

[Begin clip of ad]

ELLEN DEGENERES: I got married. It was the happiest day of my life. There are people out there raising millions of dollars to try to take that right away from me.

[End clip.]

VON FREMD: Seventy thousand people filled a San Diego stadium this weekend, to pray for passage of Proposition 8, which says only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Now Arizona and Florida also have measures to ban same-sex marriage. Across the country, there's much more at stake today than picking a new president. Chris?

CUOMO: Mike, thank you very much.

Colleen Raezler is a research assistant at the Culture and Media Institute, [7] a division of the Media Research Center.