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.
This
is the same network that hosted an hour-long prime-time documentary
called "Gary and Tony Have a Baby." They continued to trumpet increased
public support for gay marriage on Monday, pressing both Obama advisor
David Axelrod and the Romney campaign over the issue.
Piers Morgan hit the "inconsistency" of Obama's position and emphasized
that gay marriage is becoming a winning issue "where the tide is now
with, increasingly, people who support it." He asked Romney advisor Ed
Gillespie "Do you not feel that you may be on the wrong end of where
this all ends up? Is it not better to be a bit more progressive,
especially now your man has won the nomination, or effectively won it?"
Anchor Suzanne Malveaux asked if Romney would "give up the issue
completely" citing a poll showing 53 percent of Americans favored
same-sex marriage.
And anchor Carol Costello went easier on President Obama for his indecisiveness on gay marriage than CNN's Kyra Phillips did [1]
with GOP Congressman Allen West, who didn't want to go "down the rabbit
hole" to discuss issues that "aren't that important." Phillips, aghast,
challenged him on the importance of the issue.
Costello, meanwhile, was content to let Obama skirt around the topic.
"[T]his election has to be about the economy because that's what's going
to get the President re-elected if he can convince voters that he has a
plan for his second term," she insisted, adding that "these social
issues – they'll just fall by the wayside."
"I guess, does he really need to do this, to energize the base? I mean,
is that an important part of his re-election campaign? Or does he not
need to do that so that he won't upset those other Americans who aren't
ready to fully embrace gay marriage? I mean, why take the chance?"
Costello asked.
Costello did show some love for Biden, who had referenced the sitcom
Will and Grace for doing more to educate the public on gay marriage than
other causes. She played a clip from the dhow and cooed that
"Apparently he [Biden] got his degree in tolerance from the college of
Will and Grace."
CNN made sure to report that along with Biden, Education Secretary Arne
Duncan and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan also supported same-sex
marriage,. "So does all of this put – put Mr. Obama in a tough spot?"
asked Costello. CNN wondered over and over if Obama was now moving
towards supporting gay marriage.
"Why do you think the President hasn't fully embraced the idea of gay
marriage?" Costello posed to Darlene Nipper of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force.