This week’s news really was all about same-sex marriage, particularly here in Washington, D.C. Perhaps my news feeds are biased, but it looks like the coverage was balanced — supportive even. There was plenty of positive coverage of the Supreme Court hearings and, even when news outlets felt compelled to “balance” the story with the views of those who oppose same-sex marriage, hosts felt compelled to disagree with them on air. Here were some of the highlights:
The Washington Post ran an editorial calling for the overturn of California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act.
Bill O’Reilly said that same-sex marriage advocates have a “compelling argument.”
Rush Limbaugh said the conservatives have lost on the same-sex marriage issue.
Earlier this week, Fox News host Megyn Kelly gave National Organization for Marriage founder Maggie Gallagher a what for, comparing same-sex marriage to interracial marriage, and noting how the Supreme Court intervened in the latter.
And perhaps most compelling this week are the split Time covers: “Gay Marriage Already Won.” The black-and-white photos are an interesting, provocative selection. The magazine didn’t opt for family photos of smiling, nonthreatening gay and lesbian families and their kids: It went for the part of same-sex marriage that may be most off-putting to mainstream cultures. The kissing, the sexuality. It’s a bold choice for a mainstream publication to make. Certainly, there will be backlash and outrage and “moral disapproval” that the magazine featured same-sex couples kissing. (On the cover! Close up! No color!) But it was likely a good business decision. And the accompanying article was largely positive, save for a colorful sentence about AIDS and bathhouses.
So what was your take on the media’s coverage of this week’s Supreme Court hearings? Did you see anything good, bad, ugly?