Bill O’Reilly featured a discussion recently about whether President Bush would make a campaign issue out of gay marriage. O’Reilly doubted that Bush would actively support a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Bush delivered a June 3 radio address on the subject and then appeared with supporters of the amendment. It remains to be seen whether Bush and his fellow Republicans will actively campaign on the issue this fall.
Reticence may stem, at least in part, from the anticipated media hostility. O’Reilly should turn the attention on the media, including Fox News, one of many media backers of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (see list of media sponsors of NLGJA conferences posted here on page 9). Does this give you some idea of how deep the media hostility runs against the conservative agenda on pro-family issues?
A scholarly treatment of media bias on this and related issues can be found in the Family in America, a publication of the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society.
Bryce Christensen notes, “The media can hardly trumpet loudly enough the signs of ‘gay progress’ as ‘the crusade for gay rights’ presses forward in politics, in employment, and in entertainment, with media editorialists cheering all the way. When not celebrating homosexuals as heroes and martyrs, the media are busy characterizing them as ‘pretty typical’ people, ‘not so different’ from their straight neighbors.”
“Reportedly,” he adds, “some journalists now even doubt the need to report ‘both sides’ on ‘gay-related stories.’ No wonder the conservative media analyst Peter LaBarbera believes that the pro-homosexual media are now ‘out of control’ and complains that ‘Too many in the media are allowing their story content to be dictated by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and other vocal homosexual groups.'”
In the latest installment of this campaign, the CBS daytime soap opera “As The World Turns” featured a teenager who tells his parents that he is a homosexual. To reinforce this message, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was allowed by CBS to run a public service announcement telling viewers to go the group’s website and “Be an Ally and a Friend” to the homosexual rights movement.
GLAAD is the same group that honored Charlize Theron for her portrayal of a lesbian serial killer in the movie “Monster.” Her “boyfriends” ended up dead.
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