Here is a new thing I am going to try. I will look three English language news sites and compare and contrast their reporting on breaking news story.
Here is the topic: Obama supports same sex marriage. An easy enough topic and here are the sites that I will be look at.
I tried to find the report that came out around the same time that the story broke. However, a lot of these pages have been and likely will continue to be updated so this applies to around 19:15 GMT or 2:15 pm EST.
We start off with the guys and gals that broke the story. ABC News, we get the video of interview in which he made his support of same sex marriage know. Well what is he says is: "it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married"
You know what is nice about this we get the full transcript of the video. Right after the little blurb that sums up the story and tells who did the interview. It's nice then they go and say hey we got more of this interview airing on two of our other shows. A nice plug. Likely nothing as juicy as the as the lead but one should expect some good ratings for these two programs (I will look up the ratings on a later date to see if this happens).
Also right below the plug for the other shows we get a summary for parts of the interview that has not aired yet. Nothing shocking just some nice political back tracking that says more or less that he is cool with the gays but it still comes down to the states to make the effort.
"The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states' deciding the issue on their own."
Well okay maybe not as bold of statement as some would like. A bit like past American politicians saying "I think slavery is wrong up it is still up to the states to decide for themselves." So its really just a personal statement on how he feels on the issue. He has no plan to make sex same marriage legal.
Carrying on then we get a link to same video at the top of the page but this one is two the ABC News on-line video archive. Well okay thats a little odd. Maybe they expect to change or take off the top video at some point. Just so you know if you do click on it you get an ad before every video and plays a play-list of news videos by default so better pause or exit out after you have the video you want.
Okay really it's fine for all I know it could be some type of ABC News text ad that leads you to related news videos based on news you are reading now.
Then another video say how is kids helped shape his views. Then the rest is more or less about what he has said in the past about same sex marriage. Then right at the bottom we informed that Obama's 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney, opposes gay marriage. The closing quote is from him:
""My view is that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman," Romney said. "That's the position I've had for some time, and I don't intend to make any adjustments at this point. ... Or ever, by the way.""
Okay that is ABC take on it and they should own it after all they have the interview. ABC just went with the hot topic and kept talking about it.
On to the BBC
Well they keep updating it so thats nice.
We get a longer video then the one that ABC News has (57 secs to 2:12 mins). Nothing new just more of how he changed his mind on the subject. They point out that "He has become the first sitting US president to back gay marriage." Furthermore, right off the bat they point out that Romney is against it.
So right away it is cast with the upcoming election in mind. They go as far to highlight that a lot Obama's side is for same sex marriage. Making very clear that in this election we have one side for marriage and the other against.
Thats what the story is about. It has a poll that says half of those poll are fine with same sex marriage and 48% of those polled said no.
All of this story is about how it relates to the upcoming election. They state how 31 states have laws against it and how NC is just the latest one.
The BBC news is for a British market so it makes sense that this how they would write the story. The sitting President said he is for marriage, the other guy is not, and here are some states that have banned it. So it is really just analysis.
Alright analysis but nothing more.
Fox News. Oh Fox News honestly I expect something awful from them. But what to get. Well nothing really all that bad. All in all we end up with about the same stuff ABC news and hint of BBC report. However, for about 1/3 of the report Fox keeps point out that hey those Republicans are all against same sex marriage. Also, we get something new. The Black vote. They point out that conservative blacks will not like this and may not bother to vote because of it.
Which is a fair point to make. However, it seems a little pointless. It comes across more as a moral boost for the Republican faithful. You know what this is how Fox's story comes across. Hope for the Republicans that they guy they are not all that crazy about may really have a shot now and that if you do not like the idea of sex same marriage never fear the Republican
are not about to change their mind on the subject.
In closing. This is quick little post I would have gone to more sites but I did not have the time and I wanted to get this done as quick as I could.
But here is my input for what it is worth.
I do not care. Yes it is nice that Obama is cool with same sex marriage but it is just him talking. Nothing more than that. It give hope to those that want to see same sex marriage legalized. Those may in turn give their support via money, time, and/or vote to Obama now. But I tend to think that those people where going to vote for him anyway. While at the same time to those that care a lot about keeping it illegal well here is another reason to not vote for him. But I do not think that they where going to anyway. Furthermore, I do not think that this will mean that they are going to crazy for the other guy.
So to sum it up. Obama energizes some of his supports and maybe gets some more involved. He does not really lose much since after all it is just his opinion and he can always fall back on that.
All this news over a subject that in a Pew Research Center survey came in last as a "very important issue" for this election year.
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