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There was no doubt about it. The Story of the Day was the first half of the doubleheader at the Supreme Court. All three newscasts kicked off with the hearings on gay rights and same-sex marriage. Tuesday's topic was California's Proposition 8, a referendum which banned such unions in 2008 and which was subsequently overturned by an appeals court. Wednesday's will be the federal side of the question: whether the national government can exclude a state's decision to include gays as married couples.

All three court correspondents, prohibited from using video cameras, covered the hearings by using soundbites from the official audio feed. NBC's Pete Williams used an old-fashioned sketch artist to depict the justices asking the questions heard on the soundtrack. ABC's Terry Moran and CBS' Jan Crawford displayed verbal transcripts along with stock portrait photographs.

The consensus by the trio of legal eagles was that the court was disinclined to use Proposition 8 as a pretext to make a sweeping ruling with implications for all 50 states, one way or the other.

CBS' John Blackstone followed up from San Francisco with the rollercoaster of legalized nuptials and subsequent bans that California's marriage-minded gays have been riding since 2004. He threw in a couple of divine pieces of same-sex wedding photography as illustration. On NBC, Kristen Dahlgren made the self-serving argument that the medium of television -- specifically a trio of primetime sitcoms -- had played a key role in moving public opinion on same-sex marriage. The milestone comedies that have made us more gay friendly? Ellen then Will & Grace then Modern Family.
Andrew Tyndall 3/27/13 10:56:31 pm

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