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The Supreme Court brought its newsmaking run to a climax. It was the third day in a row that all three newscasts had their legal eagles file from the high court steps: CBS' Jan Crawford, ABC's Terry Moran, NBC's Pete Williams. But this time its ruling was a blockbuster, accounting for close to half of the three-network newshole (27 min out of 58, or 46%). ABC even dubbed its newscast a Special Edition, entitled Landmark Ruling, to mark the new status of marriage in the federal government and in the State of California. The ban on same-sex weddings imposed by California's Proposition 8 referendum in 2008 was lifted. And the ban on federal recognition of same-sex marriages in those states that allow them, imposed by the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, was struck down.

NBC's Pete Williams could not resist a little cross-promotion for his network's sibling cable news channel. Amid the post-ruling celebration, President Barack Obama placed a congratulatory telephone call to Kris Perry, the victorious lesbian plaintiff from California, just as Perry was being interviewed by MSNBC. Williams made sure to include the plug. ABC's Terry Moran, movingly, ended his report with the DC Gay Men's Chorus belting out The Star Spangled Banner.

Both NBC's Williams and CBS' Jan Crawford were careful to point out that the day did not represent total gay victory: the Justices found no Constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples in all of the states of the union. NBC's Anne Thompson summarized the federal rules that have always applied to heterosexual married couples that will now apply to homosexual ones. She concluded, touchingly, with the soldier's widow Tracy Johnson, who would have been officially notified of the death of her wife Danna Rae Johnson, if only the ruling had come down before she was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.

ABC anchor Diane Sawyer had the day's biggest get: a one-on-one sitdown with Edith Windsor, the widow who will get an estate tax refund because the Internal Revenue Service will now treat her late wife under New York State law as her late wife under federal law too. How old does the 84-year-old feel today? "84." What would Thea Spyer have said had she been alive to see Windsor's vindication? "You did it, honey." Sawyer's question was a little silly: if Spyer had been alive, there would have been no estate tax, so no lawsuit, so no vindication.

From California, ABC's Cecilia Vega anticipated a nightlong street party in San Francisco's Castro. NBC's Mike Taibbi (no link) visited Jody Lambert and Rose Holbert, fiancees in Long Beach, and CBS' Bill Whitaker visited Steve Soucy and Tom Beckhold, fiances in Los Angeles.

If you happened to be a traditionalist, you would find little expression for your opposition to the acceptance of same-sex marriages amid all this gay jubilance. Only CBS assigned a correspondent to consult opinions on the other side. Michelle Miller found anxiety about the future embrace of their religious teachings among Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists alike.
Andrew Tyndall 6/28/13 8:01:25 pm

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