NY Times Has Problem With Facts

What The Times Forgot to Mention about California’s Marriage Amendment
By Don Feder
Tuesday November 18, 2008
An article in today’s New York Times reports that Attorney General Jerry Brown has asked the state’s Supreme Court to rule on the legality of a voter-approved constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
“The central argument in the recently filed lawsuits is that Proposition 8 is a significant enough revision to the State Constitution to require approval by the legislature,” the article stated. It also noted that the passage of Proposition 8 “has prompted protests across the country.”
Here’s what the paper that makes all the news fit its agenda forgot to mention:
• Same-sex marriage was never part of the California Constitution. It was forced on the state in May, by an edict of the same court now being asked to rule on the legality of Prop. 8.
• Despite massive opposition by the mainstream media (The New York Times included), the initiative passed by a vote of 52% to 48%.
• In 2000, 61% of California voters approved Prop 22, a statute limiting marriage to a man and a woman. The Court swept this aside with its mandate, necessitating the amendment.
• With the passage of ballot questions in California, Arizona and Florida this year, voters in 30 states have enacted constitutional bans on gay marriage, by an average vote of 68%.
• Those demonstrations by opponents of Proposition 8 the paper mentioned in passing are often aimed at the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and Catholic Churches and are frequently violent. In San Francisco last Friday, the police had to intervene to save a group of Christians who were set-upon by homosexual militants. In Palm Springs, an elderly woman holding a pro-Prop 8 sign was physically assaulted and had a cross ripped from her hands and trampled by the mob.
Today’s story is a continuation of The New York Times’ partisan coverage of the entire Prop. 8 campaign. In evaluating The Times’ coverage of any issue, what’s not reported is as important as what is.