Monday, September 26, 2005 -- KOIN (Portland CBS affiliate) frequently claims it features news that is to the point.  One of the problems with saying that stood out this morning when the two "broadcast journalists" on the screen at about half past five, Mark Ronchetti and Katie Baker, said that Oregon's constitutional ban on homosexual marriages is "controversial."

This is a good argument for giving these jobs to adults instead of children.

Was the number eleven?  It was during the last presidential election.  Something like eleven states had ballot measures on the subject.  Now, if KOIN had staffed their news department with adults, they would recall this.  They would also recall that no matter which state had such a ballot measure, and no matter where that state was located in America, the people of that state voted to establish a marriage as being the union of a man and a woman, and nothing else.   No men marrying men, no women marrying women, no humans  marrying sheep.  Everywhere in the nation the voting result was the same. Just two people, each of a different sex.  That, and that alone, is a marriage.

Properly described, the public all across America heavily favored the old-fashioned definition of marriage.  Properly described, it was a series of anti-gay-marriage decisions that shocked and offended the "journalists" who work for the traditional media, like KOIN.  What it wasn't was "controversial."

Since their job is words and pictures, somebody should explain to KOIN''s morning team that one atheist trying to remove the war memorial cross from a hill in San Diego is a "controversy," but not controversial as the term is commonly used.    Mark Ronchetti and Katie Baker of KOIN would benefit by knowing that when the Republicans in Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (or was it 1867?), that was controversial.  The Democrats supported slavery, and walked out en masse.  A Civil War is a controversy. 

(A true Civil War, not what these same media unprofessionals think is happening in Iraq.) .

Oregon's vote to maintain the standard definition of marriage was like the national reaction to the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  When most people in the nation clearly stand shoulder to shoulder on a point of view, the fact that a few disagree with that point of view is interesting, even newsworthy.  What it isn't is an indication of a serious controversy.  

The situation under discussion here is that a few people who are unhappy with the clear majority opinion in Oregon decided to invent constitutional rights out of whole cloth, and are trying to use the judicial branch of government to bypass the constitutional process of making laws. 

The news point in this case, should Mark Ronchetti and Katie Baker of KOIN be interested in giving the appearance that they are professionals, is that defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman is the farthest thing from "controversial" in America.  That view is the rock-solid, standard definition from coast to coast, and only those who oppose it are "controversial."  

Do you think Mark Ronchetti and Katie Baker of KOIN need to grow up and become professionals, as I believe? Or, do you think they know what they are doing, and so intentionally misled their viewing audience because they have a Leftist political agenda and believe propaganda is a valuable tool in shaping politically correct public opinion?

If your choice is the latter, it is not a controversial selection.  Within the conservative community, your view is widely held.   A great many conservatives think this sort of thing is intentional.  Very few believe what I believe, which is that Mark Ronchetti and Katie Baker think they are good journalists, and would be shocked to discover the truth about themselves. Alcoholics have a term for this form of self-imposed ignorance.  Denial is the name.  

(LL)

© 2005 Oregon Magazine