Stossel, “Give Me a Break” 3/15/2004
By Jan LaRue, CWA’s Chief Counsel
Journalist on ABC's 20/20 gives a pass to so-called gay marriage.
Over my better instincts, I agreed to be interviewed by John Stossel of ABC TV News’ 20/20 program on the subject of same-sex marriage. Trusting liberal media for fairness in editing a pre-taped interview when you’re a conservative, AKA, “radical, right-wing, religious bigot,” oops, and “wacko” too, is very dicey to say the least. Can you spell “hit piece”?
But this is John Stossel—a pretty fair guy, right? The one who complains, “Give me a break,” when he thinks something’s wrong or misleading or a ripoff, as in government waste. The promo for his book by the same name says, “He takes on such sacred cows as the FDA, feminists, and scare-mongering environmental activists and explains how he became the scourge of the liberal media.” But, as it turns out, not all “sacred cows” and not always a “scourge of the liberal media.”
On Friday, March 5, 20/20 flew me to New York for the interview. Everyone was very nice, including Stossel. The interview lasted approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Stossel had all of the questions his producer had asked me in a pre-interview by phone with all of my answers. She said they wanted me because I was “articulate, passionate about the issue and obviously knowledgeable.” She said John would take the “gay” position. No problem.
Lots of questions with lots of more than one-word answers, including among others: state laws, a marriage amendment, San Francisco, Massachusetts, effects on children, health risks related to homosexual conduct, decline of marriage in Scandinavian countries, the meaning of a government license and how it is viewed by the public, civil unions, what’s wrong with “five or 10 people getting married if they want to”? Stossel asked that and what’s wrong with same-sex marriage several times. Even the homosexuals I’ve debated don’t ask, “What’s wrong with 10 people getting married?”
When we concluded, I asked how long the segment would be. They said, “three minutes, if it airs.” What they didn’t bother to tell us before we agreed to the interview was that 95 percent of the program would be a nonstop puff-piece for “gay marriage.”
In this past Friday’s show, Barbara Walters interviewed Rosie O’Donnell and her lesbian partner, just back from getting quasi-hitched in a faux marriage in San Francisco. Where, by the way, after couples complete a marriage license application with a disclaimer advising, “Marriage of lesbian and gay couples may not be recognized as valid by any jurisdiction other than San Francisco,” the city collects $82 nonrefundable bucks plus $62 more for performing the ceremony. The marriages aren’t legal anywhere including Baghdad-by-the Bay and these officials know it.
Wouldn’t you think a guy “who takes on sacred cows like the FDA,” as in government, would include a government rip-off in his segment Friday night, titled, “Love and the Law”? One more time. San Francisco-law-government ripoff-law-fraudulent marriage-$82 . bucks-law-government ripoff-law multiplied hundreds of times. Can you do the math here? Many of the people who shelled out their money came from other countries and more than 22 states, and they actually believe they got married. Isn’t marriage a “sacred” enough cow for you, John?
Walters also interviewed Elton John, which included his push for “gay marriage” and footage of him and his male partner, even though John doesn’t want to get married. No more fretting over what shower gift to give the grooms who have everything.
Near the end of the New York interview, the producer, who had done my pre-interview, told Stossel to question me about whether CWA is concerned about other influences harming marriage such as “reality” TV programs like Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire and celebrities who marry and divorce after a short time. I assured them on tape that we were very concerned about such things and had written about them. She said they couldn’t find anything on our Web site. I explained on tape that when articles age, they get archived.
Because I anticipated that they would include this issue for broadcast, we compiled a list of 37 papers that CWA staff have written on problems related to marriage other than “gay marriage.” We e-mailed it to the producer last Tuesday and confirmed that she received it. But did they mention the 37 articles? Not a one. Does anyone think that’s a tad misleading?
Here’s what they did they say about it in their Web article, and on the program as they showed a brief shot of our Web site:
Hollywood and Heterosexuals Don’t Set Good Examples: But wait a second, if people are worried about cheapening the concept of marriage, shouldn’t they be protesting TV shows like Married by America, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire or The Bachelor? These shows make marriage a game.
And plenty of heterosexual celebrities behave as if marriage doesn’t matter much. Jennifer Lopez and Cris Judd’s union didn’t last a year, neither did Liza Minnelli and David Gest’s. Drew Barrymore and Tom Green split up after five months, and Britney Spears’ quickie Vegas marriage lasted less than three days. They’re setting bad examples for the kids who admire them.
I don’t hear LaRue's group expressing many concerns about these heterosexual threats to marriage, and we couldn’t find anything about Spears’ marriage on the group’s Web site.
If you look up “straw man argument” in the dictionary, this is it. They built their straw man characterization of heterosexual marriage by using TV shows their industry produces, and movie and rock “stars,” who are part of their industry—set it ablaze—and blame heterosexuals who choke on the smoke.
Wouldn’t you think they could have taken their cameras onto the sidewalks of New York to find at least one husband and wife who still love each other “after all these years”? A mom and dad who take their kids to school and help them with homework, worship God together, take them to see the Yankees together&ldots;. But that would have cut into the time for Elton and Rosie. Maybe there’s a real “reality” TV show here. Ya think? Maybe they could have asked me how long I’ve been married, as in 44 years to the same great guy “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish 'til death do us part.”
No way—no how—won’t do in a hit piece.
The segment in which I appeared for 33 seconds at the outset was four minutes long including Stossel’s questions and other onscreen images.