why I sometimes get really pissed off with the mainstream media -- yea, even the Beeb

There's something really wrong with mainstream media coverage of President Obama's decision to defend the rights of gay couples to marry.

All the articles I've read reporting reactions to his remarks have framed the debate as between "gay activists", who approve, and, well, Christian bigots, who don't.

It's a false equation. Most of the people Pam and I know are, like ourselves, heterosexual. Some are Christians or Jews. And just about all of us are hailing Obama's comments as a civil rights breakthrough. Pretending that it's merely a matter of gay activists supporting the comments is seriously to misrepresent the reality -- just as, some decades ago, stupid, lazy journalists assumed it was only black people who sought racial equality.

So let's, please, have a little honest reporting of the public's response to Obama's remarks. On the one hand (to judge by recent opinion polls) you've got most of us, gay or straight, faithful or godless; on the other you've got bigots, such as a depressingly large percentage of the population of North Carolina.

I could go further, arguing that there's no third way: folk who claim they're moderates but oppose gay marriage because the Bible tells them so aren't in actuality moderates at all, however flatteringly they might like to think of themselves. But, right at this moment, they irk me less than those supposedly objective mainstream journalists who're consistently misreporting the controversy.