The New York Senate’s vote in favor of same-sex marriage on Friday established New York as the largest state to recognize marriage equality and more than doubled the number of Americans living in a state that recognizes gay and lesbian unions. But you wouldn’t know that from watching Fox News.
A ThinkProgress analysis of cable news coverage of the marriage vote on Friday from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. revealed that Fox News mentioned “New York” and “marriage” just five separate times, compared to 32 mentions on MSNBC and 23 on CNN. The latter two networks also produced segments about the historic vote both before and after it occurred, with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hosting an hour special about the new law. Fox, by contrast, ran specials on the Casey Anthony murder trial and a re-run of The O’Reilly Factor, and only mentioned the new law in “News Alerts”:
Ignoring stories which benefit the LGBT community and undermine social conservative causes, however, is the norm at Fox. Back in March, Fox remained silent after a major law firm reversed its decision about defending an explicitly anti-gay law, and last year the network failed to report on former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman — who had orchestrated President Bush’s gay-bashing 2004 re-election campaign — coming out as gay.