From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Last week, a seasoned political watcher told us that after Mitt Romney's de facto anointment as the Republican presidential nominee, the political press would be filling its headlines with the inconsequential until the conventions.

He said desperate reporters would hyperventilate over trivial matters.

And then, Vice President Joe Biden told meet the press that he had no problem with same-sex marriage,

which pushed the president to move up his own evolution on the issue to wit.

It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.

Get ready. The 2012 presidential race just changed, maybe dramatically.

Give him credit for taking the risk. Many politicians duck from risk.

Potentially Watershed moment as President Obama comes out formally, publicly, enthusiastically

in support of gay marriage.

I'm saying that marriage was between a man and a woman. Now he is saying just the opposite.

So this is a reversal show.

It's going to change this campaign. Perhaps for the better for the worst.

The Fox Nation website, affiliated with the

Fox News Channel, declared in a banner headline, Obama flip-flops declares war on marriage. About

an hour later, it retreated a little, asserting only that, quote, Obama flip-flops on gay marriage.

Now, that was a little puzzling. The rhetoric toned down. Alex

Coppelman, associate news editor of the New Yorker's website, had an explanation.

It's important, first of all, to understand Fox Nation's headline writing. If Obama brought

Betty Ford to the White House, the headline would be, Obama brings druggie to White House.

It's so over the top and

essentially red meat. So when they change that, it says something about what they think the reaction

...