The effect of pictures from San Francisco on the American psyche. The cable news channels are covering the San Francisco gay marriage events and showing various film clips of people waiting in line to marry, marrying, and celebrating afterwards. They must have miles of footage, giving them great power to shape public opinion. Let's say they need five brief clips to go with their story. There are thousands of couples to choose from. They could try to increase public acceptance of gay marriage by picking five couples who look very clean-cut and friendly, who look warmly happy to marry, perhaps with sweet children at their sides. They could do the opposite by picking the five couples who most seem to be only using the occasion to demonstrate a political position and who seem most likely to threaten or disturb the average American.