GORE OUT OF LINE WITH PRAISE OF `ELLEN'

Vice President Al Gore is praising the producers of ABC's "Ellen" for the star of that program's having "come out" and announced that she is a lesbian. Speaking to an audience at the Radio and Television Society in Beverly Hills, the vice president gushed: "And when `Ellen' came out, millions of Americans were forced to look at sexual orientation in a more open light." (One wonders: "... forced"? The vice president's choice of words is an interesting insight into the mindset at work here.) The Associated Press story relating the episode contains this line: "His aides debated until a few minutes before the speech whether to keep the line in his text, unsure of the public reaction."

Well, here is our reaction: The vice president is out of line, and his words may go down in history as a milestone in shameless pandering for campaign funds among the zillionaires of the Hollywood left. In retaining the line in his remarks as delivered, the veep has clearly made a calculation that whatever damage it may do him with middle-American traditionalists will be more than offset by millions from trendy Hollywood types.

In a few short months "Ellen" has gone from the "coming out" episode of last season to showing two women mouth-to-mouth kissing in prime time this year, in the very same week the vice president spoke. What is next? Showing the two horizontal, in bed together? Doubtless, if the producers Gore praises have their way, this and more will follow. It is a downward spiral away from the certain guideposts and solid moorings that have anchored human beings for millenia, and toward an anything-goes, Sodom-and-Gomorrah brand of moral anarchy.

Meanwhile, independent ratings surveys show that each of the three, formerly dominant major television networks lost yet another million viewers over the last year, with more declines forecast. Wonder why.