It seems that since we’ve blogged so much about Rick Martinez’ Feb. 18 same-sex marriage column (subscription required for access) in the Raleigh News & Observer, which led to the debate with our own Paul Chesser on “The Jerry Agar Show” on 680 WPTF-AM, that the Independent Weekly thinks Martinez works for the Locke Foundation. In this week’s issue, the paper includes a piece headlined “Strange bedfellows” about the ire Rick has received from many conservatives because of his support for same-sex marriages. Even though the paper got an important point wrong (Rick is a contract columnist for the N&O, not a Locke employee), it’s still an interesting piece. By the way, the same-sex furor has subsided but Rick is now taking heat over this week’s column about public television, so maybe his new fans in the gay and lesbian community will replace public TV supporters who now consider him a mean-spirited conservative who wants to rip Big Bird away from kids.