Welcome to the Media Research Center’s annual awards issue, a compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media quotes from 2005 (December 2004 through November 2005). To determine this year’s winners, a panel of 52 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers and media observers each selected their choices for the first, second and third best quote from a slate of six to nine quotes in each category. First place selections were awarded three points, second place choices two points, with one point for the third place selections. Point totals are listed in the brackets at the end of the attribution for each quote. Each judge was also asked to choose a "Quote of the Year" denoting the most outrageous quote of 2005. The winner and top runner-up appear on page eight.
A list of the judges, who were generous with their time, at the end of the issue. The MRC’s Michelle Humphrey and Karen Hanna distributed and counted the ballots, then produced the numerous audio and video clips that accompany the Web-posted version. Brent Baker and Rich Noyes assembled this issue and Michael Gibbons posted the entire package on the MRC’s Web site: www.mrc.org.
And please save this date: Thursday, March 30, 2006. At our annual gala celebration that night in Washington, DC, the MRC will announce the winners of its DisHonors Awards of 2006: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters. Check www.mrc.org in early 2006 for ticket information.
ABC’s Good Morning America
Reporter Brian Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes report on President Bush’s National Guard service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing...."See the Runners-Up for the Quote Of The Year
Ross to Mapes: "Do you still think that story was true?"
Ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes: "The story? Absolutely."
Ross: "This seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards."
Mapes: "I’m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there’s proof that I haven’t seen."
Ross: "But isn’t it the other way around? Don’t you have to prove they’re authentic?"
Mapes: "Well, I think that’s what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet."
Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn’t that really what journalists do?"
Mapes: "No, I don’t think that’s the standard."
NBC Nightly News (91 points)
Andrea Mitchell: "It is an iconic picture: American hostages, hands bound and blindfolded, being paraded outside the U.S. embassy in Tehran by their captors. But has one of those student radicals now become Iran’s newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?...Tonight, U.S. intelligence officials say that they will continue to study this, but may never have definitive proof of what the role was of Iran’s new president, Brian."
Brian Williams: "Andrea, what would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today the first several U.S. Presidents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called terrorists at the time by the British Crown, after all."
Mitchell: "Indeed, Brian."
Nina Totenberg (80 points)
"I just want to say: Who are we? We are people who have always been for inspections of prisons, for some degree of human rights, and now we’re defending neither.... We have now violated everything that we stand for. It is the first time in my life I have been ashamed of my country."
Ty Burr (53 points)
"Stealth is a pretty fair military-hardware action movie until you start thinking about it — at which point it turns incredibly sour in your mouth. I can therefore recommend it to any and all audiences lacking higher brain functions. Sea cucumbers, perhaps. Ones waving American flags.... This is exactly the sort of movie we don’t need right now: a delusional military fantasy in which collateral damage doesn’t exist....For a movie to pretend, in the face of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children directly or indirectly caused by our presence there, that we can wage war without anyone really getting hurt isn’t naive, or wishful thinking, or a jim-dandy way to spend a Saturday night at the movies. It’s an obscenity."
NBC Nightly News (34 points)
Brian Williams: "You just told me the story about one photograph from the war that always kind of catches you, the Japanese soldier returning to his city that’s been destroyed. Do you have remorse for what happened? How do you deal with that in your mind?" Enola Gay navigator "Dutch" Van Kirk: "No, I do not have remorse! I pity the people who were there. I always think of it, Brian, as being, the dropping of the atom bomb was an act of war to end a war."
Jon Meacham (62 points)
"It’s like he [President Bush] stuck a broomstick in his [FDR’s] wheelchair wheels."
CBS Evening News (43 points)
Reporter Lee Cowan: "The proposed [Bush budget] cuts hit the heartland like a mountain of unwanted news, from the soy bean fields of Iowa, where farmers marched on the capital to voice their disgust at slashing farm subsidies, to large cities like Minneapolis, where block grant programs help the homeless and the hungry....The White House calls the budget ‘lean,’ proponents call it difficult but brave. But critics charge the people these cuts hit the hardest tend to have the weakest political voice."
Robert Greenstein, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities: "Cuts in programs for the working poor, low income elderly people, people with disabilities. They tend not to have much in the way of lobbyists. They don’t give campaign contributions."
Cowan: "....This Dallas health clinic serves only the poorest of patients, but already there is a two-month waiting list. Dr. Maureen Thielen says the President’s proposed cuts in Medicaid will only make it worse....Agencies that are already doing the work of the poor now find themselves in the unenviable position of proving that their cause is worth it."
Fareed Zakaria (42 points)
"In the words of one of his [Ayatollah Sistani’s] aides, ‘the representation of our Sunni brethren in the coming government must be effective, regardless of the results of the elections.’ As an Iraqi politician said to me, ‘There are currently two Grand Ayatollahs running Iraq: Sistani and Bush. Most of us feel that Sistani is the more rational.’"
Will Lester (41 points)
"President Bush’s second inauguration will cost tens of millions of dollars — $40 million alone in private donations for the balls, parade and other invitation-only parties. With that kind of money, what could you buy?"The questions have come from Bush supporters and opponents: Do we need to spend this money on what seems so extravagant?"
- 200 armored Humvees with the best armor for troops in Iraq.
- Vaccinations and preventive health care for 22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami.
- A down payment on the nation’s deficit, which hit a record-breaking $412 billion last year....
Eleanor Clift (40 points)
"The Libby indictments have opened the door to making the wider case against the Bush administration that they misled the country into war....The next logical step is impeachment, and I think you’re going to hear that word come up, and if the Democrats ever capture either house of Congress there are going to be serious proceedings against this administration."
Howell Raines (89 points)
"The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region renowned for governmental ineptitude....The populism of Huey Long was financially corrupt, but when it came to the welfare of people, it was caring. The churchgoing cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts."
Nancy Giles (58 points)
"After meeting with Louisiana officials last week, Reverend Jesse Jackson said, quote, ‘Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response.’ He continued, quote, ‘I’m not saying that myself.’ Then I’ll say it: If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival. Their bodies would not have been left to float in putrid water....We’ve repeatedly given tax cuts to the wealthiest and left our most vulnerable American citizens to basically fend for themselves....The President has put himself at risk by visiting the troops in Iraq, but didn’t venture anywhere near the Superdome or the convention center, where thousands of victims, mostly black and poor, needed to see that he gave a damn."
Keith Olbermann (54 points)
"For many of this country’s citizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect, also, a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to ‘08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government, our government: New Orleans. For him, it is a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette."
Brian Williams (38 points)
"You know, I’ve been to some pretty lousy places in my life. And Iraq over the past 12 months and Banda Aceh, open graves and bodies. These were Americans, and everyone watching the coverage all week, that kind of reached its peak last weekend, kept saying the same refrain: ‘How is this happening in the United States?’ And the other refrain was, ‘Had this been Nantucket, had this been Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, how many choppers would have–’"
New York Times (78 points)
"An Advocate for the Right."
VS
"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle."
Jo Becker (58 points)
"When John G. Roberts Jr. prepared to ghostwrite an article for President Ronald Reagan a little over two decades ago, his pen took a Civil War re-enactment detour....The Indiana native scratched out the words ‘Civil War’ and replaced them with ‘War Between the States.’...Sam McSeveney, a history professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University who specialized in the Civil War, said that Roberts’s choice of words was significant. ‘Many people who are sympathetic to the Confederate position are more comfortable with the idea of a "War Between the States,"’ McSeveney explained. ‘People opposed to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s would undoubtedly be more comfortable with the words he chose.’"
Diane Sawyer (51 points)
"I want to ask you about this 1991 opinion...[Judge Sam Alito] was the lone dissenter. He argued that a woman should have to notify her husband before she gets an abortion. Now, let me just say Sandra Day O’Connor heard this same case and Sandra Day O’Connor said this reflects a repugnant view of marriage. Women do not lose their constitutional rights because they’re married....Does this opinion give even you pause? Again, Sandra Day O’Connor’s notation that it was a repugnant view of marriage?"
CNN’s Daybreak (48 points)
CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin: "[Judge Alito] thought it was okay that Pennsylvania insisted that a woman get her husband’s permission before she got an abortion...."
CNN’s Carol Costello: "Why, legally, would you uphold something like that? That a woman would have to check with her husband first in order to get an abortion?...I guess what I’m, I’m trying to get at is, is this is a very conservative judge, and he’s going to be against legalized abortion? I mean, you could draw that conclusion from this, couldn’t you? Or could I?"
Toobin: "I think it’s a very good indication that this is a judge who will want to overturn Roe v. Wade."
Nina Totenberg (40 points)
"I’ve known John Roberts for years. I think it’s a very sensible pick in all serious ways. But I must say that when I spent five hours reviewing all of his documents from when he worked in the Justice Department, I was actually quite surprised at how, how very, very conservative he was."
Helen Thomas (68 points)
"The day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for President, I’ll kill myself. All we need is one more liar."
CNN’s The Situation Room (65 points)
CNN’s Jack Cafferty: "What should Karl Rove do if he is indicted?...He might want to, he might want to get measured for one of those extra large orange jump suits, Wolf, because looking at old Karl, I’m not sure that he’d, they’d be able to zip him into the regular size one."
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: "He’s actually lost some weight. I think he’s in pretty good shape."
Cafferty: "Oh, well then, maybe just the regular off the shelf large would handle it for him."
Blitzer: "But, you know, it’s still a big if. It’s still a big if."
Cafferty: "Oh, I understand. I’m, I’m just hoping, you know. I love, I love to see those kinds of things happen. It does wonders for me."
Jonathan Alter (58 points)
"I don’t have a clue as to whether [former House Majority Leader Tom] DeLay violated the law or not, this very old Texas statute that he’s been indicted on, but I do know it’s the first time in 200 years that the House of Representatives has been run for a whole decade, or almost a decade, by a corrupt zealot."
Keith Olbermann (37 points)
"Karl Rove is a liability in the war on terror....In his ‘story guidance’ to Matthew Cooper of Time, Rove did more damage to your safety than the most thumb-sucking liberal or guard at Abu Ghraib. He destroyed an intelligence asset like Valerie Plame merely to deflect criticism of a politician. We have all the damned politicians, of every stripe, that we need. The best of them isn’t worth half a Valerie Plame."
Dan Rather (80 points)
Dan Rather: "My principal problem was that I stuck by the [Memogate] story, I stuck by our people for too long. I’m guilty of that. I believed in the story, and the facts of the story were correct. One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question. To this day no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not....You know, I didn’t give up on my people, our people. I didn’t and I won’t." [Applause]
Marvin Kalb: "Dan, thank you. You said, I believe you just said, that you think the story is accurate."
Rather: "The story is accurate."
Rick Kaplan (58 points)
"As was the practice in all he did, Dan was meticulously careful to be fair and balanced and accurate. When did we stop believing that this is indeed how we all perform our jobs, or try to? When did we allow those with questionable agendas to take the lead and convince people of something quite the opposite? It’s shameful. But I digress."
Dan Rather (35 points)
"A panel was appointed by CBS News to look into this ....They concluded that whatever happened, whatever you thought about it, it was not motivated by political bias, and they said that, although they had four months and millions of dollars, they could not demonstrate that the documents were not authentic, that they were forgeries. They said they couldn’t make that conclusion....Whatever one thinks of what we did or didn’t do with the story in question here, nobody broke the law, nobody lied. Depending on your point of view, it was a mistake, and who hasn’t made a mistake somewhere along the line?"
FNC’s Fox & Friends (71 points)
Co-host Mike Jerrick: "What do you think’s going to happen Sunday?" FNC reporter Steve Harrigan, just back from Iraq: "I think there’s going to be a bloodbath on Sunday....All over the place, especially in Baghdad and a few other cities."
Bob Schieffer (60 points)
"I’m Bob Schieffer. It just keeps getting worse in Iraq. The death toll is rising. Tension is growing between Shiites and Sunnis. Is the country sliding toward civil war?"
MSNBC’s Hardball (50 points)
Chris Matthews: "What does it smell like over there [in Baghdad]? Do you sense fireworks?"
NBC’s Campbell Brown: "You do, Chris....On the street, you get the sense that something big is about to happen, something big and fairly ugly."
Peter Jennings (42 points)
"In other parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland tonight, it looks as if the election process has been rejected. In many places we’re told the polling stations didn’t even open. This is a huge problem for Iraq as a whole. Without Sunni participation, somehow, the future here is still pretty bleak."
Katie Couric (37 points)
"According to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the insurgency could last another 12 years....I think most Americans say, ‘Oh my goodness!’And they gasp because that seems like such an extended period of time for these very powerful, very tenacious insurgents to have control of the situation....It must be very frustrating at times to see things unraveling so."
MSNBC’s Hardball (93 points)
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan: "We’re not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and good will in the Middle East by killing innocent people or — I’m not even saying our bullets and bombs are killing them. The occupation — they don’t have food, they don’t have clean water, they don’t have electricity. They don’t have medicine, they don’t have doctors. We need to get our military presence out of there, and that’s what’s gonna start building good will....I see Iraq as the base for spreading imperialism...."
Host Chris Matthews: "Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?"
Sheehan: "No, not this time...."
Matthews: "Okay. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run."
MSNBC’s Hardball (91 points)
Actress Jane Fonda: "From an historical point of view, they were defending their country. If we had been invaded and an invading force came into this country and divided us in half at the Mississippi River...we would understand why people were fighting....We should never have been there [in Vietnam]."
Chris Matthews: "There were a lot of people, Jane, who....can’t imagine slipping out of their American skin, their American soul and becoming so objective, as you just were a minute ago....How do you step out of being an American to make such an objective judgment?"
MSNBC (59 points)
Chris Matthews: "Do you think President Bush used this [emotional hug at the State of the Union between an Iraqi voter and Janet Norwood, the mother of a Marine killed in Iraq] to push his numbers on Social Security reform, just to get his general appeal up a bit, a couple of points?"
MSNBC political analyst Ron Reagan: "Well, I don’t want to speculate on what was in President Bush’s mind."
Matthews: "How about his handlers? Do you think the PR guys...around the White House did this to promote the President’s agenda?"
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough: "Please, come on."
Reagan: "Well, of course they did. Oh, sure they did."
Scarborough: "Oh, come on!...I mean, that’s just the height of cynicism."
Matthews: "No, I’m just asking you, I’m not taking sides here, but you know who makes these decisions, the PR people around the President....They make the decision about who sits in the box and where they’re seated....The only question is whether that Iraqi woman was prompted to go up and hug Janet Norwood by some staffer."
Kanye West (53 points)
"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they’re looting. See a white family, it says they’re looking for food....A lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us....George Bush doesn’t care about black people."
Rosie O’Donnell (52 points)
Rosie O’Donnell: "This President invaded a sovereign nation in defiance of the UN. He is basically a war criminal. Honestly. He should be tried at The Hague. This man lied to the American public about the reasons for invading a nation that had nothing to do with 9/11. And as a Democrat, as a member of this democracy...I feel I have a responsibility to speak out, as does every other person who disagrees with this administration. And it’s scary in a country that you can say something against the President and then worry about your career. That Dan Rather gets taken off CBS News for writing, for saying a report that essentially was true, that George Bush did not show up–"
Geraldo Rivera: "Okay, okay, we get it, we get it!"
O’Donnell: "Okay, there you go. Anyway, it infuriates me."
Kathy Griffin (46 points)
"The President is a moron! I’m saying it. I don’t care. He’s an idiot. Cheney is evil. I’m sick of, impeach them, get them out! I hate them! I hate them. Get them out. They got to go!...What is it going to take for you people? Get Bush out! Impeach. Out! Out! Out!"
Christine Lahti (44 points)
"Cindy Sheehan is my hero. She is the hero of all Americans who make up the 62 percent of us who oppose this war. As an American exercising her right to free speech, she is a brave, passionate, living example of democracy....No wonder Bush is intimidated. No wonder he can’t even walk down his driveway to speak with her. He is scared shitless. Whether he acknowledges it or not — whether his aides try to insulate him from the truth or not — his hands are covered in the blood of Cindy Sheehan’s son. They are dripping with the blood of all who have died there."
Alec Baldwin (40 points)
"Most Republicans who are registered Republicans are decent, honest good people who you have a difference of opinion with. The leadership of the Republican Party are a bunch of sociopathic maniacs who have their lips super-glued to the ass of the conservative right."
Jon Stewart (53 points)
"Hurricane Katrina is George Bush’s Monica Lewinsky. One difference, and I’ll say this, the only difference is this: That tens of thousands of people weren’t stranded in Monica Lewinsky’s vagina. That is the only difference."
Inside Washington (66 points)
NPR’s Nina Totenberg: "And let us say one other thing. For years, we have cut our taxes, cut our taxes and let the infrastructure throughout the country go, and this [Katrina damage] is just the first of a number of other crumbling things that are going to happen to us."
Charles Krauthammer: "You must be kidding here."
Moderator Gordon Peterson: "She’s not kidding."
Totenberg: "I’m not kidding."
Inside Washington (54 points)
Nina Totenberg: "I was very happy to see him [Bush] take responsibility and to not pretend that the buck stops someplace else. But it would have been a great opportunity to say, ‘Look, I’m for tax cuts, but we need a Katrina tax, we need to really pay, to do this and to pay for it.’" Moderator Gordon Peterson: "You want more taxes." Totenberg: "I want more taxes, yes."
Eleanor Clift (53 points)
"If there’s an upside to Katrina, it’s that the Republican agenda of tax cuts, Social Security privatization and slashing government programs is over. It may be too much to predict an upsurge of progressive government, but the environment and issues of poverty, race and class are back on the nation’s radar screen."
Matt Lauer (87 points)
Matt Lauer in Baghdad: "Talk to me...about morale here. We’ve heard so much about the insurgent attacks, so much about the uncertainty as to when you folks are going to get to go home. How would you describe morale?"
Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss: "In my unit morale is pretty good. Every day we go out and do our missions and people are ready to execute their missions. They’re excited to be here."
Lauer: "How much does that uncertainty of [not] knowing how long you’re going to be here impact morale?"
Specialist Steven Chitterer: "Morale is always high. Soldiers know they have a mission. They like taking on new objectives and taking on the new challenges...."
Lauer: "Don’t get me wrong here, I think you are probably telling me the truth, but a lot of people at home are wondering how that could be possible with the conditions you’re facing and with the attacks you’re facing. What would you say to those people who are doubtful that morale can be that high?"
Captain Sherman Powell: "Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I’d be pretty depressed as well."
Harry Smith (77 points)
"Do I need to be concerned that I’m going to go live with a church family, are they going to proselytize me, are they going to say, ‘You better come to church with me or else, I’m, you know, you’re not going to get your breakfast this morning’?"
NBC’s Today (66 points)
Co-host Matt Lauer: "Pain at the pump. Gas prices are going sky high. I paid $2.94 a gallon over the weekend to fill up the car." Co-host Katie Couric: "It’s ridiculous. I had to take out a loan to fill up my minivan. It’s crazy."
Carol Lin (51 points)
"It’s been 11 days since two African-American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this."
Dan Rather (38 points)
"CBS News has a culture, has a history that for those of us who work here, is very real — that we see it as a sort of magical mystical kingdom of journalistic knights — and I know I can mentally hear people rolling their eyes, that’s the way we feel."
Ted Turner (28 points)
"Cutting the [worldwide] military budgets back by ten percent and using that money to basically solve the real, the real serious poverty problems in the world would be a much better investment in fighting terrorism than — you don’t stop terrorism with tanks, you stop it with giving people hope so they won’t want to blow themselves up."
Katie Couric (20 points)
"As President Bush travels to Rome this morning along with the First Lady, Condoleezza Rice and former Presidents Bush and Clinton, the question some people are asking is where’s President Carter in all this? Are the Bushes and the Carters the modern day version of the Hatfields and the McCoys?"
John Blackstone (19 points)
"Across the nation, gas prices went to record highs today....Will it get to the point that only the privileged can afford gas?"
David Gergen (71 points)
"I see her [Hillary Clinton] in — she’s very consistent [in] what she’s always believed. She’s always had strong religious faith. She’s been a strong Methodist. She does have conservative social values on many issues."
Matt Lauer (63 points)
"Brilliant....Skilled and surprisingly self-destructive.... Despite the scandals and investigations, Bill Clinton was an incredibly popular President who connected with the American people....Under Clinton the economy boomed — deficits turned into surplus — and more than 22 million jobs were created. Along with the character flaws and the subpoenas came peace and prosperity."
Katie Couric (45 points)
"What do you hope your legacy will be?...You literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders."
NBC Nightly News (39 points)
Reporter Carl Quintanilla: "[Left-wing activist Cindy] Sheehan, say some historians, may be evolving as an icon in the war’s turning point, if this is one. For three weeks, she’s dominated headlines, mobilized protesters, both with and without relatives in Iraq."
Cindy Sheehan: "They don’t have what I like to call skin in the game, but we are all affected."
Quintanilla: "Making it safe, her supporters say, to voice doubts about the war, just as Walter Cronkite did on the Evening News in 1968....Historians say we won’t know Cindy Sheehan’s place in the war until the war itself is history."
Bill Moyers (108 points)
"I’m going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee. We have an ideological press that’s interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that’s interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don’t have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."
MSNBC’s Hardball (67 points)
Host Chris Matthews: "What do you think of this guy [ex-Talon News reporter Jeff Gannon/James Guckert]? You’re a real reporter. What do you think of this guy who says he’s a, he operates under a different name. He’s a blogger, I guess...."
Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen Hayes: "Look, at the end of the day, if we’re worried about too many conservatives in the White House press briefing room, this is a discussion that’s not, that’s not going to resonate with the American public."
Matthews: "You think it’s mostly packed with liberals? Are you saying most of those people who are paid to be journalists in that room are lib-labs, they’re liberals?"
Hayes: "Yes, of course....I don’t think there’s any — is there a debate about that?"
Matthews: "Well, there’s Helen Thomas, who I would call liberal. But who else is in there? Seriously. There are a lot of straight reporters in that room."
Time’s Margaret Carlson: "I think they’re mostly straight reporters. And I don’t think you can keep your job otherwise....Elisabeth Bumiller reports for the New York Times, which has a liberal editorial page, but she plays it straight down the middle."
FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor (52 points)
FNC’s Bill O’Reilly: "Now the right wing thinks you’re a raving liberal, you and Rather contrived to put Bush in the worst possible light....So are you a liberal?"
Fired CBS News producer Mary Mapes: "Well, I’m not sure what a liberal is. I’m more liberal than some people. I can tell you my eight-year-old son thinks he’s being raised by the most conservative parents in the world...."
O’Reilly: "Are you registered Democrat?"
Mapes: "You know, I don’t know....I don’t know if I’m independent or Democrat. I know I’m not — in Texas, I’m not sure how I’m registered."
O’Reilly: "So you would describe yourself politically as?"
Mapes: "Oh, my goodness. I’m liberal on some things, I’m conservative on some things."
Dan Rather (46 points)
"One way a reporter in this country should be judged is how well he or she stands up to the pressure to intimidate. I remember the first time someone accused me of being an ‘N-lover.’ There was a lot of that during the ‘60s when I covered the civil rights movement. Then you move forward from civil rights into the Vietnam War....’We’re going to hang a sign around you which calls you some bad name: anti-military, anti-American, anti-war.’ Then, when Watergate came into being....was the first time I began to hear this word ‘liberal’ as an epithet thrown my way....People who have very strong biases of their own, they come at you with a story: ‘If you won’t report it the way I want it reported, then you’re biased.’ Now, it is true about me, for better or for worse, if you want to see my neck swell, you just try to tell me where to line up or what to think and mostly what to report."
Inside Washington (81 points)
Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas: "Is this attack [on public broadcasting’s budget] going to make NPR a little less liberal?"
NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg: "I don’t think we’re liberal to begin with, and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would know that."
Thomas: "I do listen to you and you’re not that liberal, but you’re a little bit liberal."
Totenberg: "No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s a fair criticism, I really don’t — any more than, any more than you would say that Newsweek is liberal."
Thomas: "I think Newsweek is a little liberal."
Marie Arana (75 points)
"The elephant in the newsroom is our narrowness. Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions....We’re not very subtle about it at this paper: If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I’ve been in communal gatherings in The Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats."
The Hugh Hewitt Show (55 points)
Host Hugh Hewitt: "Are there members of the White House press corps, Terry, who actually hate Bush?"
ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran: "I would say the answer to that is yes."
Hewitt: "And what percentage of them, do you think that amounts to?"
Moran: "Uh, small, I would say, but some big fish."
Hewitt: "What’s your guess about the percentage of the White House press corps that voted for Kerry?"
Moran: "Oh, very high. Very, very high."
Hewitt: "95 percent?"
Moran: "No, I don’t think that high....Upwards of 70 [percent], maybe higher....I would say very, very high...."
ABC’s Good Morning America
Reporter Brian Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes report on President Bush’s National Guard service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing...."
Ross to Mapes: "Do you still think that story was true?"
Ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes: "The story? Absolutely."
Ross: "This seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards."
Mapes: "I’m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there’s proof that I haven’t seen."
Ross: "But isn’t it the other way around? Don’t you have to prove they’re authentic?"
Mapes: "Well, I think that’s what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet."
Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn’t that really what journalists do?"
Mapes: "No, I don’t think that’s the standard."
CNN’s The Situation Room
Ted Turner: "I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There’s really no reason for them to cheat [on nukes]....I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth. You know, just because somebody’s done something wrong in the past doesn’t mean they can’t do right in the future or the present. That happens all the, all the time."
Wolf Blitzer: "But this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong-Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn’t that a fair assessment?"
Turner: "Well, I didn’t get to meet him, but he didn’t look — in the pictures that I’ve seen of him on CNN, he didn’t look too much different than most other people."
Blitzer: "But, look at the way, look at the way he’s, look at the way he’s treating his own people."
Turner: "Well, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but–"
Blitzer: "A lot of those people are starving."
Turner: "I didn’t see any, I didn’t see any brutality...."
Lee Anderson, Associate Publisher and Editor, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Chuck Asay, editorial cartoonist, The Gazette in Colorado Springs
Brent H. Baker, MRC’s Vice President for Research and Publications; Editor of CyberAlert and Editor-at-Large of NewsBusters.org
Mark Belling, radio talk show host, WISN-AM in Milwaukee
L. Brent Bozell III, President of the Media Research Center
Priscilla L. Buckley, author, Living It Up with National Review
Blanquita Cullum, President, Young American Broadcasters and radio talk show host
Bill Cunningham, radio talk show host, WLW in Cincinnati
Midge Decter, author
Bob Dutko, radio talk show host, WMUZ in Detroit
Jim Eason, San Francisco radio talk show host emeritus
Larry Elder, syndicated radio talk show host and columnist
Eric Fettmann, Associate Editorial Page Editor, New York Post
Greg Garrison, radio talk show host, WIBC in Indianapolis
David Gold, radio host, WBAP(Dallas) & KSFO (San Francisco)
Michael Graham, radio talk show host, WTKK in Boston
Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis, Media Research Center
Steven Greenhut, senior editorial writer and columnist, Orange County Register
Stephen Hayes, Senior Writer for The Weekly Standard
Kirk Healy, Executive Producer, WDBO Radio in Orlando
Matthew Hill, Operations Manager at WPWT, Tri-Cities of Tenn/Va
Quin Hillyer, editorial writer and columnist for the Mobile Register
Fred Honsberger, radio talk show host, KDKA in Pittsburgh
Jeff Jacoby, columnist for the Boston Globe
Marie Kaigler, Detroit-based mass media and developmental consultant
Cliff Kincaid, Editor, Accuracy in Media
Mark Larson, radio talk show host, KOGO in San Diego
Jason Lewis, radio talk show host, WBT in Charlotte
Kathryn Jean Lopez, Editor of National Review Online
Michelle Malkin, syndicated columnist, author and FNC contributor
Patrick McGuigan, arts commentator, MidCity Advocate (Okla. City)
Colin McNickle, editorial page editor and columnist, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Jan Mickelson, radio talk show host, WHO in Des Moines and WMT in Cedar Rapids
Wes Minter, radio talk show host
Robert D. Novak, syndicated columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times
Rich Noyes, Director of Research, Media Research Center
Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of National Review
Marvin Olasky, journalism professor University of Texas at Austin; Editor-in-Chief of World
Janet Parshall, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
Henry Payne, editorial cartoonist, The Detroit News
Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, Editorial Director, The American Spectator
Chris Reed, editorial writer, San Diego Union-Tribune
Mike Rosen, radio talk show host, KOA in Denver; columnist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News
William A. Rusher, Distinguished Fellow, Claremont Institute
James Taranto, Editor, OpinionJournal.com
Philip Terzian, Books & Arts Editor, The Weekly Standard
Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist; panelist on FNC’s Newswatch
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., Editor-in-Chief, The American Spectator
Chris Warden, Assistant professor, Hall School of Journalism, Troy University
Clay Waters, Editor of the MRC’s TimesWatch.org
Walter E. Williams, economics professor at George Mason University
Thomas S. Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Human Events
"THE MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER'S 'BEST,'" an op-ed by Patrick McGuigan published in the January 5, 2006 Tulsa Today. Originally posted here.
More than a year after one of the most shocking news media scandals in history, producer Mary Mapes continues to defend as “absolutely” true the “news” report that brought a premature end to CBS News Anchor Dan Rather's long career. At the height of the 2004 presidential campaign, the CBS Evening News claimed to have documentary evidence of special treatment, dereliction of duty and other wrongdoing by President George W. Bush during his time, as a young pilot, in the Air National Guard.
In a November 9, 2005 exchange with reporter Brian Ross on ABC's “Good Morning America,” Mapes said she still believed the report was true. She even said she remains convinced the documents on which CBS based its broadcasts – papers proven by Internet 'bloggers' and media analysts to be fradulent – were reliable. Ross was incredulous that Mapes still defended the broadcast, which Rather and CBS executives eventually recanted. He pressed his point in this exchange:
Ross: That seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards.
Mapes: I'm perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there's proof I haven't seen.
Ross: But isn't it the other way around? Don't you have to prove they're authentic?
Mapes: Well, I think that's what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet.
Ross: Have they proved to be authentic, though? Isn't that what journalists do?
Mapes: No, I don't think that's the standard.
Mapes' pathetic defense of the most discredited mainsteam TV news story in recent history “won” designation as 2005 Quote of the Year in the Media Research Center's 18th annual compilation.
One can agree or disagree about particular examples of media bias. But I believe there is little room for argument about certain things after studying, as one of 52 judges for the center, literally hundreds of examples of “mainstream” national news media bias.
The arrogance, pretentiousness, irresponsbility, meanness and misplaced sense of superiority of key players in American journalism remain undimmed, even after several years of wrenching scandals involving The New York Times, major broadcast news organizations and icons of the liberal establishment. Utterly merciless in their judgments of everyone to the right of Arizona Sen. John McCain, the national media's leading lights are so focused on splinters in the eyes of favorite targets that they cannot see the beams in their own.
The Media Research Center regularly chronicles the worst reporting and commentary in the “mainstream” national press corps. For nearly two decades, the Center's annual compilation of the good, the bad and the ugly in the national news media has gained widespread coverage in that same media, with infrequent and largely ineffective rebuttals.
A few national players in journalism (Sam Donaldson particularly stands out) have participated in MRC forums to defend reporting practices, but most of the big-name media stars try to avoid giving MRC the credit it deserves.
My own choice for 2005 “Quote of the Year” was a gem from Brian Williams, anchor for NBC Nightly News. On September 8, he issued this litle diatribe concerning America's reponse to Hurricane Katrina. The comments came on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show,” his ending cut short by uproarious laughter and applause from the studio audience:
“You know, I've been to some pretty lousy places in my life. And Iraq over the past 12 months and Banda Aceh, open graves and bodies. These were Americans, and everyone watching the coverage all week, that kind of reached its peak last weekend, kept saying the same refrain: 'How is this happening in the United States?' And the other refrain was, had this been Nantucket, had this been Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, Los Angels, how many choppers would have -- ”
Admittedly, some personal bias was in play as I evaluated Williams comments. Two members of my family and several close friends, members of various units of the Oklahoma National Guard, were in New Orleans almost immediately after Hurricane Katrina's devastation. They didn't have time to appear on Comedy Central, or even to watch it. For weeks, they and thousands of other military personnel and civilians worked tirelessly to rescue people trapped on rooftops and in unsafe homes. They patrolled streets where criminals and looters were terrorizing residents who had refused to evacuate, taking the place of a local police force that had evaporated in the face of unpredented crisis. They began the repair of levees that could not withstand the storm, at least in part because federal money intended for repair and strengthening had, years before, been diverted by local officials to favored political pork.
The citizen-soldiers went where their president and governor told them to go – and they would have gone there even if it had been Nantucket, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami or Los Angeles. They did more to help the people of New Orleans in a few weeks than Williams and all his like-minded cronies will do in several lifetimes.
The competition for MRC's Quote of the Year flows from a broad array of categories with titles both serious and humorous, including these Awards: Slam Uncle Sam, “God Save This Court” From Extremists, Damn Those Conservatives, Captain Dan the Forgery Man, “Baghdad Bob” Was Correct, “Crazy Chris” (Chris Matthews), Media Millionaires for Smaller Paychecks, Good Morning Morons, the Politics of Meaninglessness, and Media Hero (Hillary Clinton was the winner). Gaining special recognition were awards named to “honor” rapper Kayne West and Barbra Streisand (a perennial favorite).
Two personal favorite categories: “What Liberal Media? Award” and “Oh, That Liberal Media Award.”
As winner in the first category I chose an assertion by Time Magazine's Margaret Carlson that reporters for The New York Times play their stories “straight down the middle.” But my judging colleagues chose for the top award a jewel from retiring PBS icon Bill Moyers, who claimed much of the U.S. Press is now a propaganda arm of the Republican party. (Actually, Moyers had a point in hitting the mainstream press for being more concerned with “the bottom line” than independent reporting – a subject that might be worthy of future exploration.)
In the “Ah-Ha!” category of “Oh, That Liberal Media,” my personal choice was made for positive reasons, honoring this flash of honesty from John Harwood, political editor for The Wall Street Journal: “I believe it is true that a significant chunk of the press believes that Democrats are incompetent but good-hearted, and Republicans are very efficient but evil.” A plurality of the judges, however, awarded “first place” to an exchange between Evan Thomas, an assistant editor at Newsweek, and Nina Totenberg, legal correspondent for National Public Radio. In the dialogue from “Inside Washington,” Thomas admitted seeing “a little liberal” bias at Newsweek. Totenberg disagreed and also claimed NPR is not biased in favor of the political Left.
The Media Research Center (MRC) is the brainchild of conservative columnist L. Brent Bozell III. Day in and day out, Bozell's staff tracks every national television broadcast and the nation's largest daily newspapers. While the center is best known for this annual critical assessment of media bias, it also issues periodic compilations of outstanding examples of journalistic integrity and compassion – including the work of many who often “win” the bias awards.
The Media Research Center is an important and healthy corrective to an ingrained bigoty that now permeates the highest levels of American journalism. Rather than give up on the possibility of fair and balanced news reporting and rational commentary, Bozell and the center's staff work carefully and continuously to hold the national press corps accountable.
After the attacks on America in September 2001, Bozell singled out several of Dan Rather's reports for particular praise. MRC is methodical and meticulous, scouring literally thousands of pieces of information to identify the best, and worst, the U.S. Media has to offer.
Judges for the MRC “Notable Quotables” are conservative and libertarian journalists, most of them working in sometimes hostile circumstances in newsrooms and on editorial boards, in academic posts and other posts. Some are we-known commentators.
Prominent judges include Midge Dector, radio commentator Larry Elder, Mobile Register writer Quin Hillyer, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, the sainted Cal Thomas, former National Review publisher William Rusher, Kathryn Jean Lope of National Review Online, author Priscilla Buckley, radio talk host Wes Minter, Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid, Human Events editor Thomas S. Winter and many others. I've served as a judge for most of MRC's history.
To study the full body of this year's “greatest hits” and decide for yourself, the MRC's 8-page compilation of 2005's controversial, dubious and outrageous news coverage and commentary is available online at www.mrc.org. You'll also find video and audio clips of all the quotes at the site. The Media Research Center's work is highly recommended, and sincerely commended.
About the Author: Former Capitol Editor for Tulsa Today, McGuigan is Oklahoma's Deputy Commissioner of Labor. His essays on politics, arts, law and culture appear regularly in The MidCity Advocate (Oklahoma City), Tulsa Today and other fine publications.
“From media liberals' mouths,” an editorial on the Free Press editorial page of the January 3, 2006 Chattanooga Times Free Press. (Available online only by paid subscription.)
The best proof of the nearly lock step liberal bias of the major news media has always been remarks from reporters and media bigwigs themselves. We point that out on the occasion of the Media Research Center¹s annual announcement of dubious “awards” for obvious examples of liberal reporting in 2005. Judges from around the nation -- including this editorial page -- weighed numerous quotations from the past year to select the worst of the worst.
Here are some “winners” and runners-up:
* Andrea Mitchell of NBC Nightly News pondered whether Iran¹s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was among the violent radicals who took Americans hostage during the Carter administration. Brian Williams responded, “Andrea, what would it all matter if proven true? ... (T)he first several U.S. presidents ... might have been called terrorists at the time by the British Crown, after all.” Ms. Mitchell replied, “Indeed, Brian.”
* Discussing President George W. Bush’s criticism of the Yalta agreement, in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill surrendered Eastern Europe to Communist Soviet enslavement, Newsweek’s Jon Meacham disgustingly declared, “It’s like he (Mr. Bush) stuck a broomstick in his (Roosevelt’s) wheelchair wheels.”
* “I think you’re going to hear that word (impeachment) come up, and if the Democrats ever capture either house of Congress, there are going to be serious proceedings against this administration,” Eleanor Clift of Newsweek said on The McLaughlin Group.
* A headline over a New York Times article on Supreme Court nominee Judge John Roberts read, “An Advocate for the Right,” while a 1993 headline on an article about far-left nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg read, “Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle.”
* “The day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I’ll kill myself. All we need is one more liar,” said columnist and former reporter Helen Thomas.
* “The story is accurate,” former CBS Evening News anchorman Dan Rather declared of a story about Mr. Bush’s National Guard service, even after the key “evidence” for the story -- phony memos -- had been debunked.
* MSNBC’s Hardball host, Chris Matthews, asked radical anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, “Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?” When she said she wasn’t, he pressed, “Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. congresspeople, so maybe you should run.”
* On CBS’s Early Show, co-host Harry Smith asked author and pastor Rick Warren about families who were generously taking in refugees from Hurricane Katrina: “Do I need to be concerned that I’m going to go live with a church family, are they going to proselytize me, are they going to say, ‘You better come to church with me or else I’m, you know, you¹re not going to get your breakfast this morning’?”
* CNN founder Ted Turner told Wolf Blitzer of CNN, “I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There’s really no reason for them to cheat (by producing nuclear weapons). ... I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth.” Asked about Communist North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il’s savagery toward his people, Mr. Turner replied, “Well, I didn’t get to meet him, but he didn’t look -- in the pictures that I’ve seen of him on CNN, he didn’t look too much different than most other people. ... I didn’t see any brutality.”
The MRC also noted a few times when journalists acknowledged bias. “Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions,” Washington “Post Book World” editor Maria Arana noted in an in-house critique. “If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I’ve been in communal gatherings in The Post, watching election returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my colleagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats.”
We wish that candor prevailed throughout the industry.
“HOIST BY THEIR OWN PETARD,” an editorial in the December 31, 2005 New York Post. Originally posted here.
For 18 years, the Media Research Center has been compiling its list of "notable quotables." The quotes, from prominent members of the mainstream news media, provide a clear window into the leftist mindset that pervades most of America's large news organizations. At year's end, the center (aided by a panel of judges) chooses the "best" examples. As usual, this year's crop tellingly reveals the media's perennial contempt for all things conservative. Actually, the winners more or less explain themselves. (The full set of winners and finalists can be found at the center's Web site, mrc.org.) Happy New Year!
Madness of King George Award
"It's like [President Bush] stuck a broomstick in [FDR's] wheelchair wheels." -- Newsweek's Jon Meacham, on MSNBC, discussing Bush's criticism of Franklin Roosevelt's Yalta deal with Stalin on post-WWII Europe
The Kanye West Award
"The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week [after Hurricane Katrina] has been outrageous. . . .The churchgoing cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts." -- Former New York Times editor Howell Raines, writing in the Los Angeles Times
Captain Dan the Forgery Man Award
"My principal problem was that I stuck by the [Memogate] story, I stuck by our people too long. I'm guilty of that. I believed in the story, and the facts of the story were correct. One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was called into question. To this day, no one has proven whether it was purported to be or not. You know, I didn't give up on my people, our people. I didn't, and I won't. . . .The story was accurate." -- Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, interviewed by Marvin Kalb on C-SPAN
Crazy Chris Award for Left-Wing Lunacy
"Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?. . .I have to tell you, you sound more informed that most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run." -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews to antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan on Hardball
Barbra Streisand Celebrity Vacuity Award
"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food. . . . A lot of the people who could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us. . . .George Bush doesn't care about black people." -- Rapper Kanye West during NBC's Concert for Hurricane Relief
Media Millionaire for Smaller Paychecks Award
"For years we have cut our taxes, cut our taxes and let the infrastructure throughout the country go, and this [Katrina damage] is just the first of a number of other crumbling things that are going to happen to us. . . .I'm not kidding." -- National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg, on Inside Washington
Politics of Meaninglessness Award
"It's been 11 days since two African-American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this." -- CNN anchor Carol Lin on the French riots. The two teens were French citizens of Tunisian origin, not Americans
What Liberal Media? Award
"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee. We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people." -- Former PBS host Bill Moyers, quoted by the Associated Press
Oh, That Liberal Media Award
Newsweek's Evan Thomas: "Is this attack [on public broadcasting's budget] going to make NPR a little less liberal?" NPR's Nina Totenberg: "I don't think we're liberal to begin with, and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would know that." Thomas: "I do listen to you, and you're not that liberal, but you're a little bit liberal." -- Exchange on Inside Washington
'Baghdad Bob' Was Right Award
"I think there's going to be a bloodbath on Sunday. . . .All over the place, especially in Baghdad and a few other cities." -- Fox News Channel's Steve Harrigan, just back from Iraq, two days before Iraq's largely peaceful election
Quote of the Year
CBS "Memogate" producer Mary Mapes: "I'm perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there's proof I haven't seen." ABC's Brian Ross: "But isn't it the other way around? Don't you have to prove they're authentic?" Mapes: "Well, I think that's what critics of the story would say. . . .I think they have not been proved to be false yet." Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic, though? Isn't that really what journalists do?" Mapes: "No, I don't think that's the standard." -- Exchange on Good Morning America
“Liberals shine in media,” a column by Mike Rosen in the December 30, 2005 Rocky Mountain News. Originally posted here.
It's time for the 18th annual Media Research Center's awards for the most biased, manipulative or downright goofy quotes from liberals in the "mainstream" media. I'm honored to serve, once again, on MRC's distinguished panel of conservatively biased judges. Here are some of the highlights from among the winners and runners-up of Best Notable Quotables of 2005:
Quote of the Year
Reporter Brian Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather's 60 Minutes report on President Bush's National Guard service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing . . ." Ross to Mapes: "Do you still think that story was true?" Ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes: "The story? Absolutely." Ross: "This seems remarkable to me that you would sit there now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards." Mapes: "I'm perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there's proof that I haven't seen." Ross: "But isn't it the other way around? Don't you have to prove they're authentic?" Mapes: "Well, I think that's what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet." Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn't that really what journalists do?" Mapes: "No, I don't think that's the standard." -- on ABC's Good Morning America, Nov. 9
Damn Those Conservatives Award
"The day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself. All we need is one more liar." -- Hearst Newspapers White House columnist Helen Thomas, as quoted in the Under the Dome column in The Hill newspaper, July 28
Crazy Chris Award for Chris Matthews' Left-Wing Lunacy
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan: "We're not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and goodwill in the Middle East by killing innocent people or -- I'm not even saying our bullets and bombs killing them. The occupation that - they don't have food, they don't have clean water, they don't have electricity. They don't have medicine, they don't have doctors. We need to get our military presence out of there, and that's what's gonna start building goodwill . . . I see Iraq as a base for spreading imperialism . . ." Host Chris Matthews: "Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?" Sheehan: "No, not this time . . ." Matthews: "OK. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. congresspeople, so maybe you should run." -- exchange on MSNBC's Hardball, Aug. 15
God Save This Court from Extremists Award
"An Advocate for the Right." -- headline over a New York Times "news analysis" of Judge John Roberts' judicial philosophy, July 28
"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle." -- headline over a New York Times story on Clinton Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg, June 27, 1993
Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis
"It's been 11 days since two African-American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this." -- anchor Carol Lin after a Nov. 6 CNN Sunday Night story about the riots in France; the two teenagers were not Americans, but French citizens of Tunisian heritage
Good Morning Morons Award
Co-host Matt Lauer: "Pain at the pump. Gas prices are going sky high. I paid $2.94 a gallon over the weekend to fill up the car." Co-host Katie Couric: "It's ridiculous. I had to take out a loan to fill up my minivan. It's crazy." -- exchange at the top of NBC's Today, Aug. 15; Couric makes about $15 million a year
Oh, That Liberal Media Award
Newsweek's Evan Thomas: "Is this attack on [public broadcasting's budget] going to make NPR a little less liberal?" NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg: "I don't think we're liberal to begin with, and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would know that." Thomas: "I do listen to you and you're not that liberal, but you're a little bit liberal." Totenberg: "No, I don't think so. I don't think that's a fair criticism, I really don't -- any more than, any more than you would say that Newsweek is liberal." Thomas: "I think Newsweek is a little liberal." -- exchange on the June 28 Inside Washington
If your stomach is strong enough to handle the complete awards list, you can get it on-line at www.mediaresearch.org.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
A printable Adobe Acrobat PDF of the "Best of NQ" awards issue is included here for your convenience.
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In addition to discussions on numerous radio talk shows where hosts cited quotes or interviewed MRC representatives, the Best of NQ Awards issue has been highlighted by these outlets:
December 20, 2006 editorial in the "Media Monitor" column of The Jewish Press: "In Their Own Words."Media Research Center's 'Best,'" published in the Tulsa Today.Text as posted by MRC.
January 3 editorial, “From media liberals' mouths,” on the Free Press editorial page of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Text as posted by MRC.
DDecember 31 New York Post editorial: "Hoist By Their Own Petard." Text as posted by MRC.
December 30 column by Mike Rosen in Denver's Rocky Mountain News: “Liberals Shine in Media.” Text as posted by MRC.
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