Winning Quotes in the MRC’s Best of NQ Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting
The winning quotes in the MRC’s “Best Notable Quotables of 2014: The Twenty-Seventh Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting,” which this year we’ve dubbed the “Worst of the Worst.” As announced in a December 18 CyberAlert Special, the awards issue was posted, with videos, that day, and a category a day has been posted on our NewsBusters blog. (All of the NewsBusters posts by Rich Noyes)
Today and tomorrow the MRC.org’s BiasAlert and corresponding CyberAlert e-mail newsletter will run the winning quotes followed by the top runners-up in 14 categories.
The page linked above also has links for the text of the entire issue in MS Word or WordPerfect formats as well as a colorful and easily read-able PDF version.
Some judges have already posted their takes on the quotes. In addition to several talk radio segments:
# Mike Rosen in the Denver Post: “Liberal media ravings of 2014”
# “Here Are the Most Biased Media Quotes of 2014,” by Genevieve Wood on TheDailySignal.
# From Quin Hillyer on National Review Online: “H8ers Gotta H8: In 2014, the media delivered a torrent of anti-conservative bile”
# Plus, MRC President Brent Bozell discussed the awards on FNC’s Hannity. Video.
To determine this year’s winners, a panel of 40 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers, and expert media observers each selected their choices for the first, second and third best quote from a slate of five to seven quotes in each category [List of Judges]. First place selections were awarded three points, second place choices two points, with one point for the third place selections. Point totals are listed alongside each quote. Each judge was also asked to choose a “Quote of the Year” denoting the most outrageous quote of 2014.
The MRC’s Kristine Lawrence distributed the ballots and tabulated the results. Senior news analyst Scott Whitlock rounded up the numerous video clips included in the Web-posted version. Rich Noyes and Brent Baker assembled this issue and Brad Ash posted the entire package to the MRC’s Web site.
The list of the judges, who were generous with their time, is posted online and listed below after the winning quotes.
> Now, the winning quotes in the 14 award categories, plus Quote of the Year (see the “Best Notable Quotables of 2014" pages for video and audio clips for the quotes):
The Move Along, Nothing to See Here Award
for Denying Obama’s Scandals
✔ “We’re not going to be shamed into it [covering the Benghazi hearings] by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something. If it’s of real news value, we’ll cover it.”
— CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker to New York Times television reporter Bill Carter at a Deadline Club event May 19, as quoted the next day by Nicole Levy in a Capital New York article. [52 points]
The Obamagasm Award
✔ “You know, I’m a Christian preacher, and God finally said, ‘Look, I can’t send nobody else. I got to go myself.’ And I ain’t saying that Obama is Jesus, but for many of his followers he is.”
— MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson on Melissa Harris-Perry, August 23, arguing for Obama to visit Ferguson, Missouri. [70 points]
The Blue State Brigade Award
for Biased Campaign Coverage
✔ “It’s not a substantive argument. It was a scare tactic by the Republican opponents of Democratic incumbents, who tried to focus on ISIS and Ebola in the scariest, most non-factual ways, to take the eye off the real issues.”
— NBC’s Andrea Mitchell during MSNBC’s election night coverage, November 4. [57 points]
The Media Hero Award
✔ “I would just like to say that I’m honored to be meeting you. I watched those hearings, as did so many other people. And to so many of us, you were our heroine.”
— Longtime ABC News anchor Barbara Walters to law professor Anita Hill, who accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment before his 1991 confirmation, on ABC’s The
View, March 19. [74 points]
The Planet in Peril Award
for Climate Hysteria
✔ “Man-made climate change happens. Man-made climate change kills a lot of people. It’s going to kill a lot more. We have laws on the books to punish anyone whose lies contribute to people’s deaths. It’s time to punish the climate-change liars....Denialists should face jail. They should face fines....I’m talking about Rush and his multi-million-dollar ilk in the disinformation business. I’m talking about Americans for Prosperity and the businesses and billionaires who back its obfuscatory propaganda....Those malcontents must be punished and stopped.”
— Gawker.com staff writer Adam Weinstein in a March 28 post, “Arrest Climate-Change Deniers.” [70 points]
The Obama’s Orderlies Award
for Championing ObamaCare
✔ “We got a report today about ObamaCare that was both surprising and widely misunderstood. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said about two million Americans are likely to pass up full-time jobs because of the President’s health insurance program. Those aren’t necessarily jobs being lost. They’re also workers choosing to work less.”
— Anchor Scott Pelley on the CBS Evening News, February 4. [63 points]
The Ku Klux Con Job Award
for Smearing Conservatives with Phony Racism Charges
✔ “Killing the black vote. This is Hardball....Good evening, I’m Chris Matthews in Washington. This is rotten stuff, isn’t it? The Republican effort to kill the black vote in state after state: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Texas. We can all see what they’re doing. Believing they can’t convert the African American vote, they’ve decided to slaughter it....This is murder in broad daylight.”
— Chris Matthews opening MSNBC’s Hardball, October 21. [65 points]
Damn Those Conservatives Award
✔ “Okay. I’m just going to come right out and say it: This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across — well, come across in a long time anyway. A massive brawl in Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly involving Sarah Palin’s kids and her husband. It was sparked after someone pushed one of her daughters at a party....And now police have released audio of that interview. It does include some rather colorful language from Bristol. Here now is Bristol’s recollection of how that night unfolded. So sit back and enjoy.”
— CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello on October 22, introducing audio of Bristol Palin describing how a man shoved her, dragged her on the ground and repeatedly cursed at her. [65 points]
The Pantsuit Patrol Award
for Boosting Hillary Clinton
✔ “I think you’ve been on our ‘most fascinating’ list more than anyone, and — and you were THE most fascinating....No matter what their political views, you are someone we admire — and, for me, it’s more than admiration — it’s very deep affection, and I thank you for coming on....No matter what she does, she will always, to me, be the most fascinating.”
— Barbara Walters to Hillary Clinton on Walters’ last day as co-host of ABC’s The View, May 16. [63 points]
America’s Royal Baby Award
✔ “Move over, Prince George. This morning, Americans have their own royal, or, rather, presidential baby, to look forward to.”
— Correspondent Bianna Golodryga on ABC’s Good Morning America, April 18. [61 points]
MSNBC = Mean-Spirited, Nasty, Belligerent Chris Award
✔ “If only the people who voted in 2010 show up this November, you can kiss all this goodbye. You’ll see the beginning of the end to what could have been — what many of us believe should have been — an historic turn toward full democratic government in this country....It will be a double-downing of efforts to suppress the votes of those who voted for him in historic numbers, the return to something like Jim Crow days, redolent of all the old anti-black gimmickry of that time — literacy tests and poll taxes and all the rest. The goal will be to erase not just Obama from the history books, but any evidence that someone of his background should ever think of being President. It will mean victory for the haters.”
— MSNBC’s Chris Matthews opening the January 7 Hardball. [60 points]
The Twisted Tweets Award
✔ “Rick Perry sending 1,000 National Guard troops to border to shoot small children. Could make good headlines — in Russia.”
— Tweet from Politico’s chief political columnist Roger Simon, July 21. [60 points]
The Audacity of Dopes Award
for the Wackiest Analysis of the Year
✔ “Every media organization has investigated this [Benghazi] to death. This animates the right wing of the Republican Party. And I would like to point out that Ambassador [Chris] Stevens was not murdered. He died of smoke inhalation in the safe room in that CIA installation.”
— The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, May 11. [85 points]
The Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award
for Celebrity Vapidity
✔ “I am one of your biggest fans, if not the biggest, and have been since the inception of your campaign....It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass...You’re so handsome that I can’t speak properly.”
— Actress Gwyneth Paltrow introducing President Obama at an October 9 DNC fundraiser held at her Los Angeles home. [83 points]
Quote of the Year
✔ “Okay. I’m just going to come right out and say it: This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across — well, come across in a long time anyway. A massive brawl in Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly involving Sarah Palin’s kids and her husband. It was sparked after someone pushed one of her daughters at a party....And now police have released audio of that interview. It does include some rather colorful language from Bristol. Here now is Bristol’s recollection of how that night unfolded. So sit back and enjoy.”
— CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello on October 22, introducing audio of Bristol Palin describing how a man shoved her, dragged her on the ground and repeatedly cursed at her.
> The 40 judges:
# Brent H. Baker, MRC’s Vice President for Research & Publications; Editor at Large of the MRC’s NewsBusters blog
# Mark Belling, radio talk show host, WISN-AM in Milwaukee
# Neal Boortz, retired nationally syndicated radio talk show host
# L. Brent Bozell III, Founder and President of the Media Research Center
# Monica Crowley, news analyst for the Fox News Channel, nationally syndicated talk radio host and online opinion editor for the Washington Times
# Mark Davis, talk host on KSKY (660 AM The Answer) in Dallas-Ft. Worth and Salem Radio Network; Dallas Morning News columnist
# Midge Decter, author; Heritage Foundation Board of Trustees
# Bob Dutko, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, WMUZ in Detroit
# Jim Eason, retired radio talk show host
# Erick Erickson, Editor of RedState.com
# Eric Fettmann, Associate Editorial Page Editor, New York Post
# Lucianne Goldberg, publisher of Lucianne.com media forum
# Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis, Media Research Center; Executive Editor of the MRC’s NewsBusters blog
# Quin Hillyer, contributing editor to National Review
# Mark Hyman, commentator, Behind the Headlines, for the Sinclair Broadcast Group
# Jeff Jacoby, syndicated Boston Globe columnist
# Cliff Kincaid, Director, Accuracy in Media’s Center for Investigative Journalism
# Mark Larson, radio talk show host, KCBQ-AM 1170 ; news analyst for KUSI-TV in San Diego
# Mark Levin, nationally syndicated radio talk show host; President, Landmark Legal Foundation
# Jeffrey Lord, blogger for NewsBusters and contributing editor to The American Spectator
# Steve Malzberg, host of The Steve Malzberg Show on NewsmaxTV
# Patrick McGuigan, Editor of CapitolBeatOK.com and Publisher of The City Sentinel in Oklahoma City
# Vicki McKenna, host, the Vicki Mckenna Show on WIBA and Madison and WISN in Milwaukee
# Jan Mickelson, radio talk show host, WHO in Des Moines
# Rich Noyes, Director of Research, Media Research Center; Senior Editor of the MRC’s NewsBusters blog
# Kate O’Beirne, former Washington Editor of National Review
# Marvin Olasky, Editor-in-Chief of World News Group
# Katie Pavlich, News Editor for TownHall.com
# James Pinkerton, Fox News contributor
# Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, Editorial Director, The American Spectator
# Chris Reed, editorial writer, San Diego Union-Tribune
# Mike Rosen, radio host at KOA; columnist for the Denver Post
# Tron Simpson, radio host at TronShow.com and KVOR in Colorado Springs
# James Taranto, editorial board member, The Wall Street Journal and Editor of “Best of the Web Today”
# Cal Thomas, syndicated and USA Today columnist and Fox News contributor
# David Webb, SiriusXM radio talk host; Fox News contributor
# Walter E. Williams, Professor of economics, George Mason University
# Thomas S. Winter, Editor-in-Chief emeritus of Human Events
# Genevieve Wood, Senior Contributor to The Daily Signal
# Martha Zoller, Editor-in-Chief of zpolitics.com
Links for Web sites affiliated with the judges.
Tomorrow (Tuesday): The first runners-up.
— Brent Baker is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Follow Brent Baker on Twitter.
