The Worst of the Worst: The Best Notable Quotables of 2015

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Ku Klux Con Job Award
for Smearing Conservatives With Phony Racism Charges

The “What Difference Does It Make” Award
for Denying Hillary’s Scandals

Ruining the Revolution Award

Damn Those Conservatives Award

The Pantsuit Patrol Award
for Boosting Hillary Clinton

The Hopeless Haters Award
for Denigrating the Conservative Candidates

Harsh to the Huddled Masses Award

The Audacity of Dopes Award
for the Wackiest Analysis of the Year

The Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award
for Celebrity Vapidity

Quote of the Year

2015 NQ Judges

Media Coverage

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:

Print:

Denver Post, column by Mike Rosen on December 20: "2015's worst progressive propaganda"
World magazine, by Marvin Olasky, posted on December 22 (Jan. 9, 2016 print publication): "Old every evening: Mainstream media year in review"
Column by Brent Bozell and Tim Graham, in the December 28 Investor's Business Daily, "Worst Reporting and Punditry of 2015" (online Dec. 24); as posted on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
Syndicated column by Cal Thomas, as posted on NewsBusters: "Taking Stock of Big Media's March Toward Oblivion"; on FoxNews.com, with video commentary: "Will the mainstream media corrupt our country even more in 2016?"

Online:

Charisma News on December 17: "2015's Best Examples of Bad Media Reporting"
Global Dispatch on December 18: "MRC names Melissa Harris-Perry the Worst of 2015 for offensive 'hard worker' is a racist term"
Washington Examiner, by Paul Bedard, on December 28: "Top media dopes and their wacky words of 2015"
CaptolBeatOK, by Patrick McGuigan on January 3, 2016: "The Nation's Best of the Worst Reporting for 2015, from the Media Research Center"
World magazine, by Marvin Olasky on December 31: "More from our wacky media pundits"

Video:

One America News Network's Tipping Point segment with Ken Shepherd on December 18. Video
Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends Saturday segment with Rich Noyes on December 19. Video.
Newsmax TV's Steve Malzberg Show segment with Tim Graham on December 22. Video
FoxNews.com's Bias Bash posted December 28. Video commentary by Cal Thomas: "Top 5 worst examples of media bias in 2015"

Radio:

Partial list (not including discussions by hosts without a guest): Interviews with MRC staff include appearances on WBAP (Dallas), KRC (Cincinnati), KPRZ (San Diego), WTMJ (Milwaukee), KFAB (Omaha), WPTF (Raleigh, NC), WQSC (Charleston, SC), WDEL (Wilmington, DE), KVOR (Colorado Springs), WWNC (Asheville, NC), WINA (Charlottesville, VA) and KBAR (Twin Falls, ID)

Quote of the Year

Melissa Harris-Perry

Alfonso Aguilar, Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles: “If there’s somebody who is a hard worker when he goes to Washington, it’s Paul Ryan....”
Host Melissa Harris-Perry: “I want us to be super careful when we use the language ‘hard worker,’ because I actually keep an image of folks working in cotton fields on my office wall, because it is a reminder about what hard work looks like. So, I feel you that he’s a hard worker, I do, but in the context of relative privilege.”

— Exchange on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, October 24.

Welcome to the Media Research Center's annual awards issue, a compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media quotes from 2015 (December 2014 through November 2015).

To determine this year's winners, a panel of 39 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 2015.

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.