Best of NQ 2012

The Twenty-Fifth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting


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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:

Television:

  • FNC's Hannity on December 17 played several clips with MRC President Brent Bozell as a guest to offer comment. Video
  • FNC's Fox NewsWatch on December 29 highlighted the winners in two categories. Video

Print:

Online:




Category 12 of 17

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

Winner

Piers Morgan (80 points)

Host Piers Morgan: “How many times in your life, Mr. President, have you been properly in love?”

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (via translator): “I’m in love with all of humanity. I love all human beings.”

Morgan: “That might be the best answer I’ve ever heard to that question.”

— CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, September 24. [MP3 Audio]


Runners-Up

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Andrew Liptak (56 points)

“The United States Constitution is terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights….The Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care. It has its idiosyncrasies. Only two percent of the world’s constitutions protect, as the Second Amendment does, a right to bear arms. (Its brothers in arms are Guatemala and Mexico.)”
— New York Times Supreme Court reporter Andrew Liptak in a front-page February 7 “Sidebar” news analysis, “We the People Loses Appeal with People Around the World.”


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Ari Shapiro (42 points)

“Mitt Romney’s rally in Mansfield, Ohio, on Monday began the way every political event begins. ‘Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and our country’s national anthem.’ This is always an uncomfortable moment for me. While I sat at my laptop, most of the reporters around me stood and put their hands over their hearts. This time instead of just sitting and working, I tweeted what I was feeling: ‘@Ari_Shapiro: As a reporter I’m torn about joining in the pledge of allegiance/national anthem at rallies. I’m a rally observer, not a participant.’”
— NPR’s Ari Shapiro writing at NPR.org’s “It’s All Politics” blog on September 11.


Dana Milbank (27 points)

“The Obama administration was continuing something [Fast and Furious] basically that was going on under the Bush administration. You know, did they try to cover up some embarrassing things afterwards? There’s just — there’s nothing conceivable that would bring this into a major political scandal here. And I think that’s why people have been slow to get on board. It’s not an ideological thing. I think the media would love to have an Obama scandal to cover.”
— The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank on CNN’s Reliable Sources, June 24. [MP3 Audio]