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 9 of 17

The True But False Award
for Fatuous Fact Checking

Winner

Martin Bashir (67 points)

“[Newt] Gingrich lies repeatedly. First of all, we know today that more people were collecting food stamps under George W. Bush than are under President Obama. So, that’s the first — something like a difference of about a half a million people.”
— MSNBC host Martin Bashir on The Ed Show, January 23. In fact, U.S. Department of Agriculture showed more than 46 million Americans on food stamps at the end of 2011, a figure 40 percent greater than the highest number of recipients recorded during the Bush years (31.98 million, in January 2009). [MP3 Audio]


Runners-Up

stillshot

Glenn Kessler (63 points)

“We cannot fault the RNC’s math, as the numbers add up. But at this point this figure doesn’t mean very much. It may simply be a function of a coincidence of timing — a brief blip that could have little to do with ‘Obama’s job market.’ If trends hold up over the next few months, then the RNC might have a better case. But at this point we will give this statistic our rarely used label: TRUE BUT FALSE.”
— Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler in an April 10 blog posting about Romney’s claim that 92% of those who lost jobs since January 2009 were women.


David Gregory (55 points)

Representative Michele Bachmann: “It’s absolutely irresponsible what President Obama is doing to get behind measures to, to increase spending to such a level that we’re going into debt $1.5 trillion every year. This compares to President George Bush. Back in 2007, our debt for the entire year was $160 billion.”

Moderator David Gregory: “Congresswoman, that just misstates the record….I mean, the Bush presidency, the-”

Bachmann: “There’s no comparison. We’re talking-”

Gregory: “-the, the debt — wait a minute, Congresswoman….I just want to stop you for accuracy.”

Bachmann: “Let me just finish. We’re talking ten times-”

Gregory: “For accuracy, Congresswoman….For accuracy, the debt exploded under the Bush administration.”

— NBC’s Meet the Press, December 18, 2011. In fact, as Bachmann stated, the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2007 was $162.8 billion; the annual deficit for fiscal year 2011 was $1.299 trillion, an eight-fold increase over four years. [MP3 Audio]