The Twenty-Sixth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting
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- Best of NQ 2013 Home
- The Ku Klux Con Job Award for Smearing Conservatives with Phony Racism Charges
- Let Us Fluff Your Pillow Award for Obsequious Obama Interviews
- The Move Along, Nothing to See Here Award for Denying Obama’s Scandals
- MSNBC = Mean-Spirited, Nasty, Belligerent Chris Award
- The Gunning for the Second Amendment Award
- The Obamagasm Award
- Damn Those Conservatives Award
- The Tea Party Terrorists Award
- The Pantsuit Patrol Award for Boosting Hillary Clinton
- The Kamikaze Award for Disparaging Conservatives During the Shutdown
- Let Them Eat Dog Food Award for Freaking Out Over the Sequester’s Puny Cuts
- The Obama’s Orderlies Award for Championing ObamaCare
- The Twisted Tweets 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
- 2013 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, by Mike Rosen on December 19: “Liberal media lowlights of the year.”
- Washington Times’ “Inside the Beltway” column by Jennifer Harper on December 19: “The Year’s Most Questionable Quotes.”
- World magazine, by Marvin Olasky, online December 20 and in January 11 magazine: “The year in propaganda”
- Oklahoma City’s The City Sentinel, by Patrick McGuigan on December 20: “Notable Quotables -- The Best of the Worst in 2013”
Video:
- NewsmaxTV, December 18 Steve Malzberg Show interview with the MRC’s Rich Noyes.
- FoxNews.com, December 23 Bias Bash by Cal Thomas: “2013’s most outrageous media reports”
- FNC’s Hannity, January 2, 2014: “Media Mash” segment with MRC President Brent Bozell on top runner-up and winning “Quote of the Year” quotes.
Online:
- Center for Individual Freedom’s “Freedom Line Blog,” by Quin Hillyer on December 9: “What’s Left in the Media? (Almost Everything)”
- Creators syndicate column by MRC President Brent Bozell on December 17: “Safeguarding Obama Throughout 2013.”
- WashingtonExaminer.com, by Paul Bedard on December 18: “Media hate quote of the year: MSNBC’s Martin Bashir slam on Sarah Palin”
- Watchdog.org, by Patrick McGuigan on December 18: “Notable quotables: The best of the worst in 2013"
- Newsmax.com on December 18: “MSNBC's Bashir Wins ‘Worst Reporting’ Award for Palin Rant”
- WashingtonTimes.com’s “Water Cooler” blog by Jennifer Harper on December 18: “The most questionable quotes of the year: Yes, MSNBC wins.”
Radio
- (Interviews as of 12/29) Portland, Oregon-based Lars Larson on his national show, Jan Mickelson on WHO in Des Moines, Bob Dutko on WMUZ in Detroit, Mark Larson on KCBQ in San Diego and Tron Simpson on KCMN in Colorado Springs, Mike Rosen on KOA in Denver and Greg Garrison on WIBC in Indianapolis.
Quote of the Year
Winner
Martin Bashir
“One of the most comprehensive first-person accounts of slavery comes from the personal diary of a man called Thomas Thistlewood, who kept copious notes for 39 years....In 1756, he records that ‘a slave named Darby catched eating canes; had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, s-h-i-t in his mouth.’ This became known as ‘Darby’s Dose,’ a punishment invented by Thistlewood that spoke only of the slave owners’ savagery and inhumanity....When Mrs. Palin invoked slavery, she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance. She confirms that if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, then she would be the outstanding candidate.”
— MSNBC host Martin Bashir on November 15, reacting to Sarah Palin’s comparison of excessive debt to slavery. Bashir apologized the following Monday, but MSNBC permitted him to stay on the air that entire week. After an extended Thanksgiving “vacation,” he quit on December 4. [MP3 Audio]
Runners-Up
Ed Schultz
“This is the Web site folks, HealthCare.gov. If you go to this Web site, you will find out how easy it is to read, how easy it is to navigate all the information, all the basic questions, and all the direction you need to take to get involved, to get health care. This is a great guide, if I may say, for any of you out there who feel so confused by all of these right-wing commercials that are just permeating through your television screen.”
— Host Ed Schultz on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, September 30. [MP3 Audio]
Thomas Friedman
“Until we fully understand what turned two brothers who allegedly perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombings into murderers, it is hard to make any policy recommendation other than this: We need to redouble our efforts to make America stronger and healthier so it remains a vibrant counterexample to whatever bigoted ideology may have gripped these young men....And the best place to start is with a carbon tax.”
— New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, April 21.