Best NQs of 1999: Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting
1) The winning quotes in 14
categories in the MRC's Best Notable Quotables of 1999: The Twelfth
Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting.
2) List of the 44 judges who
picked the winners.
3) Video clips of many award
quotes viewable online. Plus, read the winners as picked by visitors to
the MRC's Web site.
1
Starting
with the Quote of the Year, below are the winning quotes in 14 categories
in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 1999: The Twelfth Annual
Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." CyberAlert editions
distributed later this week will feature the top runners-up. Amongst the
award categories:
-- The Alec Baldwin Award (for Hate Speech
Against the Presidential Impeachers)
-- Soft on Crime Award (for Promoting Those Opposed to Holding Clinton
Accountable)
-- China Syndrome Award (for Dismissing Nuclear Espionage)
-- I Am Woman Award (for Hillary Rodham Worshipping)
-- Good Morning Morons Award
-- Littleton Shop of Horrors Award (for Exploiting a Tragedy to Push Gun
Control)
-- Politics of Personal Destruction Award (for Geraldo Rivera's
Hatemongering)
To determine this
year's winners, a panel of 44 talk show hosts, magazine editors,
columnists, editorial writers and media observers generously gave of their
time to select their choices for the first, second and third best quote
from six to eight quotes in each category. First place selections were
awarded three points, second place choices two points, with one point for
the third place selections. (See item #2 for the list of judges.) Point
totals are listed in the brackets at the end of the attribution for each
quote.
Quote of the Year
ABC News anchor Carole
Simpson to Bill Clinton: "You've got the big plane, you've got
the big house, you've got the cars, the protection. Aren't you going
to suffer great post-partum depression after you leave office?"....
Simpson to Clinton while inside Arkansas tomato
factory: "I have to bask in this moment, for a moment, because I am
here talking to the most powerful man on the planet, who was a poor boy
from Arkansas..."
Clinton, cutting her off: "A place like
this."
Simpson: "Place like this. I am an
African-American woman, grew up working class on the south side of
Chicago, and this is a pretty special moment for me to be here talking to
you. How does it feel talking to me? That I made it, too, when people said
I wouldn't be able to?"
-- From Simpson's taped interview with President Clinton, on ABC's
World News Tonight/Sunday, November 7. [82 points]
The Alec Baldwin Award (for Hate Speech Against the Presidential
Impeachers)
"I think there are real questions
about separation of powers and I don't think he [Clinton] should go up
there [appear before the Senate]. And second of all, that herd of managers
from the House, I mean frankly all they were missing was white sheets.
They're like night riders going over. This is bigger than Bill
Clinton."
-- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift, January 9 McLaughlin Group. [67 points]
Soft on Crime Award (for Promoting Those Opposed to Holding Clinton
Accountable)
"You know who the hero of this whole
thing is, it's that guy, what was his name, Richard Llamas, the guy who
stood up in the Senate gallery last week and said, 'Good God vote and
get over with this, will you.' If they had stretched this out for another
two or three weeks, which if they would have had the kind of witnesses Bob
[Novak] wanted to have, I want to tell you something, I think the people
may have stormed the United States Capitol."
-- Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Al Hunt on a special
edition of CNN's Capital Gang, February 11. [66 points]
China Syndrome Award (for Dismissing Nuclear Espionage)
"Where have you gone, Joe McCarthy,
oh, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you....Yes folks, Republican efforts
to warn Americans of the danger of fuzzy liberals in charge of the
nation's political system -- and its nuclear secrets -- are about to go
into overdrive."
-- May 24 Time Daily online story by Tony Karon. [53 points]
I Am Woman Award (for Hillary Rodham Worshipping)
"She emerged on health care, only to
beat a very bruised retreat. She clearly hated being thought of as just
Bill Clinton's wife. But ironically, it would take his scandals, finally,
to free her. Finally, last November 1998, Hillary Clinton showed the world
what she could do on the campaign trail without him. Political mastery,
every bit as dazzling as his, the thoughtful speech, unapologetically
strong, emboldening Democrats, electing Senators. So her friends say she
has really earned this campaign, this moment, if she chooses, earned it by
changing herself, searching, stumbling, and at the end, by standing, not
by her man, but by herself."
-- Co-host Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, March 12. [63 points]
Media Hero Award
"Yet his achievements as a Senator
have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than
remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne....He deserves recognition not just as
the leading Senator of his time but also as one of the greats in the
history of this singular institution, wise in its workings, especially its
demand that a Senator be more than partisan to accomplish much."
-- Excerpt in the August 2 Time from a forthcoming biography of Ted
Kennedy by New York Times reporter Adam Clymer. [59 points]
Damn Those Conservatives Award
"There is a scene [in Roots] where
kidnapped African Kunta Kinte won't settle down in his chains. 'Want me
to give him a stripe or two, boss?' the old slave, Fiddler, asks his
Master Reynolds. 'Do as I say, Fiddler,' Reynolds answers. 'That's all
I expect from any of my niggers.' 'Oh, I love you, Massa Reynolds,'
Fiddler tells him. And instantly, my mind draws political parallels. Ward
Connerly, I think to myself. Armstrong Williams. Shelby Steele. Hyperbole,
some might say. I say dead-on. 'Clarence Thomas,' I say to my Cousin
Kim. And she just stares at me. She may be a little tender yet for racial
metaphors. I see them everywhere."
-- Washington Post reporter Lonnae O'Neal Parker, on watching Roots with
her 20-year-old cousin, August 8 "Style" section piece. [65
points]
Good Morning Morons Award
Tim Russert: "Is it
hard holding your own views in check?"
Bryant Gumbel: "You know what? In terms of my
political views, I hold them in check. I don't think that someone who
watches is inclined to think that I'm one way or the other."
-- CNBC's Tim Russert, October 30. [91 points]
Littleton Shop of Horrors Award (for Exploiting a Tragedy to Push Gun
Control)
"Republicans are betting that this too
[Columbine] will pass, that as with Jonesboro and Paducah, Pearl and
Springfield, once the white coffins are in the ground and the cameras
gone, the outrage will subside. But maybe not this time. In town meetings
and talk radio, the public has had its fill of politicians talking
resignedly about our gun culture, as if there's nothing to be done about a
subgroup that finds schoolyard massacres an acceptable cost for its right
to be armed to the teeth."
-- Time columnist Margaret Carlson, May 10. [75 points]
Shooting the Constitution Award (for Advocating the Banning of Guns)
"That smells of bullsh...How much
longer are we gonna take that? How much longer are we gonna be wrapping in
the flag of patriotism to justify 250 millions guns out there? How much
longer?"
-- Geraldo Rivera responding to video clip of NRA chief Charlton Heston,
May 3 Rivera Live on CNBC. [62 points]
Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis
Rudy Giuliani joking on
CBS's Late Show about going to Arkansas to run for the Senate: "I've
never lived here. I've never worked here. I ain't never been here. But I
think it would be cool to be your Senator."
Jeralyn Merritt, MSNBC legal analyst: "That's just
so unfair."
MSNBC anchor Gregg Jarrett: "It's ugly."
Merritt: "It's ugly and it's unfair because she
has spent a lot of time in New York and she has the desire to help and she
is bright. She's the best of the group."
-- Exchange during MSNBC InterNight discussion of the New York Senate
campaign, June 25. [53 points]
See No Evil Award (for Burying the Juanita Broaddrick Rape Charge)
Cliff May of the
Republican National Committee: "We have right now a credible
allegation by Juanita Broaddrick that while Attorney General, Bill Clinton
sexually assaulted her and he won't answer."
MSNBC host David Gregory: "Now hold on. You know
what, Cliff? I'm not going to let you go there. We are not talking about
this today. We're not going to turn that into this. I want to go around
the horn a little bit. Cliff, wait a minute. Cliff, I'm going to stop you.
I'm hosting the program. It is not a double standard. We have a clear
focus today. I'm asking the questions."
-- MSNBC afternoon discussion of allegations about past illegal drug use
by Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, August 19. [53
points]
Politics of Personal Destruction Award (for Geraldo Rivera's
Hatemongering)
"Don't you think 13 guys, all of whom,
you know, are not noted for any contribution to civil rights. I'm talking
about the House managers. All of whom are born-again, all of whom are
right-to-lifers, all of whom are you know, anti-immigration, pro-English
Only, etc, etc, don't you think that when that face is presented, isn't
that one of the reasons the majority, the vast majority of the American
people support the President? When they look at the people prosecuting,
some say persecuting him, and say, wait a second, those people wouldn't
even let me into their home or their neighborhood or to work alongside
them?"
-- Geraldo Rivera, Feb. 2 Rivera Live on CNBC. [79 points]
Doris Kearns Goodwin Award (for Campaigning to Revive the Camelot Myth)
"The star power has diminished. John
Kennedy Jr. was the Sun God, the most charismatic of any of the Kennedy
children. So that will lower their wattage some, but there are enough
Kennedys out there making enough contributions that they will be part of
the life of this country well into the next century."
-- Newsweek's Jonathan Alter on the Kennedy family without John F. Kennedy
Jr., July 23 Dateline NBC. [63 points]
2
In
alphabetical order, the 44 judges who generously gave of their time to
evaluate six to ten quotes in each of 14 categories:
-- Brent Baker, Editor of the MRC's
CyberAlerts and Notable Quotables
-- Mark Belling, talk show host, WISN in Milwaukee
-- L. Brent Bozell III, Chairman of the Media Research Center
-- David Brudnoy, talk show host on WBZ Radio; TV commentator; and Boston
University communications professor
-- Priscilla Buckley, Contributing Editor of National Review
-- Tucker Carlson, staff writer, The Weekly Standard
-- Mark Davis, talk host, WBAP in Dallas/Ft. Worth and ABC Radio Network;
columnist, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
-- Midge Decter, author, New York City
-- Jim Eason, talk show host, KSFO in San Francisco
-- Don Feder, syndicated columnist and Boston Herald columnist
-- Eric Fettman, op-ed columnist, New York Post
-- David Gold, national talk show host, Salem Radio Network
-- Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis, Media Research Center
-- Kirk Healy, Executive Producer, Cox Radio, Orlando
-- Quin Hillyer, editorial writer, Mobile Register
-- Marie Kaigler, radio talk show host and broadcaster, Detroit
-- Cliff Kincaid, host, Peoples Radio Network
-- Mark Larson, General Manager and talk show host at KPRZ/KCBQ in San
Diego
-- Jason Lewis, talk show host, KSTP in Minneapolis/St. Paul
-- Tony Macrini, talk show host, WNIS/WTAR in Norfolk, Virginia
-- Don Markwell, talk show host, WACV in Montgomery
-- Tom Marr, talk show host, WCBM in Baltimore
-- Patrick McGuigan, Editor, editorial page, The Oklahoman
-- Jan Mickelson, talk show host, WHO in Des Moines
-- Gary Nolan, national radio talk show host, Radio America
-- Jane Norris, radio talk show host, WHAS in Louisville
-- Rich Noyes, Director of the MRC's Free Market Project
-- Kate O'Beirne, Washington Editor for National Review
-- Marvin Olasky, Senior Fellow, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion
and Liberty; Editor of World magazine
-- Janet Parshall, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
-- Dan Pierce, Program Director and talk host, WGIR, Manchester NH
-- Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, Executive Editor, The American Spectator
-- Michael Reagan, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
-- Mike Rosen, talk show host, KOA in Denver; columnist, Denver Rocky
Mountain News
-- William Rusher, Distinguished Fellow, Claremont Institute
-- Ted J. Smith III, Professor of mass communications, Virginia
Commonwealth University
-- Philip Terzian, nationally syndicated columnist
-- Cal Thomas, nationally syndicated columnist
-- R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., Editor-in-Chief of The American Spectator
-- Armstrong Williams, nationally syndicated columnist
-- Dick Williams, columnist; host of Fox Atlanta s The Georgia Gang
-- Walter Williams, Professor of economics, George Mason U.
-- Thomas Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Human Events
-- Barry Young, President & CEO WestStar TalkRadio Network, Phoenix
3
Best
of NQ online with video clips as well as the results as picked by visitors
to our Web page.
-- Check out the online
version and you'll be able to view many of the TV quotes via RealPlayer
as put together by MRC Webmaster Andy Szul from videotapes cued up for him
by MRC research associate Kristina Sewell.
Go to the MRC home page,
http://archive.mrc.org,
and click on the blue box just to the left of the picture. Or, go to:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/bestofnq1999.html
and click on: "1999 Winners -- Official Version Enhanced for the Web
with Video Clips."
-- Also now accessible online from the same Best of NQ
page: "1999 Special Web-Visitor-Judged Edition as picked by over 530
people." From December 8 to 20 visitors to the MRC Web site were able
to fill out a ballot to cast their votes for the most biased media quotes
of the year. The MRC's Andy Szul calculated the results and posted them
last week. To learn which quotes Web visitors considered the worst, go to:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/bestofnq1999.html
and click on "1999 Special Web-Visitor-Judged Edition." Or, go
to:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/news/nq/best/nq1999webbest.html
Keep your eyes open for recitations of these annual
awards issue quotes. At year-end several columnists and editorial writers
around the country usually devote a column or editorial to listing their
favorites.
-- Brent Baker
3
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