Best of NQ 1997 Contents
  Clinton Camelot Award
  The Harold Ickes "System Made Me Do It" Award
  Lanny Davis No Controlling Legal Authority Award
  Evil Elephant Empire Award
  Che Guevara Award
  John Glenn Award
  Good Morning Morons Award
  Satan of the South Award
  Bryant Gumbel Journalism Fellowship Award
  The Paul Wellstone Award
  Damn Those Conservatives Award
  Politics of Meaningless Award
  Media Hero Award
  If The Bias Fits We Won't Admit Award
  Which Way Is It?
  Quote of the Year
  1997 Award Judges

Publications & Analysis
  30-Day Archive
  CyberAlerts
  Media Reality Check
  Notable Quotables
Media Bias Videos
Bozell Columns
  News
  Entertainment
MRC Divisions
  News
  Free Market Project
  CNSNews.com
MRC Information
  About the MRC
  MRC in the News
  Support the MRC
  What Others Say
  Home
  Site Search
  Links
  Media Addresses
Contact the MRC
  MRC Bookstore
Planned Giving


RealPlayer

Free RealPlayer plug-in required to watch video clips.


Get Acrobat

Free Adobe Acrobat Reader software required to view PDF files.


 

top

The Best Notable Quotables of 1997:

The Tenth Annual Awards for the
Year’s Worst Reporting


Media Hero Award

First Place

"[I]n person, [Anita] Hill bears only passing resemblance to her rather stern image from newspapers and television. At 41, she is slender to the point of willowy. Her features are elegant, and while she is intense while discussing her political baptism-by-fire, she can also muster a warm smile and a hearty laugh -- qualities that had little occasion to surface in the nine hours that changed Hill's world. So, she was asked, does she sometimes feel like the Joan of Arc of sexual harassment? Sure, Hill replied, and here came the mirth the Senate never saw: 'I refuse to die, though.'"
-- Los Angeles Times reporter Elizabeth Mehren, October 1. [75 points]
Runners-up:


"[Mario] Cuomo was a rare combination: an intellectual and a spellbinding orator. I would have bet that he could have won the Democratic nomination and been elected to the presidency. He had electrified the 1984 Democratic convention with his keynote speech, and I never saw him fail to excite those who shared his liberal vision of America's future. Despite the pollsters and political operators' contrary opinions, I remain convinced that the public was ready for a leader who could restore that vision after the selfish eighties. I don't believe the public has rejected liberalism; it simply has not heard a candidate persuasively advocate its humane and deeply democratic principles."
-- Walter Cronkite in his book A Reporter's Life. [60]


"Justice William Brennan led the Supreme Court on a quiet revolution that expanded individual rights and press freedoms to an extent found nowhere else in the world...Brennan saw his influence wane as justices appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush cut back the court's role as active protector of individual rights."
-- USA Today reporters Tony Mauro and Mimi Hall, July25. [50]

 

If The Bias Fits We Won't Admit Award

First Place

"I don't think voting for Clinton makes you a liberal. I mean, Bill Clinton isn't even a liberal, and second, if you're liberal, does that mean you can't be fair? What hypocrisy that we sit around and talk about the press like it's some sort of 'they.' It's us. Are we too liberal? N-o....The bias is in favor of bad news and you go after whoever is in power, and the name of the game is kill the king, which is why Bill Clinton does not get a free ride."
-- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, July 5. [79 points]
Runners-up:

"Although the experience and independence of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and Ted Koppel would give their opinions a lot more weight than those of any politician, they still observe the disciplines of their craft. Their on-air analyses plumb the views and prejudices of others without parading their own."
-- Former New York Times Executive Editor Max Frankel deploring ABC's hiring of George Stephanopoulos, January 19 New York Times Magazine. [65]

"Scholar after scholar has disputed, in studying the actual content of the press, what you've justblithely handed out that it's this left-wing media. That's a charge from the '50s. That's not thecurrent press. Tom Patterson -- no, the bias is a bias against politicians of all kinds, not a bias forone side or other."
-- Ellen Hume, Director of the PBS Democracy Project, reacting to Bob Novak's assertion the mainstream media are "tilted to the left." July 27 CNN Reliable Sources. [60]

 

Which Way Is It?

First Place

Nuns Tell of Panic About Fund-Raiser Documents Destroyed or Altered to Conceal Temple's Role With DNC
-- Washington Post, September 5 

vs.

Nuns Say Temple Event With Gore Was Not A Fund-Raiser
-- New York Times, same day [99 points]


Runners-up:


CIA Agent Says He Gave Huang Classified Data
-- Los Angeles Times, July 17

vs.

C.I.A. Officer Says His Briefings For Huang Were Simply Routine 
-- New York Times, same day [97]


Dem tells of 'contribution swap' scheme
-- USA Today, October 10

vs.

DNC Ex-Aide Denies Teamster 'Swap' Plan
-- Washington Post, same day [67]

 

 



[Free RealPlayer plug-in required to watch video clips]


[Free Adobe Acrobat Reader software required to view PDF version.]

 

 


Home | News Division | Bozell Columns | CyberAlerts 
Media Reality Check | Notable Quotables | Contact the MRC | Subscribe

Founded in 1987, the MRC is a 501(c) (3) non-profit research and education foundation
 that does not support or oppose any political party or candidate for office.

Privacy Statement

Media Research Center
325 S. Patrick Street
Alexandria, VA 22314