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The Best Notable Quotables of 2000:
The Thirteenth Annual Awards for the
Year’s Worst Reporting
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Good Morning Morons Award
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First
Place
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"In a macro-political sense, do you
think the Gore preoccupation with morality is a frightening turn for the
party?"
--
Bryant Gumbel to Hugh Hefner, host of a fundraiser moved to another
location, August 15 The Early Show during the Democratic convention.
[72 points]
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Runners-up: |
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"I ask the question because this ticket
has put a premium on what’s called ‘family values,’ which for a long
time, as you know, was a code word for intolerance. Need people be concerned
about a hard turn to the social right in the Democratic Party?"
--
Gumbel asking Hadassah Lieberman if she agrees with her husband’s
Hollywood critiques, August 16 Early Show during the Democratic
convention. [70]
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Matt Lauer:
"Let’s say I come down to your dealership, I buy a car
tomorrow, I get my voucher, I go out and get my gun and then in a
week or so I decide that I don’t want it, what’s to stop me
from selling it to anyone I want to sell it to?...."
"And so if then the person that buys that gun from me goes
out and commits a crime with it, or God forbid takes a life with
it, how are you going to feel at your auto dealership?"
Tennessee car dealer Greg Lambert, who
gave free gun to car buyers: "I’m
not responsible for the actions of other people...what we need is
crime control, not gun control."
Lauer:
"Yeah, but why not take away the possibility? If you give someone a CD
player, they can’t go out and kill someone with it....From what I
understand, Mr. Lambert, you’re taking the promotion a little bit further.
Even children who come to your dealership are going to get a free water
pistol, and some people say that’s just going too far."
--
August 25 Today interview. [46]
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"Americans are working more and getting
less vacation time than people in any other industrialized nation....I feel
strange saying, I never stopped to think about the fact there is no official
U.S. policy on vacation time."
-- Today
co-host Matt Lauer to Escape magazine’s Joe Robinson, a
proponent of mandated vacation, June 12. [32]
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Politics of Meaninglessness Award (for the Silliest Analysis)
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First
Place |
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"I had my opinions
surgically removed when I became a network correspondent."
-- CBS
60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl denying liberal bias, Fox News
Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor, January 25. [53 points]
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Runners-up: |
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"I have an analogy.
This came to me the night I saw this. The death penalty is like
Viagra in middle-aged men. Texas uses the death penalty to
remember what it was like in those good old cowboy days. If you
want to send me your hate mail, go ahead, ‘cause that’s the
way I see it. This thing is insane!"
-- Geraldo Rivera wrapping up the June
26 Rivera Live on CNBC. [50]
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"The larger point here
is how awful SUVs are. It amazes me that no one contemplates getting rid
of them, in a serious way, getting rid of the things. They’re gas
guzzlers in a big way that are going to hurt us -- our long-term
dependence on foreign energy. They’re very unsafe. They roll over. If
you’re in a small car, they’ll crunch you. Everything about them is
bad, yet Americans gleefully buy them and nobody talks about banning
them."
-- Newsweek
Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas on Inside Washington,
September 9. [31]
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"You may want to note that Cheney is
referring to Clinton Gore, not Clinton and Gore, in effect making Clinton Al
Gore’s first name: Clinton Gore."
--
Dan Rather during Dick Cheney’s acceptance speech after Cheney said
"We’re all a little weary of the Clinton-Gore routine...it is time
for them to go," August 2 CBS News Republican convention coverage. [30
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"We begin by going right to the hotel
that houses the winner of the Iowa poll tonight. Governor George W. Bush of
Texas, and with him is his lovely wife Laura. George is on the right. Laura
is on the left."
--
Larry King hosting his CNN show, January 24. [28]
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Too Late for the Ballot, But
Year End"Best of NQ" Worthy:
Post-Election Bias Admitted
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Don Imus: "What
if Gore had won and Bush, what if the roles were reversed? How would,
I wouldn’t want to include you in this, but how would the liberal
weenies of the news media be treating this if the roles were
reversed?"
Howard Fineman, Newsweek Washington bureau reporter and MSNBC
analyst: "Oh, my God. Are you kidding? That George Bush was a
crybaby, that he was the spoiled son of a failed President. You know,
you could just hear, the personal attacks on Bush would be just
absolutely vicious."
-- Radio’s Imus in the Morning simulcast on MSNBC,
November 28.
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