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The Sixteenth Annual Awards for the
Year’s Worst Reporting
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Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis
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First
Place
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“To many New Yorkers, the scenes of a city under siege were achingly familiar. New Yorkers watching the televised bombing of Baghdad yesterday said they were riveted by the raw and uninterrupted display of American military might. But for some, the bombing brought back particularly visceral and chilling memories. They could not help thinking about Sept. 11, and how New York, too, was once under assault from the skies.”
– New York Times reporter David Chen in a March 22 news story headlined “Baghdad Bombing Brings Back Memories of 9/11.” [58 points] |
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Runners-up:
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“I’d say the chances are about 50-50 that humanity will be extinct or nearly extinct within 50 years. Weapons of mass destruction, disease, I mean this global warming is scaring the living daylights out of me.”
– CNN founder Ted Turner at an Associated Press Managing Editors seminar Sept. 27, according to an AP story in the September 29
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. [49]
 “Once upon a time, a scientist named Galileo said the Earth was round, and the political leaders of the time said, ‘No, no, Galileo it’s flat,’ and Galileo got life under house arrest for his little theory. Today, the vast majority of scientists will tell you the Earth is getting warmer and most would agree that industry is at least in part to blame. So far nobody’s gone to jail for saying that, which doesn’t mean the idea isn’t squarely at the center of a political dust up – and not an insignificant one at that because, if the charges leveled against the White House are true, an important environmental question is being twisted or ignored for the sake of politics.”
– CNN’s Aaron Brown on NewsNight, June 19. Galileo was actually punished by the Catholic Church for saying the Earth revolves around the sun. [39]
“If you see a whole monkfish at the market, you’ll find its massive mouth scarier than a shark’s. Apparently it sits on the bottom of the ocean, opens its Godzilla jaws and waits for poor unsuspecting fishies to swim right into it, not unlike the latest recipients of W’s capital-gains cuts.”
– Food writer Jonathan Reynolds in a July 27 New York Times Magazine article about Norway’s seafood. [38]
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Good Morning Morons Award
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First
Place |
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 “There’s an article in the Style section of the
Washington Post this morning. It says you’ve logged 26 years of personal minutiae, filling 4,400 two-by-three inch notebooks, color-coded by season. An example: ‘12:17' – this is when you made the announcement – ‘Ascend stage, stumble, regain balance; 12:18: Applause, ‘Where the Streets Have No Name,’ plays (U2); 12:19: Clap, wave; 12:20: Adjust tie (red, white stripes); 12:21: Double thumbs up; 12:22: Sing along with National Anthem, right hand on heart.’ What, what do you do this for?!”
– Katie Couric to Senator Bob Graham on Today, May 7, apparently unaware the article she quoted from was a spoof of the presidential candidate’s diary. [61 points]
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Runners-up:
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 Bob Schieffer: “I’ve seen some estimates that it may cost up to $50 billion to fix this. Who’s going to pay that?”
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham: “....ratepayers, obviously, will pay the bill because they’re the ones who benefit....”
Schieffer: “Wait, wait, wait. Let’s back up. Ratepayers – that means people who pay in their electric bills. So you’re saying the customers are going to have to pay for this?...Excuse me for asking, but, I mean, aren’t the companies going to have to bear some of this cost?”
– Exchange on CBS’s Face the Nation, August 17. [44]
“Is your SUV a weapon of terrorism? Some people think so. They’re taking out ads to tell you why.”
“Coming up in our next half-hour, is your SUV a weapon of mass destruction?”
– Substitute Today co-host Lester Holt plugging a story on claims buying oil aids terrorism, Dec. 17, 2002. [40]
“What would you advise the United States to do today to fight al-Qaeda?...What would be the wise course for the United States to follow now in Iraq?”
– George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, Aug. 3, interviewing Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, sponsor of anti-American terrorist attacks in the 1980s. [40]
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Al Franken Cheap Shot Award
(for Lambasting Rush Limbaugh)
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First
Place |
“What must it be like to live in Rush Limbaugh’s world? A world where when anyone other than conservative, white men attempts to do anything or enter any profession, be it business, politics, art or sports, the only reason they’re allowed entry or, incredibly, attain excellence is because the standard was lowered. Be they liberals, people of color, women, the poor or anyone with an accent.... Edgy, controversial, brilliant. What a way to shake up intelligent sports commentary. Hitler would have killed in talk radio. He was edgy, too.”
– CBS Sunday Morning contributor Nancy Giles on October 5. [82 points] |
Video
Part 1
Video Part 2 |
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Runners-up:
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“The man behind the curtain is not the God of Family Values but a childless, twice-divorced, thrice-married schlub whose idea of a good time is to lie on his couch and watch football endlessly. When Rush Limbaugh declared to his radio audience that he was ‘your epitome of morality of virtue, a man you could totally trust with your wife, your daughter, and even your son in a Motel 6 overnight,’ he was
acting....Granted, Limbaugh’s act has won over, or fooled, a lot of people. With his heartland pieties and scorn for ‘feminazis’ and ‘commie-symps’ like
West Wing President Martin Sheen (‘Martin Sheenski’ to Limbaugh), he is the darling of Red State, Fly-Over America.”
– Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in the October 20 cover story, “The Real Rush.” [56]
“Rush Limbaugh has been more than a bit unkind to me more than once. He’s also been unkind to Al Franken, who in turn has been unkind to him. He’s taken shots at Michael Wolff,
New York magazine’s media critic and Michael is hardly the retiring sort. So, here we all are, Al, Michael, and me, and the subject is Rush – made worse, no doubt, by the permanent smirk that seems to be attached to my face.”
– CNN’s Aaron Brown on the October 10 NewsNight after Limbaugh announced he was seeking treatment for an addiction to prescription pain medicine. [46]
“Derrick Jackson, who’s a columnist for the
Boston Globe, Tim, back in July when ESPN hired Rush Limbaugh, he wrote a column about some of the comments that Mr. Limbaugh has made in the past. In the 1970s, according to this column, Limbaugh told an African-American caller, ‘take that bone out of your nose and call me back.’ He goes on to say Limbaugh has always had crime and black people on the brain. He once said, ‘have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?’...Given the fact that Rush Limbaugh has made these kind of inflammatory comments in the past, was it appropriate for ESPN to hire him in this capacity?”
– NBC’s Katie Couric to Tim Russert on the October 2 Today. Couric did not identify Jackson as a left-wing columnist or note that his source was a book published by a far-left group more than 10 years ago. [34]
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