What Liberal Media? Award

First Place

Runners-up:

“I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I’m sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did....The entire body politic...did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels.”
– CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on CNBC’s Topic A with Tina Brown, September 10. [40]

“It took conservatives a lot of hard and steady work to push the media rightward. It dishonors that work to continue to presume that – except for a few liberal columnists – there is any such thing as the big liberal media. The media world now includes (1) talk radio, (2) cable television and (3) the traditional news sources (newspapers, newsmagazines and the old broadcast networks). Two of these three major institutions tilt well to the right, and the third is under constant pressure to avoid even the pale hint of liberalism....What it adds up to is a media heavily biased toward conservative politics and conservative politicians.”
– Former Washington Post and New York Times reporter E.J. Dionne in a Dec. 6, 2002 Washington Post op-ed. [33]

Quote of the Year

First Place

“If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age.”
– Charles Pierce in a January 5 Boston Globe Magazine article. Kopechne drowned while trapped in Kennedy’s submerged car off Chappaquiddick Island in July 1969, an accident Kennedy did not report for several hours. (Picture of Charles Pierce)

Runners-up:

“Within the United States, there is growing challenge to President Bush about the conduct of the war and also opposition to the war. So our reports about civilian casualties here....help those who oppose the war. 
“Clearly, the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces....And I personally do not understand how that happened, because I’ve been here many times and in my commentaries on television I would tell the Americans about the determination of the Iraqi forces, the determination of the government, and the willingness to fight for their country. But me, and others who felt the same way, were not listened to by the Bush administration. 
“Now America is re-appraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week, and re-writing the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance; now they are trying to write another war plan.”
– Then-NBC/MSNBC/National Geographic Explorer correspondent Peter Arnett’s comments on Iraq’s state-controlled television network, March 30, shown by C-SPAN.

“Our greatest accomplishment as a profession is the development since World War II of a news reporting craft that is truly non-partisan, and non-ideological, and that strives to be independent of undue commercial or governmental influence....
“It is that legacy we must protect with our diligent stewardship. To do so means we must be aware of the energetic effort that is now underway to convince our readers that we are ideologues. It is an exercise of, in disinformation, of alarming proportions, this attempt to convince the audience of the world’s most ideology-free newspapers that they’re being subjected to agenda-driven news reflecting a liberal bias. I don’t believe our viewers and readers will be, in the long-run, misled by those who advocate biased journalism.”
– Then-New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines accepting the “George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award” at a National Press Foundation dinner shown live on C-SPAN2, February 20.

2003 Award Judges

Lee Anderson, Editorial Page Editor, Chattanooga Free Press
Chuck Asay, editorial cartoonist, The Gazette in Colorado Springs
Brent Baker, MRC VP, Editor of CyberAlert and Notable Quotables
Mark Belling, talk show host, WISN in Milwaukee
Neal Boortz, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
L. Brent Bozell III, President of the Media Research Center
David Brudnoy, radio talk show host, WBZ in Boston; journalism professor at Boston University; film critic
Priscilla Buckley, Contributing Editor of National Review
William R. Cotterell, political editor, Tallahassee Democrat
Blanquita Cullum, syndicated talk show host for Radio America
Midge Decter, author, Rumsfeld : A Personal Portrait
Bob Dutko, talk show host, WMUZ in Detroit
Eric Fettmann, columnist & Associate Editorial Page Editor, NY Post
Ryan Frazier, editorial writer, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Mike Gallagher, syndicated talk show host for Salem Radio Network; Fox News Channel contributor
Tim Graham, Director of Media Analysis for the MRC
Karen Grant, talk show host, KION in Monterey/Salinas/Santa Cruz
Betsy Hart, columnist, Scripps Howard News Service
Stephen Hayes, staff writer for The Weekly Standard
Kirk Healy, Executive Producer, WDBO Radio in Orlando
Matthew Hill, talk show host, WPWT in the Tri-Cities of Tenn/Va
Quin Hillyer, editorial writer for the Mobile Register
Jeff Jacoby, columnist for the Boston Globe
Marie Kaigler, radio talk show host and media consultant, Detroit
Cliff Kincaid, Editor of the AIM Report
Mark Larson, talk show host, KCBQ in San Diego
Kathryn Jean Lopez, Editor of National Review Online
Patrick B. McGuigan, Contributing Editor of Tulsa Today
Joe McQuaid, Publisher, The Union Leader in Manchester, NH
Robert D. Novak, CNN commentator; Chicago Sun-Times columnist
Rich Noyes, Director of Research for the Media Research Center
Kate O’Beirne, Washington Editor of National Review
Marvin Olasky, Editor-in-Chief of World magazine and professor of
journalism at the University of Texas-Austin
Janet Parshall, nationally syndicated radio talk show host
Henry Payne, editorial cartoonist, The Detroit News
Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, Executive Editor of 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 A. Rusher, Distinguished Fellow, Claremont Institute
* Ted J. Smith III, Professor of journalism, Virginia Commonwealth U.
Tom Sullivan, talk show host, KFBK in Sacramento
Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist and host of After Hours with Cal Thomas on the Fox News Channel
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., Editor-in-Chief of The American Spectator
Dick Williams, columnist; host of Atlanta's Georgia Gang
Walter E. Williams, Professor of economics, George Mason University
Thomas Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Human Events

* Sadly, on January 4, 2004, Dr. Ted J. Smith III passed away at the age of 58. The January 7 CyberAlert included the announcement from Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Mass Communication and some highlights of his work documenting media bias.

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