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Page 5 of 7 |
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| Good Morning Morons Award | |
 "Some of the values, depending on your
perspective... may be deemed wholesome, but in other ways, I think, people
will see this community as eschewing diversity and promoting intolerance....Do
you think the tenets of the community might result in de facto segregation as
a result of some of the beliefs that are being espoused by the majority of the
residents there?...You can understand how people would hear some of these
things and be like, wow, this is really infringing on civil liberties and
freedom of speech and right to privacy and all sorts of basic tenets that this
country was founded on. Right?"— NBC’s Katie Couric on the March 3 Today, questioning Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan and real-estate developer Paul Marinelli, who are building a community based on Catholic values in Florida. [79 points]
Runners-up: |
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"You signed a $13 million book deal, which I understand is bigger than Bill
Clinton, Alan Greenspan, and Pope John Paul II, so how do you square your
wealth with the tenets of Christianity?...[The Bible] said, this is Matthew
19, verses 23 and 24, ‘Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the
truth. It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Again, I
tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of God."’...It makes you wonder about your claim
that wealth is a positive thing." — Katie Couric, who was set to make $15 million a year as the new anchor of the CBS Evening News, to TV minister Joel Osteen on NBC’s Today, May 9. [75] |
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Co-host Meredith Vieira: "Everybody’s calling you ‘the Genie,’ and they
want you to grant some wishes. If you had a genie, what wish would you want
granted?...Where do you think he [Osama bin Laden] is? Everybody’s wondering
where the heck he is, where do you think he is?" Former President Bill Clinton: "I think he’s probably in, I have no intelligence, okay? I think he’s probably-" Vieira, interrupting: "You have lots of intelligence." Clinton: "No, I mean government intelligence." Vieira, laughing: "I know, I’m kidding." — NBC’s Today, September 21. [57] |
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"Think global warming isn’t real? Ask Manny the Mammoth, Diego the Tiger or
Sid the Sloth....The herd’s 88 happy minutes will melt away your
out-of-theater cares while attesting that global warming is no snow job." — NBC movie critic Gene Shalit reviewing the cartoon movie Ice Age: The Meltdown, March 29 Today. [45] |
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| Cranky Dinosaur Award for Trashing the New Media | |
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"A past President, bullied and
sandbagged by a monkey posing as a newscaster, finally lashed back....The
nation’s marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so
blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit....As with all the other nefariousness
and slime of this, our worst presidency since James Buchanan, he [President
Bush] is having it done for him, by proxy. Thus, the sandbag effort by Fox
News Friday afternoon." — Keith Olbermann referring to Bill Clinton’s interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, MSNBC’s Countdown, September 25. [90 points]
Runners-up: |
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"It didn’t exactly represent a profile in courage for the Vice President to
wander over there to the F-word network for a sit-down with Brit Hume. I mean,
that’s a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain’t it?...I mean, running
over there to the Fox network to, I mean, that’s — talk about seeking a safe
haven. He’s not going to get any high hard ones from anybody at the F-word
network. I think we know that." — Jack Cafferty during the 4pm EST hour of CNN’s The Situation Room, February 15. [70] |
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Substitute host Kathleen Matthews: "Evan, nothing has lit up the
telephones on talk radio more than this Dubai ports deal. Why did it resonate
so much with the American people?" Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas: "Because it’s something that simple idiots can understand [other panelists snicker]. I mean, it was an idiotic issue, and it is a classic for talk radio. You can get it on a bumper sticker. But I’m with the elites on this one. It was really, it was ridiculous. We need Dubai as an ally. On balance, it would be better that the deal went through, but it was an easy one to demagogue on talk radio." — Exchange on Inside Washington, March 10. [47] |
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"The kind of hateful speech that we have seen, on the floor of the United
States Congress and in a lot of the blogosphere, is what seems to dominate.
And I do think it goes back, in my own experience, to 1989 when the talk radio
shows went crazy about the congressional pay raise which was supported by
Common Cause and some other groups in Washington who felt there needed to be a
higher-paid salary....The anti-Washington, anti-bureaucrat bias that was built
into that debate was then taken up by cable talk hosts as well and that became
the kind of really combative conversation that displaced reasoned discussions
about controversial issues." — NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell appearing on PBS’s Washington Week, July 7. [36] |
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| State of Denial Award for Refusing to Acknowledge Liberal Bias | |
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Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather: "We
had a lot, a lot, of corroboration of what we broadcast about President Bush’s
military record. It wasn’t just the documents. But it’s a very old technique
used, that when those who don’t like what you’re reporting believe it can be
hurtful, then they look for the weakest spot and attack it, which is fair
enough. It’s a diversionary technique." CNN’s Larry King: "You’re saying that was a fair report, I mean that was — you believe that report to this day?" Rather: "Do I believe the truth of the story? Absolutely." — Discussing Rather’s 2004 60 Minutes story that relied on forged documents to challenge Bush’s National Guard record, CNN’s Larry King Live, July 12. [102 points]
Runners-up: |
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"I know that I’ve tried my best through my career to ask challenging questions
to whomever I’m speaking, and whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat, I try
to raise important issues depending on their particular position....
Oftentimes people put their, they see you from their own individual prisms.
And if you’re not reflecting their point of view, or you’re asking an
antagonistic question of someone they might agree with in terms of policy,
they see you as the enemy, and I think that’s just a mistake....You have Fox,
which espouses a particular point of view." — Incoming CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 5, broadcast by C-SPAN on September 2. [70] |
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"[I am] biased — I have a very strong bias toward independent
journalism....Some of what you describe as ‘baggage’ comes from people who
have the following view: Their view is, ‘You report the news the way I want it
reported or I’m going to make you pay a price and hang a sign around your neck
saying you’re a bomb-toting Bolshevik.’" — Ex-CBS anchorman Dan Rather, as quoted by the Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes in a July 12 column. [56] |
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| Recognizing the Obvious Award for Admitting There’s Liberal Media Bias | |
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Former Washington Post
reporter Thomas Edsall: "I agree that the — whatever you want to call it,
mainstream media — presents itself as unbiased when, in fact, there are built
into it many biases and they are overwhelmingly to the left." Host Hugh Hewitt: "Well, that’s very candid....Given that number of reporters out there, is it ten to one Democrat to Republican? Twenty to one Democrat to Republican?" Edsall: "It’s probably in the range of 15 to 25:1 Democrat....There is a real difficulty on the part of the mainstream media being sympathetic, or empathetic, whatever the word would be, to the kind of thinking that goes into conservative approaches to issues. I think the religious right has been treated as sort of an alien world." — Exchange on Hugh Hewitt’s syndicated radio show September 21, audio later posted at TownHall.com. [96 points] Runners-up: |
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Radio host Hugh Hewitt: "And so everyone that you work with, or 95
percent of people you work with, are old liberals." ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin: "I don’t know if it’s 95 percent, and unfortunately, they’re not all old. There are a lot of young liberals here, too. But it certainly, there are enough in the old media, not just in ABC, but in old media generally, that it tilts the coverage quite frequently, in many issues, in a liberal direction, which is completely improper....It’s an endemic problem. And again, it’s the reason why for 40 years, conservatives have rightly felt that we did not give them a fair shake." — Exchange on The Hugh Hewitt Show, October 30. [91] |
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"If I were a conservative, I understand why I would feel suspicious that I was
not going to get a fair break....The mindset at ABC, where you and I used to
be colleagues at, at the other big news organizations, it’s just too focused
on being more favorable to Nancy Pelosi, say, than Newt Gingrich; being more
down on the Republicans’ chances than perhaps is warranted; singling out —
you’re seeing here a 60 Minutes piece about Nancy Pelosi. I don’t
remember Newt Gingrich getting a piece that favorable in 1994." — ABC Political Director Mark Halperin, co-author of The Way to Win, on FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor, October 24. [82] |
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