Best of NQ 2010

The Twenty-Third Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting


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Media Coverage

In addition to discussions on numerous talk radio shows where hosts cited quotes or interviewed MRC representatives, the Best of NQ Awards issue has been highlighted by these outlets:

Television:

Print/Online:

Category 4 of 16

The Shovel Ready Media Award for Claiming Success for Obama's "Stimulus"



Winner

Matt Lauer (57 points)

"When you say the country's not better off than it was $1.8 trillion ago - when the President took office, the Dow Jones was about 8,000; it's above 10,000 now. The GDP was declining at about six percent; it's rising at about six percent right now. We were talking about the possibility of a Great Depression; most people aren't talking about that anymore. So, aren't we better off?...Had the administration not taken some of the steps it did take, though, might not that unemployment figure, be at 12 or 13 percent?"
— NBC's Matt Lauer to former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Today, March 2. [MP3 Audio]


Runners-up

Terry Moran (45 points)

"Big fanfare this week. The Obama administration fanned out across the country: 'The stimulus worked.' The President made speeches, sounded a little frustrated that people don't get it, at least polls show, that they don't understand there were tax cuts and things like that. What did they do wrong? They're playing defense on what was one of their major accomplishments."
— ABC's Terry Moran to Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) on This Week, February 21. [MP3 Audio]


Chip Reid (44 points)

White House correspondent Chip Reid: "In Washington, D.C., about 20 people are working on this road project. Manager Matthew Johns calls the stimulus a lifesaver. [to Johns] So it's certainly possible that you and these guys would be without work right now if it weren't for the stimulus package?"
Matthew Johns: "Absolutely."...
Reid: "Many independent economists put the number of jobs saved or created at about 1.8 million, but to the great frustration of the White House, most Americans simply refuse to believe it."
— CBS Evening News, February 17. [MP3 Audio]


Harry Smith (38 points)

"People complain about the size of government, they're complaining about the deficit, they're complaining about TARP and who knows what all else. As we're standing here looking at it right now, just if you can step away, was the stimulus big enough?"
"There are plenty of economists out there, Mark Zandi, who say what's really needed is a second stimulus."
"Laura Tyson, what about a more significant stimulus, beyond the things, these, you know, a block here, a block here, a block here, but another say couple hundred billion dollars, what about, say, something like a new WPA?"
— Fill-in host Harry Smith interviewing a panel of economists on CBS's Face the Nation, September 5. [MP3 Audio]