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:

They Don't Miss Him Yet Award for Still Bashing Bush



Winner

Joe Klein (77 points)

“This [the oil spill] is more Bush’s second Katrina than Obama’s first.”
Time’s Joe Klein on The Chris Matthews Show, May 30. [MP3 Audio]


Runners-up

Jonathan Alter (57 points)

“The oil spill is the perfect metaphor for Obama’s presidency so far. It’s been cleaning up a lot of the messes left to him by his predecessors, whether it was bank bailouts, auto bailouts, Afghanistan — which turned out to be a much bigger mess than anybody anticipated — preventing a depression that, you know, began to happen on George Bush’s watch. So this is more of the same.”
Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown, June 10. [MP3 Audio]


stillshot

Michael Hirsh (46 points)

“America hasn’t recovered from the serious blows to its stature delivered by nearly a decade of policy debacles....[Obama] inherited a Herculean task: the Augean-stable-size mess left behind by George W. Bush. First there was the diversion of military resources and attention from Afghanistan to Iraq — a draining, misdirected war and occupation that many believe never should have been launched. Then there was the long period of fiscal, regulatory, and financial recklessness that contributed to the worst-ever downturn since the Great Depression. Finally, Washington squandered its chance to lead on climate change.”
Newsweek’s Michael Hirsh in the August 23 & 30 cover story ranking “The Best Countries in the World,” which awarded the U.S. 11th place.


Helen Thomas (35 points)

“When are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse — and don’t give us this Bushism, ‘If we don’t go there, they’ll all come here!’”
— Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas to President Obama at his May 27 press conference. [MP3 Audio]


Meredith Vieira (31 points)

“One of the key issues also heading into the midterm elections, is this expiration of the tax cuts, Bush’s tax cuts....These tax cuts have been in existence for quite a while, these Bush tax cuts. If they were designed to stimulate the economy and to create jobs, they didn’t succeed. So what’s so good about them?”
— Co-host Meredith Vieira to GOP Representatives Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy on NBC’s Today, September 14. [MP3 Audio]