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 7 of 16

Media Hero Award



Winner

Diane Sawyer (60 points)

“All agree she gets credit for locking up this vote, one of the biggest since Medicare in the 1960s. And she’s said to have done it with an epic blend of persuasion, muscle and will, even when half the town said it couldn’t be done....Their indefatigable, unwavering almost 70-year-old Speaker, mother of five, grandmother of seven....[to Pelosi] What do you think your dad and your mom would have said about this moment?”
— Diane Sawyer interviewing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on World News, March 22. [MP3 Audio]


Runners-up

Christiane Amanpour (54 points)

“You, by all accounts, are one of the most, if not the most, powerful and successful Speakers in the history of the United States. You’ve passed so much legislation. The President was elected with a significant majority. You had control of both houses of Congress. And yet, now, people are talking about you might lose your majority in the House. The gap seems to be growing wider between what’s achieved and what’s making an impact with the people. How did this happen?”
— New ABC host Christiane Amanpour to Speaker Nancy Pelosi on This Week, August 1. [MP3 Audio]


Lesley Stahl (45 points)

Correspondent Lesley Stahl: “When all is said and done — and many will be surprised to hear this — Jimmy Carter got more of his programs passed than Reagan and Nixon, Ford, Bush 1, Clinton or Bush 2.”

Former President Jimmy Carter: “I had the best batting average in the Congress in recent history of any President, except Lyndon Johnson.”...

Stahl: “A lot of critics of yours, when you were President, say that you’ve been a fantastic ex-President. You hear that all the time.”

Carter: “I don’t mind that.”
— CBS’s 60 Minutes, September 19. [MP3 Audio]


Dylan Ratigan (31 points)

“The life and times of Arianna Huffington, who represents such a voice of truth and the highest aspiration for any individual that hopes to improve themselves each and every day, as they go through their days, to be better, not only for themselves, but to those around them. I believe she is a role model for all of us in that regard and couldn’t be happier for her. Happy birthday, Arianna.”
— MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan marking the left-wing Huffington Post publisher’s 60th birthday on the eponymous Dylan Ratigan Show, July 16. [MP3 Audio]


stillshot

Brian Williams (26 points)

“In just the span of a short few years, [Comedy Central’s The Daily Show host] Jon Stewart has gone from optional to indispensable....The old arc of a news story went like this: News happens. Media cover news. Audience reacts, then turns in for the night. For the past several years, however, there’s been another step added to the end of the process: being held to account for our faults by a comedy show with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue. How did we live without it?”
— NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in December 2009 lauding Stewart as one of the decade’s “Thought Leaders” for Newsweek’s 20/10 Web project reviewing the previous ten years.