Best of NQ 2011

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


Printable PDF









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:

  • FNC's Hannity. MRC President Brent Bozell discussed the award-winning quotes with guest host Mark Steyn on the Fox News Channel on Thursday, December 22. Video
    • .

Online:

Print:

Category 17 of 17

The Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity



Winner

Sean Penn (70 points)

“You have what I call the ‘Get the N-word out of the White House party,’ the Tea Party.... At the end of the day, there’s a big bubble coming out of their heads saying, you know, ‘Can we just lynch him?’”
— Actor Sean Penn on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, October 14. [MP3 Audio]


Runners-up

Bill Maher (52 points)

“Because we don’t have government health care, that’s one reason why a crazy person gets a gun because, you know what, it’s hard for a crazy person to get a job, so therefore it’s hard for them to get health care.”
— Host Bill Maher on his HBO program Real Time, January 14, talking about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords just days earlier. [MP3 Audio]


Morgan Freeman (37 points)

Piers Morgan: “Has Obama helped the process of eradicating racism, or has it in a strange way made it worse?”

Actor Morgan Freeman: “Made it worse. Made it worse. Look at, look, the Tea Partiers, who are controlling the Republican Party....Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What’s, what does that, what underlines that? ‘Screw the country. We’re going to whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.’... It is a racist thing.”

— CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, September 23. [MP3 Audio]


stillshot

Steven Weber (36 points)

“The scale of Right Wing sociopolitical sabotage necessitates a Nuremberg-scale trial for all the corporate agents and treasonous capitalisto-fascist architects of our democracy’s current and most pressing misery. From the blatant Republican policy doublespeak emanating from think-tank sponsored word doctors to the outright obstruction and lies expectorated by Republican congressional representatives and senators, the very concept of governance can only be considered once the culprits are removed. Driven to real madness by unadulterated greed they have embraced an ideology, the success of which hinges upon the very ruin of this nation.”
— Actor Steven Weber (from the 1990s NBC sitcom Wings) writing at the Huffington Post, October 24.


Roseanne Barr (34 points)

“All you Tea Party spokespeople, you work for the Koch brothers and they’re like billionaires....The Tea Party is owned by the richest people in the world....Dick Cheney didn’t earn one damn thing. Guy’s never worked an honest day in his life....[Sarah Palin is] a loon and I think she’s kind of a traitor to this country.... Her followers are the dumbest people on Earth....They can barely scare up a pulse. I’m serious.”
— Roseanne Barr on the 9pm ET edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, January 5. [MP3 Audio]