Best of NQ 2010

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


Category 2 of 16

Rodney Dangerfield Award for Demanding Respect for Obama's "Achievements"



Winner

Lesley Stahl (66 points)

“It reminded me of a doctor who has this horrible burn victim come into the hospital, and he saves the guy’s life — this is our economy — saves the guy’s life, but the guy wakes up and he’s got scars all over his face, and that’s all he sees, that’s all anybody sees. The guy’s living, but he looks awful. And how — what’s the doctor supposed to say? And that’s what he’s [Obama is] fighting, he’s fighting an economy that just won’t give him anything… He cannot get any traction on what he’s accomplished.”
— CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, October 18. [MP3 Audio]


Runners-up

Joy Behar (49 points)

Co-host Joy Behar: “You’ve really done a lot, I think. I mean, you’ve signed 200-plus laws into — since you’re in office. You have — financial reform has taken place. You got a health care — I mean, you put two women on the Supreme Court. I could go on and on about your accomplishments. And yet, the right-wing, through Fox News and other outlets, they seem to be hijacking the narrative. Where, on your side, is the narrative? Where is your attack dog to come out and tell the American people, ‘Listen, this is what we did?’”

President Obama: “Joy, that’s your job.”

Behar, over audience applause: “I do it! But, I’m only one woman!”
— Exchange on ABC’s The View, July 29. [MP3 Audio]


Christiane Amanpour (47 points)

“People from all over the world, frankly, say to me, here comes a President with a huge mandate, a huge reservoir of goodwill, huge promises to change, and, with all of that, his popularity is down. People don’t appreciate some of the amazing legislative agenda that he’s accomplished.”
— Host Christiane Amanpour to White House advisor David Axelrod on ABC’s This Week, September 26. [MP3 Audio]


stillshot

USA Today (35 points)

“Big problems. Big achievements. Big costs. Historians say President Obama’s legislative record during a crisis-ridden presidency already puts him in a league with such consequential presidents as Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt. But polls show voters aren’t totally on board with his achievements, at least not yet, and the White House acknowledges that his victories have carried huge financial and political costs. ‘There are always costs in doing big things,’ Obama told USA Today.”
— Opening of May 12 USA Today cover story by Susan Page and Mimi Hall, “Will doing ‘big things’ wind up costing Obama?” The accompanying picture showed a portrait of Abraham Lincoln peering down at Obama.


Chuck Todd (29 points)

“You’ve had an enormous amount of legislative victories — it’s comparable to any President in history. It has not translated into political capital with the public. Honestly, are you frustrated by that?”
— NBC’s Chuck Todd to President Obama in an interview excerpt shown on MSNBC’s Hardball, July 16. [MP3 Audio]