An editorial in the January 29 The Charlotte Observer

     Winners of "The MRC Dishonor Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2001," from the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization based in Arlington, Va.:

     We're All Going to Die and It's Bush's Fault Award (for Doomsday Environmental reporting):

     "Remember when Ronald Reagan tried to save a few pennies on the school lunch program by classifying ketchup as a vegetable? Last week the Bush administration went further, axing a regulation that forced the meat industry to test hamburgers served in school for salmonella. Imagine, Mad Cow Disease among children, K through 12. The day it hit the papers the proposal was quickly withdrawn. [If] the Bush administration keeps trying to kill health and safety regulations at this pace, soon we won't be able to eat, drink or breathe."
-- "Outrage of the Week" from Time magazine's Margaret Carlson, April 7, 2001, on "Capital Gang," CNN 

     Bring Back Bubba Award (for the Best Journalistic Lewinsky):

     "Throughout the eight years that he was in office, President Clinton warned us that the next great menace was international terrorism....

     "He also brought unprecedented prosperity to our nation, and because of that, President Clinton [she meant Bush] can use the surplus Mr. Clinton left behind to pay for many of the nation's needs in this time of crisis....

     "This lecture series is about the human spirit. To me and millions of others, President Clinton has always personified that. He is the man from Hope, and that is what he has given us, hope. We miss him. Thank you, Mr. President."
-- Former UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas introducing Bill Clinton at an Oct. 9, 2001, Greater Washington Society of Association Executives lecture shown on C-SPAN 

     Gilligan Award (for Flakiest Comment of the Year):

     Bill O'Reilly: "I want to ask you flat out, do you think President Clinton's an honest man?"

     Dan Rather: "Yes, I think he's an honest man."

     O'Reilly: "Do you, really?"

     Rather: "I do."

     O'Reilly: "Even though he lied to Jim Lehrer's face about the Lewinsky case?"

     Rather: "Who among us has not lied about something?"

     O'Reilly: "Well, I didn't lie to anybody's face on national television. I don't think you have, have you?"

     Rather: "I don't think I ever have. I hope I never have. But, look, it's one thing --"

     O'Reilly: "How can you say he's an honest guy then?"

     Rather: "Well, because I think he is. I think at core he's an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing anybody would say so, but I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."
-- Exchange on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," May 15, 2001

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