Winners of Media Research Center’s
5TH Annual Dishonors Awards Gala

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- The Media Research Center and its president, Brent Bozell, along with conservative luminaries such as Cal Thomas, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz and Ann Coulter, roasted the media elite by presenting its awards for the worst reporting of 2004 at last night’s annual DisHonors Awards Dinner. The winners were selected by a panel of 16 distinguished media observers, including Rush Limbaugh, William F. Buckley, Lucianne Goldberg, Michelle Malkin and Robert Novak.

After the awards ceremony, Bozell presented the MRC’s “Conservative of the Year” award to the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth for their courageous role in the 2004 presidential campaign. Swift Vet John O’Neill accepted the award on behalf of the group.

The winners of the MRC’s 2005 DisHonors Awards:

REALLY Time to Retire Award, Won by Walter Cronkite

”I have a feeling that it [bin Laden’s new videotape] could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I’m a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, that he probably set up bin Laden to this thing.” 
— Former CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite on CNN’s Larry King Live, October 29. 

Send Bush to Abu Ghraib Award, Won by Bill Moyers 

Bill Moyers: ”There have been 37,000 civilians killed in Iraq, or as many perhaps as 100,000. Why is abortion a higher moral issue with many American Christians than the invasion of Iraq and the loss of life there?” 
Sister Joan Chittister: "Could I ask you that question? Because that is the moral question that brings me closest to tears. I do not understand that, Bill. You see, I’m absolutely certain that some of the people that we’re killing over there are pregnant women. Now what do you do? Now what do you do? That’s military abortion.”
Moyers: “Somebody said to me — that’s what?”
Chittister: “That’s military abortion. Why is that morally acceptable?”
Moyers: “Somebody said to me that Americans don’t behead, but we do drop smart bombs that do it for us.”
— November 12 exchange on PBS’s Now.

Al Franken Award for the Stupidest Analysis Award, Won by Bruce Morton 

”Veterans haven’t been a big force in past campaigns ... but the Vietnam vets may feel bound together more strongly ... It may be too early to know how influential they’ll be in Kerry’s campaign, but they have already done one thing: If the Republicans had any hope of casting Kerry as some Michael Dukakis-style effete Eastern liberal, that’s over. The band of brothers stands in its way.” 
— CNN’s Bruce Morton on Inside Politics, January 30. 

I’m not a Political Genius But I Play One on TV Award Won by Janeane Garofalo

Joe Scarborough: “Since George Bush got into public life, he’s been underestimated by his opponents ... Is that a part of an act that this guy does to lull Democrats into underestimating him, or do Democrats just put up really, really bad candidates against this guy every four years?” 
Comic/liberal radio host Janeane Garofalo: “Well, I don’t recognize that as a valid question. First of all, George W. Bush is a bad candidate. George W. Bush is unelectable, in my opinion. And secondly-”
Scarborough: “Well, why does he keep winning?” 
Garofalo: “I don’t know, voter fraud? A failed mainstream media that fails to inform the electorate about what their government is doing? Ignorance? Apathy? I don’t know.”
— MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, January 20, 2005, the night of Bush’s second inauguration.

The John Kerry Suck Up Award Won by Byron Pitts

“It was four years ago during the Democratic convention, not far from where we stand tonight, that John Kerry stood near his father on his deathbed. Earlier, as the family was preparing to leave John Kerry’s home in Boston, I’m told he whispered to his sister, ‘Remember the words of our mother on her deathbed when she said, ‘John,’ knowing he would run for President some day, ‘remember, John, integrity, that’s what matters.’ Tonight, John Kerry tried to show that integrity."
— CBS’s Byron Pitts during live coverage of John Kerry’s speech to the Democratic convention, July 29.

Quote Of The Year Award (Story Of The Year) Award Won by Dan Rather

For the Bush National Guard story that was revealed to have been based on clearly falsified documents and Mr. Rather’s continuous refusal to admit the story was a fraud.

Related Items:
• 2005 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2004