Quote of the Year: Former 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes to ABC’s Brian Ross: "I’m perfectly willing to believe those [National Guard] documents are forgeries if there’s proof that I haven’t seen."

Ross: "But isn’t it the other way around? Don’t you have to prove they’re authentic?"
Mapes: "Well, I think that’s what critics of the story would say. I know more now than I did then and I think, I think they have not been proved to be false, yet."
Ross: "Have they proved to be authentic though? Isn’t that really what journalists do?"
Mapes: "No, I don’t think that’s the standard." —ABC’s Good Morning America, November 9.

Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity: "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they’re looting. See a white family, it says they’re looking for food … A lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us … George Bush doesn’t care about black people."—Rapper Kanye West during NBC’s Concert for Hurricane Relief, September 2.

Damn Those Conservatives Award: "The day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for President, I’ll kill myself. All we need is one more liar." — Hearst White House columnist Helen Thomas, as quoted in the "Under the Dome" column by Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour in The Hill newspaper, July 28.

Media Millionaires for Smaller Paychecks Award: NPR’s Nina Totenberg: "And let us say one other thing. For years, we have cut our taxes, cut our taxes and let the infrastructure throughout the country go, and this [Katrina damage] is just the first of a number of other crumbling things that are going to happen to us."
Charles Krauthammer: "You must be kidding here."
Moderator Gordon Peterson: "She’s not kidding."
Totenberg: "I’m not kidding."—Exchange on Inside Washington, September 3.

The Kanye West "George Bush Doesn’t Care About Wet People" Award: "The dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region renowned for governmental ineptitude … The populism of Huey Long was financially corrupt, but when it came to the welfare of people, it was caring. The churchgoing cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts.—Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, September 1.

Madness of King George Award for Bush Bashing: "It’s like he [President Bush] stuck a broomstick in [FDR’s] wheelchair wheels."—Newsweek’s Jon Meacham on MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning May 9, discussing Bush’s criticism of Roosevelt’s Yalta deal with Stalin on post-war Europe.

"God Save This Court from Extremists" Award: "An advocate for the Right."—Headline over a New York Times "news analysis" of Judge John Roberts’ judicial philosophy, July 28.

vs.

"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle."—Headline over a June 27, 1993 New York Times story on Supreme Court nominee and former general counsel for the ACLU Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"Baghdad Bob" Was Correct Award … Steve Harrigan, Fox News
Good Morning Morons Award … Matt Lauer, NBC’s Today
Slam Uncle Sam Award … Andrea Mitchell, NBC News
Captain Dan The Forgery Man Award … Dan Rather, CBS News
Crazy Chris Award For Chris Matthews’ Left Wing Lunacy … Matthews’ exchange with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan
Media Hero Award … David Gergen, U.S. News & World Report
Politics of Meaninglessness Award For Silliest Analysis … Carol Lin, CNN
What Liberal Media Award? … Bill Moyers, retired from PBS
Oh! That Liberal Media Award … Evan Thomas, Newsweek