ALEXANDRIA, VA. --- The Media Research Center today awarded New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger the dubious honor of the worst “Quote of the Year” for 2006, for a left-wing rant Sulzberger delivered in a college commencement address in May, in which he “apologized” for what he claimed was the backwardness of American social and foreign policies. The Times also picked up a “win” in the “Slam Uncle Sam Award,” included in The Best Notable Quotables of 2006, the 19th Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting. The awards were determined by a panel of 58 judges made up of editorial writers, columnists, radio talk show hosts and political commentators. To read all the award-winning quotes, along with many audio and video clips of broadcast media quotes, please visit www.mrc.org.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MRC’s 2006 AWARDS:

Quote of the Year
“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, whether it’s the rights of immigrants to start a new life, or the rights of gays to marry, or the rights of women to choose. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where oil still drove policy and environmentalists have to fight relentlessly for every gain. You weren’t. But you are. And for that, I’m sorry.”
—New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.’s May 21 graduation address at the State University of New York at New Paltz, shown on C-SPAN May 27.

Runners-Up:
“Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam.”
— Co-host Rosie O’Donnell on ABC’s The View, September 12.

“I don’t support our troops....When you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you’re not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you’re willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse....I’m not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn’t be celebrating people for doing something we don’t think was a good idea.”
— Los Angeles Times columnist and former Time staff writer Joel Stein in a January 24 column.

Madness of King George Award for Bush Bashing
Anchor Wolf Blitzer: “Let’s get some words of wisdom from Jack Cafferty. He’s in New York right now. Jack?”
CNN’s Jack Cafferty: “I don’t know about wisdom, but you’ll get a little outrage. We better all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because he might be all that’s standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country.”
— CNN’s The Situation Room, May 11.

Bring Back the Iron Curtain Award
“For all its flaws, life in Castro’s Cuba has its comforts....many Cubans take pride in their free education system, high literacy rates and top-notch doctors. Ardent Castro supporters say life in the United States, in contrast, seems selfish, superficial, and — despite its riches — ultimately unsatisfying.”
— Associated Press writer Vanessa Arrington in an August 4 dispatch, “Some Cubans enjoy comforts of communism.”

Media Hero Award
“You can see it in the crowds. The thrill, the hope. How they surge toward him. You’re looking at an American political phenomenon. In state after state, in the furious final days of this crucial campaign, Illinois Senator Barack Obama has been the Democrat’s not-so-secret get-out-the-vote weapon....Everywhere he goes, people want him to run for President, especially in Iowa, cradle of presidential contenders. Around here, they’re even naming babies after him.”
— ABC Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran, November 6.

Slam Uncle Sam Award
“Our government had turned its energy and attention away from upholding the rule of law and toward creating law-free zones at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and other places around the world. And let’s not forget the sustained assault on women’s reproductive freedom and the hijacking of public policy by religious fundamentalism.”
—New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse in a June 9 speech at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute.

OTHER AWARD CATEGORIES AND WINNERS

• Politics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis — Former CBS and NBC morning host Bryant Gumbel on his HBO program Real Sports

• Terrorists Have Rights Too Award for Condemning “Domestic Spying” — ABC Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer

• Drowning Polar Bear Award for Promoting Gore’s Inconvenient “Truth” — Then-NBC Today co-host Katie Couric

• Pain at the Pump Award for Bashing “Big Oil”— CBS News Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi

• Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity — Singer/Activist Harry Belafonte

• Cranky Dinosaur Award for Trashing the New Media — MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann

• State of Denial Award for Refusing to Acknowledge Liberal Bias — Fired CBS News Anchor Dan Rather

• Recognizing the Obvious Award for Admitting There’s Liberal Media Bias — Former Washington Post political reporter Thomas Edsall