Quote
of the Year
Reporter
Brian Ross: "Mary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes,
the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather's
60 Minutes report on President Bush's National Guard
service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for
airing . . ."
Ross to Mapes:
"Do you still think that story was true?"
Ex-CBS producer
Mary Mapes: "The story? Absolutely."
Ross: "This
seems remarkable to me that you would sit there now and say you
still find that story to be up to your standards."
Mapes: "I'm
perfectly willing to believe those 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."
- on ABC's
Good Morning America, Nov. 9
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
Newspapers White House columnist Helen Thomas, as quoted in the
Under the Dome column in The Hill newspaper, July 28
Crazy
Chris Award for Chris Matthews' Left-Wing Lunacy
Anti-war
activist Cindy Sheehan: "We're not going to cure terrorism
and spread peace and goodwill in the Middle East by killing innocent
people or - I'm not even saying our bullets and bombs killing
them. The occupation that - they don't have food, they don't have
clean water, they don't have electricity. They don't have medicine,
they don't have doctors. We need to get our military presence
out of there, and that's what's gonna start building goodwill
. . . I see Iraq as a base for spreading imperialism . . ."
Host Chris
Matthews: "Are you considering running for Congress, Cindy?"
Sheehan:
"No, not this time . . ."
Matthews:
"OK. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than
most U.S. congresspeople, so maybe you should run."
- exchange
on MSNBC's Hardball, Aug. 15
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
"Balanced
Jurist at Home in the Middle."
- headline
over a New York Times story on Clinton Supreme Court
nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg, June 27, 1993
Politics
of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis
"It's
been 11 days since two African-American teenagers were killed,
electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this."
- anchor
Carol Lin after a Nov. 6 CNN Sunday Night story about
the riots in France; the two teenagers were not Americans, but
French citizens of Tunisian heritage
Good
Morning Morons Award
Co-host Matt
Lauer: "Pain at the pump. Gas prices are going sky high.
I paid $2.94 a gallon over the weekend to fill up the car."
Co-host Katie
Couric: "It's ridiculous. I had to take out a loan to fill
up my minivan. It's crazy."
- exchange
at the top of NBC's Today, Aug. 15; Couric makes about
$15 million a year
Oh,
That Liberal Media Award
Newsweek's
Evan Thomas: "Is this attack on [public broadcasting's budget]
going to make NPR a little less liberal?"
NPR legal
correspondent Nina Totenberg: "I don't think we're liberal
to begin with, and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would
know that."
Thomas: "I
do listen to you and you're not that liberal, but you're a little
bit liberal."
Totenberg:
"No, I don't think so. I don't think that's a fair criticism,
I really don't - any more than, any more than you would say that
Newsweek is liberal."
Thomas: "I
think Newsweek is a little liberal."
- exchange
on the June 28 Inside Washington
If your stomach
is strong enough to handle the complete awards list, you can get
it on-line at www.mediaresearch.org.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs
daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
