Posted on 03/19/2004 9:31:40 AM PST by fight_truth_decay
Rush Limbaugh and Sam Donaldson made surprise appearances at the MRC's "DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2003," which were presented on Thursday night, March 18, before an audience of about 850 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Following the presentation of the awards, as MRC President L. Brent Bozell III made closing remarks and thanked those who made the evening possible, he was interrupted by ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson, who bound on stage in mock anger, railing at Bozell and the MRC for the attack on the news media.
Bozell soon resumed thanking staff members, only to have the evening's producer, Leesa Kelly, interrupt him a second time to tell him there was someone else who wished to come on stage to make some comments. When Bozell acceded to her request, the theme music to Rush Limbaugh's radio show began to play and an astonished audience quickly comprehended what that meant just as Rush Limbaugh strode on stage, prompting a lengthy standing ovation. Limbaugh proceeded to deliver remarks for about 15 minutes, covering a wide range of topics from the power of the news media to how liberals are afraid of being seen as liberal to the hostility toward him by the local Florida media in covering the prosecutor's case against him.
On Friday, as soon as we are able to obtain the tape of the event, we will post RealPlayer video of both Donaldson and Limbaugh. When it is posted, you'll be able to view it here: http://www.mediaresearch.org/notablequotables/dishonor/04/welcome.asp
If it isn't up yet when you check, try later. Though I'm writing this at about 3:45am EST, I'm delaying sending this e-mail until 10:30am in the hope that by then the MRC's Mez Djouadi will have had adequate time and access to the tape in order to get the videos online, with a priority on Limbaugh.
I'd expect Limbaugh to comment on his radio show today about his appearance, which I believe may well have been his first public appearance since his drug rehabilitation last fall. So tune in to hear that.
CUT
Below are the winners (runner ups are on MRC)in each award category as picked by the judges, followed by the winner and the name of the conservative who accepted the award in jest:
+ Baghdad Bob Award for Parroting Enemy Propaganda
Presented by Joe Scarborough....And the winner is:
Diane Sawyer: "I read this morning that he's [Saddam Hussein] also said the love that the Iraqis have for him is so much greater than anything Americans feel for their President because he's been loved for 35 years, he says, the whole 35 years."
Dan Harris in Baghdad: "He is one to point out quite frequently that he is part of a historical trend in this country of restoring Iraq to its greatness, its historical greatness. He points out frequently that he was elected with a hundred percent margin recently."
-- ABC's Good Morning America, March 7, 2003.
Accepting for Diane Sawyer and Dan Harris....Jeanne Kirkpatrick
+ The I'm Not a Geopolitical Genius But I Play One on TV Award
Presented by Joe Scarborough...And the winner is:
MSNBC's Mike Barnicle: "Who do you regard as a bigger threat to world peace: George Bush, or Saddam Hussein?"
Comedienne/Activist Janeane Garofalo: "I say at this point, for different reasons, they are both very threatening to world peace and to deny that is to be incredibly naive. Right now, we are on the brink of global catastrophe....This is a manufactured war at this point. There has been a war on the people of Iraq since 1990."
-- Exchange on MSNBC's Nachman, which Barnicle was guest-hosting, February 20, 2003.
And accepting for Janeane Garofalo....Bill Donohue
+ Media Know It All Award...
Presented by Michelle Malkin...And the winner is:
Howell Raines : "Our greatest accomplishment as a profession is the development since World War II of a news reporting craft that is truly non-partisan, and non-ideological, and that strives to be independent of undue commercial or governmental influence....But we don't wear the political collar of our owners or the government or any political party. It is that legacy we must protect with our diligent stewardship. To do so means we must be aware of the energetic effort that is now underway to convince our readers that we are ideologues. It is an exercise of, in disinformation, of alarming proportions, this attempt to convince the audience of the world's most ideology-free newspapers that they're being subjected to agenda-driven news reflecting a liberal bias."
-- Then-New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines accepting the "George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award" at a National Press Foundation dinner shown live on C-SPAN2, February 20, 2003.
And accepting for Howell Raines....Al Regnery
+ I Hate You #!*#! Conservatives Award
Presented by Jonah Goldberg
And the winner is:
Bill Moyers: "I decided to put on my flag pin tonight -- first time. Until now I haven't thought it necessary to display a little metallic icon of patriotism for everyone to see....I put it on to take it back. The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo – the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On those Sunday morning talk shows official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it is the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and during the State of the Union did you notice Bush and Cheney wearing the flag? How come? No administration's patriotism is ever in doubt, only its policies. And the flag bestows no immunity from error. "When I see flags sprouting on official lapels, I think of the time in China when I saw Mao's Little Red Book on every official's desk, omnipresent and unread. But more galling than anything are all those moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American....I put it on to remind myself that not every patriot thinks we should do to the people of Baghdad what bin Laden did to us." -- Bill Moyers on PBS's Now, February 28, 2003.
Accepting for Bill Moyers....Richard Viguerie
Ozzy Osbourne Award (for the Wackiest Comment)
Presented by Joe Scarborough..And the winner is:
Charles Pierce: "If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age." -- Charles Pierce in a January 5, 2003 Boston Globe Magazine article. Kopechne drowned while trapped in Kennedy's submerged car off Chappaquiddick Island in July 1969, an accident Kennedy did not report for several hours. (Audio of Ted Kennedy impersonator reading this quote.)
Accepting for Charles Pierce....Laura Ingraham
># Funniest line of the evening:
Sam Donaldson ended his surprise appearance by saying that while he's been off of TV, he's been keeping busy writing under a pen name: Charles Pierce.
I have "performed nip and tucks" on the body of the story for those that like it short and sweet!
Disclaimer:I am only human; therefore, take no responsibilty for any errors made. Visit the site for the full night of events.
Hilarious!
Raines deserves a Baghdad Bob award for THAT.
The server must be overloaded. I tried to access it from Rush's site and it wouldn't load. Hoped there'd be a transcript on this thread. Will try again now.
He is pretty funny though. He seems to be a good fellow at heart. He also said Reagan was one of his favorites(not agenda wise)cause he stood on his beliefs.
I could be wrong though.
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