Winners at the MRC's "Dishonors Awards" Held Thursday Night(Roasting Most Biased Lib Reporters'04)

Cal Thomas, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Neal Boortz, Zell Miller, Midge Decter, T. Boone Pickens and Janet Parshall highlighted the presentations and acceptances of MRC's "2005 Dishonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2004," which were presented on Thursday night, April 21, before an audience of more than 950 -- our largest crowd ever -- packed into the Grand Ballroom of the J.W. Marriott in Washington, D.C.

Following the presentation of the Dishonors Awards videos in five categories, a look at the Best of the Worst of Dan Rather and the audience picking the Quote of the Year, we presented a 12-minute video tribute to the Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth. MRC President L. Brent Bozell then honored a founder of the group, John O'Neill, with the MRC's Conservative of the Year Award. O'Neill paid tribute to his comrades who were appalled by John Kerry's claims and charges.

DisHonors Awards winners were selected by a distinguished panel of 16 leading media observers who served as judges -- including Rush Limbaugh, Cal Thomas, William F. Buckley, Jr., Ann Coulter, John Fund, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Malkin, Kate O'Beirne, Lucianne Goldberg, Walter E. Williams, Thomas Winter and Robert Novak. For the list of judges with identifications and links to their Web sites, see item #2 below.

Cal Thomas, a syndicated columnist and host of FNC's After Hours with Cal Thomas, served again as a splendid Master of Ceremonies. Sean Hannity, co-host of FNC's Hannity & Colmes and a national radio talk show host, was the first presenter of nominee videos and the announcement of the winner, followed by author Ann Coulter and then Atlanta-based nationally-syndicated radio talk show host Neal Boortz.

In place of the journalist who won each award, a conservative accepted it in jest. Those standing in for the winners: Colin McNickle of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, the target of Teresa Heinz Kerry's "shove it" remark; renowned businessman T. Boone Pickens; national radio talk show host Janet Parshall; Midge Decter, author and conservative intellectual; and former U.S. Senator Zell Miller.

The evening began with welcoming remarks from Cal Thomas, an invocation by Reverend Vincent Rigdon and the Pledge of Allegiance led by MRC Trustee Dick Eckburg.

After the second award category, we paid tribute to Reed Irvine, the founder of Accuracy in Media who passed away last year, and then Ann Coulter narrated a video review of Dan Rather's worst bias. Later, Cal Thomas urged the audience to put Peter Jennings in their prayers. To introduce acceptor Colin McNickle, attendees watched videos of Teresa Heinz Kerry's "shove it" attack of him and, leading into Zell Miller, attendees were treated to video of the Miller/Chris Matthews "duel" exchange from MSNBC's Republican convention coverage. The audience loudly cheered Miller's retorts to Matthews and laughed throughout Miller's live mock acceptance remarks.

For all five "DisHonors Awards" categories, the top three quotes in each category were played in random order followed by the announcement of the winner. Throughout the night Thomas, the presenters and acceptors entertained the audience with humorous comments about current events, mocking the pretentiousness displayed in the nominated quotes and the poor journalism of those being highlighted.

To get the full flavor of the mocking atmosphere of the evening, you'll need to watch video of the event (it will not be carried by C-SPAN). The MRC's Mez Djouadi has already posted RealPlayer videos of each nominated quote, and through the day Friday he will be adding video segments of Cal Thomas introducing the presenters, the presentations of the awards and the remarks of those accepting them. So, as the hours pass, check back with this address to see what has been added since you last checked: www.mediaresearch.org

Below are the top runners-up 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:

# CBS's Morley Safer: "You talk about a vision, and it's some kind of abstract, vague idea. Did his [Ronald Reagan's] vision include extraordinary deficits? Did his vision include cutting of the budgets for education and a back of the hand in terms of public education?"

King: "History will not be kind to him?"
Safer: "No, I don't think history particularly will be kind."
King: "You don't?"
Safer: "They'll talk about all that superficial stuff that all of you have been talking about. But when it gets down to the real substance, I don't think history has any reason to be kind to him." -- CNN's Larry King Live, June 14 discussion about Ronald Reagan's legacy.

# "Today, on the Internet and elsewhere, some people, including many who are partisan political operatives, concentrated not on the key questions of the overall story, but on the documents that were part of the support of the story. They allege that the documents are fake....The 60 Minutes report was based not solely on the recovered documents, but on a preponderance of the evidence, including documents that were provided by what we consider to be solid sources and interviews with former officials of the Texas National Guard. If any definitive evidence to the contrary of our story is found, we will report it. So far, there is none." -- Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 10.

# "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.

# "The President's team knows that it can't get back to the White House by taking only hard right turns, so it has, as three of its featured speakers, Republicans who have been successful by navigating the middle of the road as well as the right-hand side: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Rudy Giuliani, New York's former Mayor, and Senator John McCain who often calls himself John Kerry's best friend in the U.S. Senate. Streetwise New Yorkers may call that the political equivalent of a popular con game in this tough town -- three-card monte. But then, that's also a game in which the dealer almost always wins." -- Tom Brokaw on the August 29 NBC Nightly News, the eve of the Republican convention.

# "To move to the 9/11 Commission, you yourself have acknowledged in the, that Osama bin Laden was not a central focus of the administration in the months before September 11th....Two-and-a-half years later, do you feel any sense of personal responsibility for September 11th?" -- New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller to President Bush at an April 13 news conference.

# 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 the other day that Americans don't behead, but we do drop smart bombs that do it for us." -- November 12 exchange on PBS's Now.

# Moyers: "Let me talk about this idea that a rag-tag group -- not well-fed, not well-clothed, completely under-equipped as compared to this great British army and the Hessians -- could accomplish this. And let me ask you to think about what is going on in Iraq today, where the insurgents â€" not well equipped, smaller in numbers -- the greatest army in the world is their opposition. What's the lesson here?"
Lynne Cheney: "Well, the difference, of course, is who's fighting on the side of freedom." -- Exchange on the November 9 Today show, where Mrs. Cheney was promoting her new children's book on General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War.

# "Tonight, savagery in the streets of Iraq. Ten Americans die in a single day, four of them civilians murdered, mutilated and dragged through the streets. Who is behind this? What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy, it may be, for some, the only job they can find." -- Dan Rather teasing a report on the CBS Evening News on March 31, the day four American civilians were killed and mutilated in Fallujah, Iraq.

# "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.

+ The I'm Not a Political Genius But I Play One on TV Award Presented by Neal Boortz

# Cynthia McFadden: "There's the last image of the video where President Bush, or a President Bush look-alike, kisses Saddam Hussein-" Madonna: "On the cheek." McFadden: "On the cheek. What are we supposed to think about that?" Madonna: "Although, you know, they [President Bush and Saddam Hussein] are very different people serving very different purposes. I think they both have very equally narrow views about how to solve problems and it is all about power, the struggle for oil and the struggle for world domination, and at the end of the day, are they that different? You know what I mean? I don't want to equate George Bush with Saddam Hussein. But I believe that George Bush and Saddam Hussein are both behaving in an irresponsible manner, so in that respect, they're alike." -- Pop singer Madonna in an interview shown on ABC's 20/20, June 18.

# "We must make it clear that a hundred million women in this country will not have their rights rolled back by political extremists! The far right have already squandered your Social Security! They better put our uteruses in a lockbox and keep their hands off them!" -- Actress Camryn Manheim, who played "Ellenor Frutt" on ABC's The Practice, screaming at the April 25 pro-abortion "March for Women's Lives" rally on the Mall in Washington, D.C. and shown live on C-SPAN.

# 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.

# Byron Pitts: "For Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, tonight's acceptance of the Democratic nomination is more than merely a day, it's his destiny. Best understood from the beginning. Back not simply to when John Forbes Kerry was born in 1943 to a Catholic couple from the privileged class, but to that time when America embraced Camelot. Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant has covered Kerry's career from the start."

Tom Oliphant, Boston Globe: "I'm absolutely convinced that this all started out of a very sincere belief in President Kennedy's words."
John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural Address): "Ask not what your country can do for you-"
Pitts: "A gifted athlete and captain of the debate team at Yale, Kerry followed his idol's lead and enlisted in the Navy in 1966. In Vietnam, Lieutenant John F. Kerry rescued a comrade in combat, killed an enemy soldier, won three Purple Hearts and one Bronze Star. He returned home both angry and ambitious."
Kerry: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake."...
Pitts: "The day before his speech, Kerry crossed Boston Harbor with some of his crew mates from Vietnam. His band of brothers. They have one battle left. But tonight the loner will stand alone here in his hometown one more time and look to do what John F. Kerry has nearly always done -- find a way to win." -- Pitts on CBS's The Early Show, July 29.

# Dan Rather: "Speaking of angry, have you ever had any anger about President Bush -- who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard -- running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam? You have to be at least irritated by that, or have you been?"
John Kerry: "Yup, I have been." -- July 22 CBS Evening News.

# "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, â€˜Remember the words of our mother on her deathbed when she said, â€˜John,' knowing he would run for President some day, â€˜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.

When posted will be at http://www.mediaresearch.org/, Friday CyberAlert...AND video throughout the day.

Audience Awards the "Quote of the Year" to Dan Rather :

"60 Minutes has now obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Colonel Killian's personal file. Among them, a never before seen memorandum from May 1972 where Colonel Killian writes that Lieutenant Bush called him to talk about how he 'can get out of coming to drill from now through November.' We consulted a handwriting analyst and document expert who believes the material is authentic."

"The 60 Minutes report was based not solely on the recovered documents, but on a preponderance of the evidence, including documents that were provided by what we consider to be solid sources."

Then, as a picture of each nominee was displayed, audience members were asked by MRC President L. Brent Bozell to clap, cheer, yell or even throw silverware to indicate their preference so that he, along with Cal Thomas, Ann Coulter and Neal Boortz, could decipher the audience's preference. (Sean Hannity had departed to do his 9pm EDT show live on FNC.)

It wasn't even close. While the Cronkite quote earned hearty applause, the audience erupted at seeing Dan Rather's face and so he won the Quote of the Year.

The Simpsons - Fraudcast News

Lisa is going to read a poem at the town's celebration of their natural landmark "Geezer Rock," but Homer who believes he is doing the right thing removes a bush from the landmark that causes it to fall apart. Mr. Burns is caught in the landslide and Smithers fears he is lost. Lisa is disappointed that no one got to hear her poem and Marge suggests that she get it published. To Smithers' delight, Mr. Burns has survived the landslide by slithering his way out however; he is annoyed to find out that no one missed him when they thought he was lost. He decides to buy every media outlet in town. Lisa distributes the first issue of her own newspaper the "The Red Dress Press," which is a success. Now she has to get out a second issue and she enlists the help of her fellow children. Meanwhile, Mr. Burns has taken control of all the media outlets in Springfield, except one, her newspaper. Mr. Burns tries to seduce Lisa into selling out but she won't give up. Now Mr. Burns starts to play hardball, he cuts the power to the Simpson home. Principal Skinner offers Lisa the use of an old mimeograph machine, which gets her latest issue out. Mr. Burns talks with Homer to get the dirt on Lisa, that Homer readily supplies and Burns uses this information against her. Lisa is ready to give up and Homer realizing what he's done responds by printing a newspaper of his own. Homer's paper inspires others to think to begin to think for themselves and soon everyone is printing their own newspaper.

;)

And my vote is:

1. Funniest: Actress Camryn Manheim ("Plus-size," U-gally, demented, Bi-atch) "keep your hand of our Uteruses,"

as if..........

Gives new meaning to "Coyote Ugly!"

(I'd chew BOTH arms off)

2. Sickest: Sister Joan Chittister--"Military abortions?"

A MUST SEE

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