The Ugliest Media Quotes of 2003

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | 1/13/04 | L. Brent Bozell III

[kattracks]

Fifty years from now schoolchildren may learn that 2003 was the year President George W. Bush liberated Iraq, creating a prosperous powerhouse of democratic capitalism in the Middle East. We don't know how it will turn out yet, of course. But we know one thing: The first draft of history out of our national media came from the angry left, furious at the exercise of U.S. power and solicitous of the dictator now in the dock.

The worst media eruptions of 2003 now are available in the Media Research Center's annual greatest-misses collection known as the Best of Notable Quotables. Forty-six judges selected the ugliest of the ugly, lest we forget how ridiculous our media elite can be.

Flummoxed independent filmmaker Michael Moore was handed the "Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity" for telling Bob Costas on HBO that the U.S. government knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding but is lying to everyone with their terror alerts to milk 9/11 for political purposes. "I think our government knows where he is," Moore proclaimed, "and I don't think we're going to be capturing him or killing him anytime soon."

PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers won his own "Bill Moyers Award" for subsidized sanctimony for comparing Americans who wear flag pins on their lapels to lapdogs in Communist China, "where I saw Mao's little red book on every official's desk, omnipresent and unread." He concluded with moral equivalence: "I put it [the flag pin] on to remind myself that not every patriot thinks we should do to Baghdad what Osama bin Laden did to us."

Saddam Hussein now may prepare in his prison cell for his propaganda outbursts in court, but that might look bland compared to ABC, which won the "Baghdad Bob Award for Parroting Enemy Propaganda." On the March 7 Good Morning America, cohost Diane Sawyer passed along that "I read this morning that he's [Saddam's] also said the love that the Iraqis have for him is so much greater than Americans feel for their president because he's been loved for 35 years, he says, the whole 35 years."

I suppose the message ABC is trying to convey is that the secret to longevity and "love" in office is to construct a reign of terror and rule with a tight, bloody fist. But ABC wasn't done yet. Baghdad correspondent Dan Harris had to multiply the silliness: "He is one to point out 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 100 percent margin recently." If Saddam said the moon was made of green cheese, you suspect Harris would have passed that along as well.

How can anyone suggest Bush was the world leader getting the genuflecting press in 2003? Helen Thomas reminded us of the media "mainstream" in the White House press corps, earning the "Begala & Carville Prize" for this objective glance at Bush: "This is the worst president ever. He is the worst president in all of American history."

By contrast, liberals are hailed for their power and wisdom. MSNBC's David Shuster personified the "Romanticizing the Rabble Award for Glorifying Protesters" by suggesting to Chris Matthews that "there are now perhaps two world superpowers. There's the United States, and then there are those millions of people who took to the streets opposing U.S. policy."

In May, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's auto-lie-ography gained a 60-minute commercial from ABC's Barbara Walters, who ought to get a cut of the royalties in addition to the "Media Suck-up Award." She reminded everyone of the old "Baba-Wawa" caricature with fawning "questions" to Hillary such as: "I don't think people realize how strong your faith is."

Some awards warn us of the year of media manipulating to come. One overflowing category was the "Invisible Liberal Award," full of ideological camouflage for hard-left Howard Dean. He's not a liberal, they said. In fact, said award winner Ken Bode, the former NBC reporter, "[Michael] Dukakis was no liberal, and neither was [Walter] Mondale." That draft of history has already hit the ash pile.

But for intense idiocy, it doesn't get any better than Charles Pierce, who won the "Quote of the Year" hands down with this achingly perverse Chappaquiddick sentence in the Boston Globe Magazine: "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." Please go away, Mr. Pierce. Kennedy couldn't even bring her a life jacket.

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L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center in Alexandria, Virginia, and is a syndicated columnist.

[I still care]

"PBS omnipresence Bill Moyers won his own "Bill Moyers Award" for subsidized sanctimony for comparing Americans who wear flag pins on their lapels to lapdogs in Communist China, "where I saw Mao's little red book on every official's desk, omnipresent and unread."

But I thought Dean keeps saying he is going to take the flag back from Rush Limbaugh! Does he know that liberals don't really want it?

[DeepDish]

Your last sentence is dang near quote of the day material.

[patj]

Please go away, Mr. Pierce. Kennedy couldn't even bring her a life jacket.

Wasn't this said by someone on this forum? It sure sounds familiar. Also, sounds like something a Freeper would say.

[1john2 3and4]

i thought someone here said it too.....now, am i to believe that this was said in praise of teddy?

man, that's just too unbelievable

[I still care]

Thank you. I always laugh when I hear these types say, oh, the Republicans have stolen the flag. Or, they have stolen religion and faith and it is time the Demos took it back.

A fast perusal of DU would show that the liberal base doesn't WANT the flag or God. Their idea of utopia is being reminded of neither. And here is an interesting quote to expand on that - this is from a story about the first memorial for 9/11:

"As the one-year anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we can expect many tributes to the victims and to America…except from the anti-American liberals at UC Berkeley. Student leaders decided that, during their 9/11 services, there will be no patriotic symbols. They will distribute white ribbons rather than red, white, and blue. They will not allow the “Star Spangled Banner”, “God Bless America”, or the American flag. Apparently these are all exclusionary and could possibly offend some students."

"Hazel Wong, chief organizer for the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), said that “We didn’t want anything too centered on nationalism – anything that is ‘Go U.S.A.’"


Then I hear Dean screaming about how he wants the flag back, and the Dem audience cheering and applauding. And they call Rush a hypocrite.

[Eva]

This another late night posting from Frontpage, that is such a waste. I wish people would not bother to post good articles in the middle of the night because many posters only read the list of articles, not the comments.

Bump for a good read. This one is a keeper.

[Eva]

bump for some attention.

[Eva]

bump again

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[Eva]

I don't get it, why is this getting NO attention???

[MaryFromMichigan]

Bttt!

[Eva]

Thanks