After Action Report: Media Research Center 2013 Dishonor Awards Gala Dinner

Media Research Center ^ | 29 Sep 2013 | Angelwood and BufordP

[BufordP]

Chris Plante

Dan Joseph

Bob Parks

Cal Thomas

Terry Jeffrey

Brent Bozell

Brent Baker

Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah

Howard Portnoy at our table

This after-action report comes to you courtesy of Matthew Sheffield (an Editor at NewsBusters and President of Dialog New Media). At Matt's invitation, Angelwood and BufordP had the pleasure of attending the Media Research Center DisHonor Awards Gala Dinner on Thursday, September 26. Thank you, Matt, for allowing us to join in the festivities: A fun-filled evening with other conservatives, great dinner and participation in voting for the DisHonor award winners from the field of truly outrageous liberal pundits and reporters in today's media.

This year's Gala was held at the J.W. Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue across from Freedom Plaza. The staff of Media Research Center worked diligently to make the evening run smoothly. (They were everywhere – like FReepers!) Ticket/table assignment pickup was quick and easy. There was a large room set up for cocktails and mingling. Ladies came in all assorted dress lengths, lots of "little black dresses," and the gentlemen were in suits or tuxes. It was a very nice venue.

MRC had a team of professional photographers and a cameraman working the event. Angelwood and BufordP had their pictures taken several times. The photographers handed us their business card with a website address so we could view our photos after the event. So we thought we wouldn't need to take our own pictures. These days, neither of us can read without reading glasses, so we waited to read the card when we got home. Pictures won't be ready until October 16. (Darn! – Crap!)
https://mrcgala2013.shutterfly.com/

Before we entered the reception area, Angelwood bumped into Brent Baker. You can check out his blog at Newsbusters. Brent was busy greeting guests so we didn't talk long. Later, during the reception we encountered a lovely couple – Brent's parents.

During the reception we met a few of DC's finest conservative reporters and pundits. Almost immediately after we entered the cocktail party room, we saw Chris Plante (WMAL) who was one of the award presenters. We spoke with Chris about the looming cloture vote over defunding ObamaCare. (If you are not a DC local and don't know Chris, then maybe you've seen Chris tangle with Leslie Marshall on Fox News.) We knew we couldn't count on the Senate Republicans to stand with Senator Cruz and prevent a simple majority vote on funding ACA. So what's next? Push a one-year delay for the individual mandate? That would still politically help the Democrats by delaying "some" of the financial pain before the 2014 elections. Lose/lose.

While we were speaking with Chris Plante, a friend of his stopped by to introduce Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves (District 17). Though Senator Reeves does not represent our Virginia districts, we enjoyed discussing the Virginia Governor's race and political issues in Virginia.

Next, we met two major cogs in the MRCTV machine: Bob Parks and Dan Joseph. Bob Parks is a MRCTV Senior Video Producer. You can catch Bob's blog at Black and Right. We had our photo taken with Bob hope it turns out.

We met Dan Joseph, along with his lovely Mother, and had a lively conversation. If you don't recognize Dan by name, maybe you'll recognize him for some of his great work like "Stuff Liberals Say." Dan's most recent piece of note is his interview of Cornel West and a 9-11 Truther at "Million Muslim March"

We got to say Hi to Brent Bozell; he was very busy as host of the festivities, but graciously took time to speak with us briefly. We also saw Cal Thomas, Mia Love (Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, and a participant in the awards ceremony for the evening) and Terry Jeffrey, Editor in Chief of CNSNews.com.

No dinner among a gathering of solid conservatives begins without a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The invocation was given by Joshua Duggar, Executive Director, FRC Action (and a member of the Duggar family – "19 Kids and Counting.") He was very upbeat and well received; his wife, Anna was also at the dinner. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Bruce "Radar" Radford, Trustee, Media Research Center.

Dinner was delicious: Salad, filet mignon, salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, some kind of chocolate desert cake with a cute square of white chocolate sporting the MRC logo, white and red wine. Each guest received a Gala gift bag which included a small book, "Liberal Media Idiocy 2011-2012, Yup, They Really Said That!" by Michael W. Chapman. Howard Portnoy of NewsBusters and Liberty Unyielding sat at our table.

The festivities started with Cal Thomas introducing Dr. Charles Krauthammer, the winner of the "William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence." Charles Krauthammer accepted his award in person and spoke eloquently. He was both serious and humorous, interspersing jokes about his original intent to speak for 21 hours and 19 minutes (an allusion to the amount of time Senator Ted Cruz spoke on the Senate floor fighting to defund ObamaCare), his 1,200 Fridays spent in the company of Nina Totenberg as panelists on "Inside Washington," and how happy he was to be "anywhere where Juan Williams can't interrupt me."

This was the first year of audience participation in voting for the remaining awards. MRC chose a panel of judges; the panel then selected three nominees for each award. The final decision for each award was left to the audience. Voters at each of the 86 tables were asked to elect a table captain. The captains were given an electronic device (which would record each table's vote) and a "Drudge Alert Flashing Light" in red, blue or yellow -- to be turned on when each vote had been discussed and cast. Needless to say, there was a lively discussion and pandemonium, with a colorful array of lights flashing at the end of every vote. Oh, and there were also assorted noisemakers distributed to each person. Fun, indeed!

Chris Plante introduced "Barbra Streisand Celebrity Dumb Ass Award." The Nominees were: Tony Kushner, Bill Maher and Jamie Foxx.

After the videos of each nominee were played, it was time to choose the most outrageous and deserving of the BS Celebrity DA Award. It was a tough job, but everyone persevered and came to a consensus. The captain hit the button, the flashing light went on and we waited for the results from the podium.

The Winner: Bill Maher. SiruisXM Talk radio host and FoxNews contributor David Webb accepted on Maher's behalf.

Chris Plante did double duty and also introduced the "Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest Analysis" award. The Nominees were: Melissa Harris-Perry, Deborah Feyerick and Bob Herbert. Again, we discussed, chose and voted, flashed our light and waited while other lights went off. And the Winner: Melissa Harris-Perry. Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, graciously accepted the award for the absent Ms. Perry.

As a comic interlude, Monica Crowley (FoxNews and The Monica Crowley Radio Show) presented a compilation of videos (stressing that she didn't choose them) referred to as "The Funnies." The one showing the difference between women and men eating corn is a must see. It was hilarious!

Back to the business of the evening – Stephen Hayes ("Weekly Standard" and Fox News Contributor) introduced "Puppy Love Award." The Nominees were: Chris Matthews, Diane Sawyer and Piers Morgan.

And the Winner: Chris Matthews. Former Senator and President of Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint, was pleased to accept the award for Chris Matthews.

The last award category, "Damn Those Conservatives to Hell Award" was also presented by Stephen Hayes. The Nominees were: Michael Eric Dyson, Jonathan Alter and Chris Matthews. Drumroll please – and the Winner: Jonathan Alter.

Brent Bozell gave a special introduction for Senator Mike Lee, who accepted the award for Jonathan Alter. Brent said Senator Mike Lee had called on conservatives to start a revolution to fight Obamacare. He also called Senator Lee the "Heart and Soul of the Conservative Movement." Senator Lee received a standing ovation from the cheering crowd.

During his humble acceptance of Jonathan Alter's award, Senator Lee changed the title of the award slightly. Joking, he accepted the "GOSH DARN ALL THOSE CONSERVATIVES TO HECK AWARD" on Alter's behalf. He said he was prepared to speak for 21 hours and 19 minutes – another allusion to Ted Cruz's marathon speech on ObamaCare, which was a recurrent theme by many at the dinner. Mike Lee also explained the real meaning of Politics – the original Greek meaning broken down. "Poli" which means "Many" and "Tics" which means "Blood-Sucking Parasites!"

The last item on the agenda was to vote on the "Quote of the Year" pitting the previous three winners against each other. Brent Bozell asked everyone to vote for their choice with applause, voices and noisemakers; the nominee who received the loudest response from the audience would win Quote of the Year.

And the winner is...JONATHAN ALTER!

And then, the party was over...But their mission remains...to continue to chronical and call attention to the mean-spirited arrogant condescending liberal bias of the lame-stream media.

Jonathan Alter's reaction to winning Quote of the Year on Twitter

[BufordP]

ARGH!

[Jane Long]

Thanks for posting. I’d love to make it up to DC for a FR attended protest or event, someday ;)

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Thanks for the post. Would have liked to shaken Mia Love’s hand.

[Albion Wilde]

Great AAR! Please ping again when the pictures arrive!

[ironman]

Nice. I haven’t been to one of these awards dinners in a long time. They are a ton of fun and laughs.