TABLE QUOTABLES TABLE QUOTABLES OF 2005 OF 2005

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Bringing Political Balance to the Media December 19, 2005 (Vol. Eighteen; No. 26) A bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media.

THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST NO NO NO NO NO T T T T T ABLE QUO ABLE QUO ABLE QUO ABLE QUO ABLE QUO T T T T T ABLES ABLES ABLES ABLES ABLES OF 2005 OF 2005 OF 2005 OF 2005 OF 2005 The Eighteenth Annual A The Eighteenth Annual A The Eighteenth Annual A The Eighteenth Annual A The Eighteenth Annual A wards for the Y wards for the Y wards for the Y wards for the Y wards for the Y ear ear ear ear ear 9s W 9s W 9s W 9s W 9s W orst R orst R orst R orst R orst R eporting eporting eporting eporting eporting Welcome to the Media Research Center 9s annual awards issue, a compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media quotes from 2005 (December 2004 through November 2005). To determine this year 9s winners, a panel of 52 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers and media observers each selected their choices ... more. less.

for the first, second and third best quote from a slate of six to nine quotes in each category. First place selections were awarded three points, second place choices two points, with one point for the third place selections. Point totals are listed in the brackets at the end of the attribution for each quote. Each judge was also asked to choose a cQuote of the Year d denoting the most outrageous quote of 2005. The winner and top runner-up appear on page eight. A list of the judges, who were generous with their time, appears on the back page. The MRC 9s Michelle Humphrey and Karen Hanna distributed and counted the ballots, then produced the numerous audio and video clips that accompany the Web-posted version. Brent Baker and Rich Noyes assembled this issue and Michael Gibbons posted the entire package on the MRC 9s Web site: www.mrc.org. And please save this date: Thursday, March 30, 2006. At our annual gala celebration that night in Washington, DC, the MRC will announce the winners of its DisHonors Awards of 2006: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters . Check www.mrc.org in early 2006 for ticket information. For video and audio clips of the broadcast quotes in this issue, go to: www.mediaresearch.org Slam Uncle Sam Award Slam Uncle Sam Award Slam Uncle Sam Award Slam Uncle Sam Award Slam Uncle Sam Award ! ! ! ! ! Andrea Mitchell: cIt is an iconic picture: American hos- tages, hands bound and blindfolded, being paraded out- side the U.S. embassy in Tehran by their captors. But has one of those student radicals now become Iran 9s newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?...Tonight, U.S. intelligence officials say that they will continue to study this, but may never have definitive proof of what the role was of Iran 9s new president, Brian. d Brian Williams: cAndrea, what would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today the first several U.S. Pres- idents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called terrorists at the time by the British Crown, after all. d Mitchell: cIndeed, Brian. d 4 NBC Nightly News , June 30. [91 points] Runners-up: # cI just want to say: Who are we? We are people who have always been for inspections of prisons, for some de- gree of human rights, and now we 9re defending neither.... We have now violated everything that we stand for. It is the first time in my life I have been ashamed of my country. d 4 NPR 9s Nina Totenberg, commenting on a front-page Washington Post report that captured terrorists are being held at undisclosed sites, Inside Washington , Nov. 4. [80] # c Stealth is a pretty fair military-hardware action movie until you start thinking about it 4 at which point it turns incredibly sour in your mouth. I can therefore recommend it to any and all audiences lacking higher brain functions. Sea cucumbers, perhaps. Ones waving American flags.... This is exactly the sort of movie we don 9t need right now: a delusional military fantasy in which collateral damage doesn 9t exist....For a movie to pretend, in the face of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children directly or indirectly caused by our presence there, that we can wage war without anyone really getting hurt isn 9t naive, or wishful thinking, or a jim-dandy way to spend a Saturday night at the movies. It 9s an obscenity. d 4 Boston Globe movie critic Ty Burr in a July 29 review of the movie Stealth , about a fighter jet that is piloted by a computer with artificial intelligence. [53] # Brian Williams: cYou just told me the story about one photograph from the war that always kind of catches you, the Japanese soldier returning to his city that 9s been de- stroyed. Do you have remorse for what happened? How do you deal with that in your mind? d Enola Gay navigator cDutch d Van Kirk: cNo, I do not have remorse! I pity the people who were there. I always think of it, Brian, as being, the dropping of the atom bomb was an act of war to end a war. d 4 Exchange as the two stood next to the plane at the Smithsonian 9s new National Air and Space annex near Dulles airport, in a segment on the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Ja- pan, NBC Nightly News , August 5. [34] 2 2005 Notable Quotables Awards Issue December 19, 2005 Madness of King George Award Madness of King George Award Madness of King George Award Madness of King George Award Madness of King George Award for Bush Bashing for Bush Bashing for Bush Bashing for Bush Bashing for Bush Bashing ! ! ! ! ! cIt 9s like he [President Bush] stuck a broomstick in his [FDR 9s] wheelchair wheels. d 4 Newsweek 9s Jon Meacham on MSNBC 9s Imus in the Morning May 9, discussing Bush 9s criticism of Roosevelt 9s Yalta deal with Stalin on post-war Europe. [62 points] Runners-up: # Reporter Lee Cowan: cThe proposed [Bush budget] cuts hit the heartland like a mountain of unwanted news, from the soy bean fields of Iowa, where farmers marched on the capital to voice their disgust at slashing farm subsi- dies, to large cities like Minneapolis, where block grant programs help the homeless and the hungry....The White House calls the budget 8lean, 9 proponents call it difficult but brave. But critics charge the people these cuts hit the hardest tend to have the weakest political voice. d Robert Greenstein, Center for Budget and Policy Priori- ties: cCuts in programs for the working poor, low income elderly people, people with disabilities. They tend not to have much in the way of lobbyists. They don 9t give cam- paign contributions. d Cowan: c....This Dallas health clinic serves only the poor- est of patients, but already there is a two-month waiting list. Dr. Maureen Thielen says the President 9s proposed cuts in Medicaid will only make it worse....Agencies that are already doing the work of the poor now find them- selves in the unenviable position of proving that their cause is worth it. d 4 CBS Evening News , February 7. [43] # cIn the words of one of his [Ayatollah Sistani 9s] aides, 8the representation of our Sunni brethren in the coming government must be effective, regardless of the results of the elections. 9 As an Iraqi politician said to me, 8There are currently two Grand Ayatollahs running Iraq: Sistani and Bush. Most of us feel that Sistani is the more rational. 9 d 4 Newsweek 9s Fareed Zakaria in a column published in the magazine 9s January 24 edition. [42] # cPresident Bush 9s second inauguration will cost tens of millions of dollars 4 $40 million alone in private donations for the balls, parade and other invitation-only parties. With that kind of money, what could you buy? " 200 armored Humvees with the best armor for troops in Iraq. " Vaccinations and preventive health care for 22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami. " A down payment on the nation 9s deficit, which hit a record-breaking $412 billion last year.... cThe questions have come from Bush supporters and op- ponents: Do we need to spend this money on what seems so extravagant? d 4 Reporter Will Lester 9s lead to a January 13 Associated Press dispatch. [41] # cThe Libby indictments have opened the door to mak- ing the wider case against the Bush administration that they misled the country into war....The next logical step is impeachment, and I think you 9re going to hear that word come up, and if the Democrats ever capture either house of Congress there are going to be serious proceedings against this administration. d 4 Newsweek 9s Eleanor Clift on the McLaughlin Group , November 5. [40] The K The K The K The K The K anye W anye W anye W anye W anye W est cGeorge Bush est cGeorge Bush est cGeorge Bush est cGeorge Bush est cGeorge Bush Doesn Doesn Doesn Doesn Doesn 9t Care About W 9t Care About W 9t Care About W 9t Care About W 9t Care About W et P et P et P et P et P eople d eople d eople d eople d eople d Award Award Award Award Award ! ! ! ! ! cThe dilatory performance of George Bush during the past week has been outrageous. Almost as unbelievable as Katrina itself is the fact that the leader of the free world has been outshone by the elected leaders of a region re- nowned for governmental ineptitude....The populism of Huey Long was financially corrupt, but when it came to the welfare of people, it was caring. The churchgoing cultural populism of George Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts. d 4 Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, September 1. [89 points] Runners-up: # cAfter meeting with Louisiana officials last week, Rever- end Jesse Jackson said, quote, 8Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response. 9 He contin- ued, quote, 8I 9m not saying that myself. 9 Then I 9ll say it: If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival. Their bodies would not have been left to float in putrid water....We 9ve repeatedly given tax cuts to the wealthiest and left our most vulnerable Ameri- can citizens to basically fend for themselves....The Presi- dent has put himself at risk by visiting the troops in Iraq, but didn 9t venture anywhere near the Superdome or the convention center, where thousands of victims, mostly black and poor, needed to see that he gave a damn. d 4 Contributor Nancy Giles on CBS 9s Sunday Morning , September 4. [58] # cFor many of this country 9s citizens, the mantra has been, as we were taught in social studies it should always be, whether or not I voted for this President, he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that ben- efit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect, also, a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to 808, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government, our government: New Orleans. For him, it is a shame, in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there and he might not have looked so much like a 21st century Marie Antoinette. d 4 MSNBC 9s Keith Olbermann, Sept. 5 Countdown . [54] December 19, 2005 2005 Notable Quotables Awards Issue 3 # cYou know, I 9ve been to some pretty lousy places in my life. And Iraq over the past 12 months and Banda Aceh, open graves and bodies. These were Americans, and ev- eryone watching the coverage all week, that kind of reached its peak last weekend, kept saying the same re- frain: 8How is this happening in the United States? 9 And the other refrain was, 8Had this been Nantucket, had this been Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, how many choppers would have 3 9 d 4 NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Comedy Central 9s The Daily Show , September 8. Audience ap- plause drowned out Williams as he was finishing. [38] cGod Save This Court from cGod Save This Court from cGod Save This Court from cGod Save This Court from cGod Save This Court from Extremists d Award Extremists d Award Extremists d Award Extremists d Award Extremists d Award ! ! ! ! ! cAn Advocate for the Right. d 4 Headline over a New York Times cnews analysis d of Judge John Roberts 9 judicial philosophy, July 28. vs. cBalanced Jurist at Home in the Middle. d 4 Headline over a June 27, 1993 New York Times story on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg. [78 points] Runners-up: # cWhen John G. Roberts Jr. prepared to ghostwrite an article for President Ronald Reagan a little over two de- cades ago, his pen took a Civil War re-enactment detour.... The Indiana native scratched out the words 8Civil War 9 and replaced them with 8War Between the States. 9...Sam Mc- Seveney, a history professor emeritus at Vanderbilt Univer- sity who specialized in the Civil War, said that Roberts 9s choice of words was significant. 8Many people who are sympathetic to the Confederate position are more comfort- able with the idea of a cWar Between the States, d 9 McSev- eney explained. 8People opposed to the civil rights move- ment of the 1960s and 1970s would undoubtedly be more comfortable with the words he chose. 9 d 4 Washington Post reporter Jo Becker, August 26. [58] # cI want to ask you about this 1991 opinion...[Judge Sam Alito] was the lone dissenter. He argued that a woman should have to notify her husband before she gets an abor- tion. Now, let me just say Sandra Day O 9Connor heard this same case and Sandra Day O 9Connor said this reflects a repugnant view of marriage. Women do not lose their con- stitutional rights because they 9re married....Does this opin- ion give even you pause? Again, Sandra Day O 9Connor 9s notation that it was a repugnant view of marriage? d 4 Diane Sawyer to conservative commentator Joe Wat- kins on ABC 9s Good Morning America , November 1. [51] # CNN 9s Jeffrey Toobin: c[Judge Alito] thought it was okay that Pennsylvania insisted that a woman get her hus- band 9s permission before she got an abortion.... d CNN 9s Carol Costello: cWhy, legally, would you uphold something like that? That a woman would have to check with her husband first in order to get an abortion?...I guess what I 9m, I 9m trying to get at is, is this is a very conserva- tive judge, and he 9s going to be against legalized abortion? I mean, you could draw that conclusion from this, couldn 9t you? Or could I? d Toobin: cI think it 9s a very good indication that this is a judge who will want to overturn Roe v. Wade . d 4 Exchange on CNN 9s Daybreak October 31, soon after word of Alito 9s impending nomination leaked out. In fact, the law only required notification if the husband was also the baby 9s father, not his cpermission. d [48] # cI 9ve known John Roberts for years. I think it 9s a very sensible pick in all serious ways. But I must say that when I spent five hours reviewing all of his documents from when he worked in the Justice Department, I was actually quite surprised at how, how very, very conservative he was. d 4 NPR 9s Nina Totenberg on the July 30 Inside Washing- ton . Totenberg had previously referred to Judge Roberts as cvery, very conservative, d cvery, very, very conserva- tive, d ca really conservative guy, d ca conservative Catho- lic, d and ca hardline conservative. d [40] Damn Those Conservatives Award Damn Those Conservatives Award Damn Those Conservatives Award Damn Those Conservatives Award Damn Those Conservatives Award ! ! ! ! ! cThe day I say Dick Cheney is going to run for Presi- dent, I 9ll kill myself. All we need is one more liar. d 4 Hearst White House columnist Helen Thomas, as quot- ed in the cUnder the Dome d column by Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour in The Hill newspaper, July 28. [68 points] Runners-up: # CNN 9s Jack Cafferty: cWhat should Karl Rove do if he is indicted?...He might want to, he might want to get mea- sured for one of those extra large orange jump suits, Wolf, because looking at old Karl, I 9m not sure that he 9d, they 9d be able to zip him into the regular size one. d CNN 9s Wolf Blitzer: cHe 9s actually lost some weight. I think he 9s in pretty good shape. d Cafferty: cOh, well then, maybe just the regular off the shelf large would handle it for him. d Blitzer: cBut, you know, it 9s still a big if. It 9s still a big if. d Cafferty: cOh, I understand. I 9m, I 9m just hoping, you know. I love, I love to see those kinds of things happen. It does wonders for me. d 4 CNN 9s The Situation Room , October 17. [65] # cI don 9t have a clue as to whether [former House Majori- ty Leader Tom] DeLay violated the law or not, this very old Texas statute that he 9s been indicted on, but I do know it 9s the first time in 200 years that the House of Representatives has been run for a whole decade, or almost a decade, by a corrupt zealot. d 4 Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter on MSNBC 9s Imus in the Morning , October 3. [58] # cKarl Rove is a liability in the war on terror....In his 8story guidance 9 to Matthew Cooper of Time , Rove did more damage to your safety than the most thumb-sucking liberal or guard at Abu Ghraib. He destroyed an intelligence asset like Valerie Plame merely to deflect criticism of a politician. We have all the damned politicians, of every stripe, that we need. The best of them isn 9t worth half a Valerie Plame. d 4 Countdown host Keith Olbermann in a July 11 posting to his cBloggerman d page on MSNBC 9s Web site. [37] 4 2005 Notable Quotables Awards Issue December 19, 2005 Captain Dan the Forgery Man Captain Dan the Forgery Man Captain Dan the Forgery Man Captain Dan the Forgery Man Captain Dan the Forgery Man Award Award Award Award Award ! ! ! ! ! Dan Rather: cMy principal problem was that I stuck by the [Memogate] story, I stuck by our people for too long. I 9m guilty of that. I believed in the story, and the facts of the story were correct. One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question. To this day no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not....You know, I didn 9t give up on my people, our people. I didn 9t and I won 9t. d [Applause] Marvin Kalb: cDan, thank you. You said, I believe you just said, that you think the story is accurate. d Rather: cThe story is accurate. d 4 From The Kalb Report , an interview series produced by the George Washington University and Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University, and shown live on C-SPAN September 26. [80] Runners-up: # cAs was the practice in all he did, Dan was meticulously careful to be fair and balanced and accurate. When did we stop believing that this is indeed how we all perform our jobs, or try to? When did we allow those with questionable agendas to take the lead and convince people of some- thing quite the opposite? It 9s shameful. But I digress. d 4 MSNBC President and former ABC and CNN news ex- ecutive Rick Kaplan praising ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather on September 19 as the latter received a lifetime achieve- ment award from the National Television Academy, a cer- emony televised on C-SPAN on October 1. [58] # cA panel was appointed by CBS News to look into this ....They concluded that whatever happened, whatever you thought about it, it was not motivated by political bias, and they said that, although they had four months and millions of dollars, they could not demonstrate that the documents were not authentic, that they were forger- ies. They said they couldn 9t make that conclusion....What- ever one thinks of what we did or didn 9t do with the story in question here, nobody broke the law, nobody lied. De- pending on your point of view, it was a mistake, and who hasn 9t made a mistake somewhere along the line? d 4 Outgoing CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather dis- cussing the investigation into his forged memo story, on CBS 9s Late Show with David Letterman , March 3. [35] cBaghdad Bob cBaghdad Bob cBaghdad Bob cBaghdad Bob cBaghdad Bob d W d W d W d W d W as Correct A as Correct A as Correct A as Correct A as Correct A ward ward ward ward ward ! ! ! ! ! Co-host Mike Jerrick: cWhat do you think 9s going to happen Sunday? d FNC reporter Steve Harrigan, just back from Iraq: cI think there 9s going to be a bloodbath on Sunday....All over the place, especially in Baghdad and a few other cities. d 4 FNC 9s Fox & Friends , January 28, two days before Iraq 9s largely peaceful elections. [71 points] Runners-up: # cI 9m Bob Schieffer. It just keeps getting worse in Iraq. The death toll is rising. Tension is growing between Shiites and Sunnis. Is the country sliding toward civil war? d 4 Schieffer beginning the May 19 CBS Evening News . [60] # Chris Matthews: cWhat does it smell like over there [in Baghdad]? Do you sense fireworks? d NBC 9s Campbell Brown: cYou do, Chris....On the street, you get the sense that something big is about to happen, something big and fairly ugly. d 4 Exchange on MSNBC 9s Hardball January 28, just be- fore Iraq 9s first free elections. [50] # cIn other parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland tonight, it looks as if the election process has been rejected. In many places we 9re told the polling stations didn 9t even open. This is a huge problem for Iraq as a whole. Without Sunni par- ticipation, somehow, the future here is still pretty bleak. d 4 ABC 9s Peter Jennings on the January 30 World News Tonight , just hours after voting ended in Iraq. [42] # cAccording to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the insurgency could last another 12 years....I think most Americans say, 8Oh my goodness! 9And they gasp because that seems like such an extended period of time for these very powerful, very tenacious insurgents to have control of the situation....It must be very frustrating at times to see things unraveling so. d 4 NBC 9s Katie Couric to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Today , June 28. [37] Crazy Chris Award for Chris Mat- Crazy Chris Award for Chris Mat- Crazy Chris Award for Chris Mat- Crazy Chris Award for Chris Mat- Crazy Chris Award for Chris Mat- thews 9 Left thews 9 Left thews 9 Left thews 9 Left thews 9 Left - - - - - Wing Lunacy Wing Lunacy Wing Lunacy Wing Lunacy Wing Lunacy ! ! ! ! ! Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan: cWe 9re not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and good will in the Mid- dle East by killing innocent people or 4 I 9m not even say- ing our bullets and bombs are killing them. The occupa- tion 4 they don 9t have food, they don 9t have clean water, they don 9t have electricity. They don 9t have medicine, they don 9t have doctors. We need to get our military presence out of there, and that 9s what 9s gonna start building good will....I see Iraq as the base for spreading imperialism.... d Host Chris Matthews: cAre you considering running for Congress, Cindy? d Sheehan: cNo, not this time.... d Matthews: cOkay. Well, I have to tell you, you sound more informed than most U.S. Congresspeople, so maybe you should run. d 4 Exchange on MSNBC 9s Hardball , August 15. [93 points] Runners-up: # Actress Jane Fonda: cFrom an historical point of view, they were defending their country. If we had been invad- ed and an invading force came into this country and di- vided us in half at the Mississippi River...we would under- stand why people were fighting....We should never have been there [in Vietnam]. d Chris Matthews: cThere were a lot of people, Jane, who....can 9t imagine slipping out of their American skin, their American soul and becoming so objective, as you just were a minute ago....How do you step out of being an American to make such an objective judgment? d 4 Exchange on MSNBC 9s Hardball on April 15. Fonda was promoting her new book, My Life So Far . [91] December 19, 2005 2005 Notable Quotables Awards Issue 5 # Chris Matthews: cDo you think President Bush used this [emotional hug at the State of the Union between an Iraqi voter and Janet Norwood, the mother of a Marine killed in Iraq] to push his numbers on Social Security reform, just to get his general appeal up a bit, a couple of points? d MSNBC political analyst Ron Reagan: cWell, I don 9t want to speculate on what was in President Bush 9s mind. d Matthews: cHow about his handlers? Do you think the PR guys...around the White House did this to promote the President 9s agenda? d MSNBC 9s Joe Scarborough: cPlease, come on. d Reagan: cWell, of course they did. Oh, sure they did. d Scarborough: cOh, come on!...I mean, that 9s just the height of cynicism. d Matthews : cNo, I 9m just asking you, I 9m not taking sides here, but you know who makes these decisions, the PR people around the President....They make the decision about who sits in the box and where they 9re seated....The only question is whether that Iraqi woman was prompted to go up and hug Janet Norwood by some staffer. d 4 Exchange during MSNBC 9s live coverage following Bush 9s State of the Union address, February 2. [59] Barbra Streisand P Barbra Streisand P Barbra Streisand P Barbra Streisand P Barbra Streisand P olitical IQ olitical IQ olitical IQ olitical IQ olitical IQ A A A A A ward for Celebrity V ward for Celebrity V ward for Celebrity V ward for Celebrity V ward for Celebrity V apidity apidity apidity apidity apidity ! ! ! ! ! cI hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they 9re looting. See a white family, it says they 9re looking for food....A lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way, and they 9ve given them permission to go down and shoot us....George Bush doesn 9t care about black people. d 4 Rapper Kanye West during NBC 9s Concert for Hurricane Relief , September 2. [53 points] Runners-up: # Rosie O 9Donnell: cThis President invaded a sovereign nation in defiance of the UN. He is basically a war criminal. Honestly. He should be tried at The Hague. This man lied to the American public about the reasons for invading a nation that had nothing to do with 9/11. And as a Demo- crat, as a member of this democracy...I feel I have a re- sponsibility to speak out, as does every other person who disagrees with this administration. And it 9s scary in a coun- try that you can say something against the President and then worry about your career. That Dan Rather gets taken off CBS News for writing, for saying a report that essential- ly was true, that George Bush did not show up 3 d Geraldo Rivera: cOkay, okay, we get it, we get it! d O 9Donnell: cOkay, there you go. Anyway, it infuriates me. d 4 Exchange on FNC 9s At Large with Geraldo Rivera , April 30. [52] # cThe President is a moron! I 9m saying it. I don 9t care. He 9s an idiot. Cheney is evil. I 9m sick of, impeach them, get them out! I hate them! I hate them. Get them out. They got to go!...What is it going to take for you people? Get Bush out! Impeach. Out! Out! Out! d 4 Actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin on Comedy Cen- tral 9s Weekends at the DL , September 10. [46] # cCindy Sheehan is my hero. She is the hero of all Americans who make up the 62 percent of us who op- pose this war. As an American exercising her right to free speech, she is a brave, passionate, living example of de- mocracy.... No wonder Bush is intimidated. No wonder he can 9t even walk down his driveway to speak with her. He is scared shitless. Whether he acknowledges it or not 4 whether his aides try to insulate him from the truth or not 4 his hands are covered in the blood of Cindy Shee- han 9s son. They are dripping with the blood of all who have died there. d 4 Actress Christine Lahti in an August 11 Huffington Post blog entry. [44] # cMost Republicans who are registered Republicans are decent, honest good people who you have a difference of opinion with. The leadership of the Republican Party are a bunch of sociopathic maniacs who have their lips super-glued to the ass of the conservative right. d 4 Actor Alec Baldwin during an appearance on HBO 9s Real Time with Bill Maher , April 1. [40] # cHurricane Katrina is George Bush 9s Monica Lewinsky. One difference, and I 9ll say this, the only difference is this: That tens of thousands of people weren 9t stranded in Mon- ica Lewinsky 9s vagina. That is the only difference. d 4 Comedy Central 9s Jon Stewart during his opening remarks on The Daily Show , September 6. [35] Media Millionaires for Smaller Media Millionaires for Smaller Media Millionaires for Smaller Media Millionaires for Smaller Media Millionaires for Smaller P P P P P aychecks A aychecks A aychecks A aychecks A aychecks A ward ward ward ward ward ! ! ! ! ! NPR 9s Nina Totenberg: cAnd let us say one other thing. For years, we have cut our taxes, cut our taxes and let the infrastructure throughout the country go, and this [Katrina damage] is just the first of a number of other crumbling things that are going to happen to us. d Charles Krauthammer: cYou must be kidding here. d Moderator Gordon Peterson: cShe 9s not kidding. d Totenberg: cI 9m not kidding. d 4 Exchange on Inside Washington , Sept. 3. [66 points] Runners-up: # Nina Totenberg: cI was very happy to see him [Bush] take responsibility and to not pretend that the buck stops someplace else. But it would have been a great opportuni- ty to say, 8Look, I 9m for tax cuts, but we need a Katrina tax, we need to really pay, to do this and to pay for it. 9 d Moderator Gordon Peterson: cYou want more taxes. d Totenberg : cI want more taxes, yes. d 4 Inside Washington , September 17. [54] # cIf there 9s an upside to Katrina, it 9s that the Republican agenda of tax cuts, Social Security privatization and slash- ing government programs is over. It may be too much to predict an upsurge of progressive government, but the environment and issues of poverty, race and class are back on the nation 9s radar screen. d 4 Eleanor Clift in her weekly cCapitol Letter d column published on Newsweek 9s Web site, September 9. [53] 6 2005 Notable Quotables Awards Issue December 19, 2005 Good Morning Morons Award Good Morning Morons Award Good Morning Morons Award Good Morning Morons Award Good Morning Morons Award ! ! ! ! ! Matt Lauer in Baghdad: cTalk to me...about morale here. We 9ve heard so much about the insurgent attacks, so much about the uncertainty as to when you folks are go- ing to get to go home. How would you describe morale? d Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss: cIn my unit morale is pretty good. Every day we go out and do our missions and people are ready to execute their missions. They 9re excited to be here. d Lauer: cHow much does that uncertainty of [not] knowing how long you 9re going to be here impact morale? d Specialist Steven Chitterer: cMorale is always high. Sol- diers know they have a mission. They like taking on new objectives and taking on the new challenges.... d Lauer: cDon 9t get me wrong here, I think you are probably telling me the truth, but a lot of people at home are won- dering how that could be possible with the conditions you 9re facing and with the attacks you 9re facing. What would you say to those people who are doubtful that mo- rale can be that high? d Captain Sherman Powell: cSir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I 9d be pretty depressed as well. d 4 Exchange on NBC 9s Today , August 17. [87 points] Runners-up: # cDo I need to be concerned that I 9m going to go live with a church family, are they going to proselytize me, are they going to say, 8You better come to church with me or else, I 9m, you know, you 9re not going to get your breakfast this morning 9? d 4 Co-host Harry Smith asking author/pastor Rick Warren about church families taking in those displaced by Hurri- cane Katrina, on CBS 9s Early Show , September 6. [77] # Co-host Matt Lauer: cPain at the pump. Gas prices are going sky high. I paid $2.94 a gallon over the weekend to fill up the car. d Co-host Katie Couric: cIt 9s ridiculous. I had to take out a loan to fill up my minivan. It 9s crazy. d 4 Exchange at the top of NBC 9s Today , August 15. Couric makes about $15,000,000 a year. [66] P P P P P olitics of Meaninglessness olitics of Meaninglessness olitics of Meaninglessness olitics of Meaninglessness olitics of Meaninglessness Award for the Silliest Analysis Award for the Silliest Analysis Award for the Silliest Analysis Award for the Silliest Analysis Award for the Silliest Analysis ! ! ! ! ! cIt 9s been 11 days since two African-American teenag- ers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this. d 4 Anchor Carol Lin after a Nov. 6 CNN Sunday Night story about riots in France. The two teenagers were not Americans, but French citizens of Tunisian heritage. [51] Runners-up: # cCBS News has a culture, has a history that for those of us who work here, is very real 4 that we see it as a sort of magical mystical kingdom of journalistic knights 4 and I know I can mentally hear people rolling their eyes, that 9s the way we feel. d 4 Ex-CBS News anchor Dan Rather on CNBC 9s Topic [A] with Tina Brown , May 22. [38] # cCutting the [worldwide] military budgets back by ten percent and using that money to basically solve the real, the real serious poverty problems in the world would be a much better investment in fighting terrorism than 4 you don 9t stop terrorism with tanks, you stop it with giving peo- ple hope so they won 9t want to blow themselves up. d 4 CNN founder Ted Turner on CBS 9s Late Show with David Letterman , September 16. [28] # cAs President Bush travels to Rome this morning along with the First Lady, Condoleezza Rice and former Presi- dents Bush and Clinton, the question some people are asking is where 9s President Carter in all this? Are the Bush- es and the Carters the modern day version of the Hatfields and the McCoys? d 4 NBC 9s Katie Couric opening the April 6 Today . [20] # cAcross the nation, gas prices went to record highs today....Will it get to the point that only the privileged can afford gas? d 4 John Blackstone, CBS Evening News , August 11. [19] Media Hero Award Media Hero Award Media Hero Award Media Hero Award Media Hero Award ! ! ! ! ! cI see her [Hillary Clinton] in 4 she 9s very consistent [in] what she 9s always believed. She 9s very consistent [in] what she 9s always believed. She 9s always had strong religious faith. She 9s been a strong Methodist. She does have con- servative social values on many issues. d 4 U.S. News & World Report Editor at Large David Gergen, on CNN 9s Anderson Cooper 360 , February 9. [71 points] Runners-up: # cBrilliant....Skilled and surprisingly self-destructive.... Despite the scandals and investigations, Bill Clinton was an incredibly popular President who connected with the American people....Under Clinton the economy boomed 4 deficits turned into surplus 4 and more than 22 million jobs were created. Along with the character flaws and the subpoenas came peace and prosperity. d 4 Matt Lauer assessing Bill Clinton during the June 5 Discovery Channel special, cGreatest American. d [63] # cWhat do you hope your legacy will be?...You literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders. d 4 Katie Couric 9s questions to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in an interview shown June 7 on NBC 9s Today . [45] # Reporter Carl Quintanilla: c[Left-wing activist Cindy] Sheehan, say some historians, may be evolving as an icon in the war 9s turning point, if this is one. For three weeks, she 9s dominated headlines, mobilized protesters, both with and without relatives in Iraq. d Cindy Sheehan: cThey don 9t have what I like to call skin in the game, but we are all affected. d Quintanilla: cMaking it safe, her supporters say, to voice doubts about the war, just as Walter Cronkite did on the Evening News in 1968....Historians say we won 9t know Cin- dy Sheehan 9s place in the war until the war itself is history. d 4 NBC Nightly News , August 25. [39] December 19, 2005 2005 Notable Quotables Awards Issue 7 What Liberal Media? Award What Liberal Media? Award What Liberal Media? Award What Liberal Media? Award What Liberal Media? Award ! ! ! ! ! cI 9m going out telling the story that I think is the big- gest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee. We have an ideological press that 9s interested in the election of Republicans, and a main- stream press that 9s interested in the bottom line. There- fore, we don 9t have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people. d 4 Bill Moyers, who retired in December 2004 from the PBS show Now, as quoted by AP television writer Frazier Moore in a December 10, 2004 dispatch. [108 points] Runners-up: # Host Chris Matthews: cWhat do you think of this guy [ex-Talon News reporter Jeff Gannon/James Guckert]? You 9re a real reporter. What do you think of this guy who says he 9s a, he operates under a different name. He 9s a blogger, I guess.... d Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen Hayes: cLook, at the end of the day, if we 9re worried about too many con- servatives in the White House press briefing room, this is a discussion that 9s not, that 9s not going to resonate with the American public. d Matthews: cYou think it 9s mostly packed with liberals? Are you saying most of those people who are paid to be jour- nalists in that room are lib-labs, they 9re liberals? d Hayes: cYes, of course....I don 9t think there 9s any 4 is there a debate about that? d Matthews: cWell, there 9s Helen Thomas, who I would call liberal. But who else is in there? Seriously. There are a lot of straight reporters in that room. d Time 9s Margaret Carlson: cI think they 9re mostly straight reporters. And I don 9t think you can keep your job otherwise....Elisabeth Bumiller reports for the New York Times , which has a liberal editorial page, but she plays it straight down the middle. d 4 Exchange on MSNBC 9s Hardball , February 25. [67] # FNC 9s Bill O 9Reilly: cNow the right wing thinks you 9re a raving liberal, you and Rather contrived to put Bush in the worst possible light....So are you a liberal? d Fired CBS News producer Mary Mapes: cWell, I 9m not sure what a liberal is. I 9m more liberal than some people. I can tell you my eight-year-old son thinks he 9s being raised by the most conservative parents in the world.... d O 9Reilly: cAre you registered Democrat? d Mapes: cYou know, I don 9t know....I don 9t know if I 9m inde- pendent or Democrat. I know I 9m not 4 in Texas, I 9m not sure how I 9m registered. d O 9Reilly: cSo you would describe yourself politically as? d Mapes : cOh, my goodness. I 9m liberal on some things, I 9m conservative on some things. d 4 FNC 9s The O 9Reilly Factor , November 10. [52] # cOne way a reporter in this country should be judged is how well he or she stands up to the pressure to intimi- date. I remember the first time someone accused me of being an 8N-lover. 9 There was a lot of that during the 860s when I covered the civil rights movement. Then you move forward from civil rights into the Vietnam War.... 9We 9re go- ing to hang a sign around you which calls you some bad name: anti-military, anti-American, anti-war. 9 Then, when Watergate came into being....was the first time I began to hear this word 8liberal 9 as an epithet thrown my way....Peo- ple who have very strong biases of their own, they come at you with a story: 8If you won 9t report it the way I want it reported, then you 9re biased. 9 Now, it is true about me, for better or for worse, if you want to see my neck swell, you just try to tell me where to line up or what to think and mostly what to report. d 4 Dan Rather near the end of his CBS News special, Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers , which aired on his last night as CBS Evening News anchor, March 9. [46] Oh, That Liberal Media! Award Oh, That Liberal Media! Award Oh, That Liberal Media! Award Oh, That Liberal Media! Award Oh, That Liberal Media! Award ! ! ! ! ! Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas: cIs this attack [on public broadcasting 9s budget] going to make NPR a little less liberal? d NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg : cI don 9t think we 9re liberal to begin with, and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would know that. d Thomas: cI do listen to you and you 9re not that liberal, but you 9re a little bit liberal. d Totenberg: cNo, I don 9t think so. I don 9t think that 9s a fair criticism, I really don 9t 4 any more than, any more than you would say that Newsweek is liberal. d Thomas: cI think Newsweek is a little liberal. d 4 Exchange on Inside Washington , June 26. [81 points] Runners-up: # cThe elephant in the newsroom is our narrowness. Too often, we wear liberalism on our sleeve and are intolerant of other lifestyles and opinions....We 9re not very subtle about it at this paper: If you work here, you must be one of us. You must be liberal, progressive, a Democrat. I 9ve been in communal gatherings in The Post , watching elec- tion returns, and have been flabbergasted to see my col- leagues cheer unabashedly for the Democrats. d 4 Washington Post cBook World d editor Marie Arana in a September 29 contribution to the Post 9s cdaily in-house electronic critiques, d as quoted by Post media reporter Howard Kurtz in an October 3 article. [75] # Host Hugh Hewitt: cAre there members of the White House press corps, Terry, who actually hate Bush? d ABC White House correspondent Terry Moran: cI would say the answer to that is yes. d Hewitt: cAnd what percentage of them, do you think that amounts to? d Moran: cUh, small, I would say, but some big fish. d Hewitt: cWhat 9s your guess about the percentage of the White House press corps that voted for Kerry? d Moran: cOh, very high. Very, very high. d Hewitt: c95 percent? d Moran: cNo, I don 9t think that high....Upwards of 70 [per- cent], maybe higher....I would say very, very high.... d 4 Exchange on the May 18 Hugh Hewitt Show , a nation- ally-syndicated weekday radio program. [55] Notable Quotables PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III EDITORS : Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham MEDIA ANALYSTS: Geoffrey Dickens, Jessica Barnes, Brian Boyd, Brad Wilmouth, Ken Shepherd, Megan McCormack, Mike Rule, Scott Whitlock RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Michelle Humphrey COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Michael Chapman December 19, 2005 (Volume 18; No. 26) Published bi-weekly by the Media Research Center 325 South Patrick Street Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Subscriptions: $29 annually. Call (800) 672-1423 For daily bias updates and the latest from the MRC, visit our Web site: http://www.mediaresearch.org 2005 Award Judges Lee Anderson, Associate Publisher, Chattanooga Times Free Press Chuck Asay, editorial cartoonist, The Gazette in Colorado Springs Brent H. Baker, MRC 9s Vice President for Research and Publications Mark Belling , radio talk show host, WISN-AM in Milwaukee L. Brent Bozell III, President of the Media Research Center Priscilla L. Buckley , author, Living It Up with National Review Blanquita Cullum , President, Young American Broadcasters Bill Cunningham , radio talk show host, WLW in Cincinnati Midge Decter , author, Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait Bob Dutko , radio talk show host, WMUZ in Detroit Jim Eason , San Francisco radio talk show host emeritus Larry Elder , syndicated radio talk show host and columnist Eric Fettmann , Associate Editorial Page Editor, New York Post Greg Garrison , radio talk show host, WIBC in Indianapolis David Gold , radio host, WBAP(Dallas) & KSFO (San Francisco) Michael Graham, radio talk show host, WTKK in Boston Tim Graham , Director of Media Analysis, Media Research Center Steven Greenhut , senior editorial writer, Orange County Register Stephen Hayes , senior writer for The Weekly Standard Kirk Healy , Executive Producer, WDBO Radio in Orlando Matthew Hill , operations manager at WPWT, Tri-Cities of Tenn/Va Quin Hillyer , editorial writer and columnist for the Mobile Register Fred Honsberger, radio talk show host, KDKA in Pittsburgh Jeff Jacoby, columnist for the Boston Globe Marie Kaigler , mass media and developmental consultant, Detroit Cliff Kincaid , Editor, Accuracy in Media Mark Larson, radio talk show host, KOGO in San Diego Jason Lewis, radio talk show host, WBT in Charlotte Kathryn Jean Lopez , Editor of National Review Online Michelle Malkin , syndicated columnist, author and FNC contributor Patrick McGuigan, arts commentator, MidCity Advocate (Okla. City) Colin McNickle , editorial page editor, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Jan Mickelson , radio talk show host, WHO and WMT in Iowa Wes Minter, radio talk show host Robert D. Novak, syndicated columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times Rich Noyes, Director of Research, Media Research Center Kate O 9Beirne, Washington Editor of National Review Marvin Olasky, journalism professor University of Texas at Austin; Editor-in-Chief of World magazine Janet Parshall , nationally syndicated radio talk show host Henry Payne , editorial cartoonist, The Detroit News Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, Editorial Director, The American Spectator Chris Reed , editorial writer, San Diego Union-Tribune Mike Rosen, radio talk show host, KOA in Denver; columnist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News William A. Rusher, Distinguished Fellow, Claremont Institute James Taranto , Editor, OpinionJournal.com Philip Terzian, Books & Arts Editor, The Weekly Standard Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist; panelist on FNC 9s Newswatch R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., Editor-in-Chief, The American Spectator Chris Warden , Hall School of Journalism, Troy University Clay Waters , Editor of the MRC 9s TimesWatch.org Walter E. Williams , economics professor, George Mason University Thomas S. Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Human Events Quote of the Y Quote of the Y Quote of the Y Quote of the Y Quote of the Y ear ear ear ear ear ! ! ! ! ! Reporter Brian Ross: cMary Mapes was the woman behind the scenes, the producer who researched, wrote and put together Dan Rather 9s 60 Minutes report on Presi- dent Bush 9s National Guard service, a report which Rather and CBS would later apologize for airing.... d Ross to Mapes: cDo you still think that story was true? d Ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes: cThe story? Absolutely. d Ross: cThis seems remarkable to me that you would sit here now and say you still find that story to be up to your standards. d Mapes: cI 9m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there 9s proof that I haven 9t seen. d Ross: cBut isn 9t it the other way around? Don 9t you have to prove they 9re authentic? d Mapes: cWell, I think that 9s 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. d Ross: cHave they proved to be authentic though? Isn 9t that really what journalists do? d Mapes: cNo, I don 9t think that 9s the standard. d 4 ABC 9s Good Morning America , November 9. For links to each judge 9s Web page, check the posted version of this issue at www.mediaresearch.org Runner-up: # Ted Turner: cI am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There 9s really no reason for them to cheat [on nukes]....I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth. You know, just because somebody 9s done something wrong in the past doesn 9t mean they can 9t do right in the future or the present. That happens all the, all the time. d Wolf Blitzer: cBut this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong-Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn 9t that a fair assessment? d Turner: cWell, I didn 9t get to meet him, but he didn 9t look 4 in the pictures that I 9ve seen of him on CNN, he didn 9t look too much different than most other people. d Blitzer: cBut, look at the way, look at the way he 9s, look at the way he 9s treating his own people. d Turner: cWell, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but 3 d Blitzer: cA lot of those people are starving. d Turner: cI didn 9t see any, I didn 9t see any brutality.... d 4 Exchange on CNN 9s The Situation Room , Sept. 19.

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