Chronicles of Bias XXV

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | January 1, 2013 | Editorial

Here are some of the Media Research Center's Notable Quotables for the worst reporting of 2012. 

DENYING THE OBVIOUS AWARD Host Stephen Dubner: "There is a kind of, I think, common analog, I hope I'm not overstating it by saying that it's common, that Fox News is to the right what The New York Times is to the left. I'm guessing you would see that as a false equivalency on a lot of levels ..."
Editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal: "The word I want to use here ... begins with 'bull' and ends in 'it' and you can figure out what comes in between. I think it's absolute pernicious nonsense ... Fox News presents the news in a way that is deliberately skewed to promote political causes, and The New York Times simply does not."
— Exchange during The New York Times "Freakonomics" radio podcast, Feb. 16
THROW GRANNY OFF A CLIFF AWARD
"I'd been wondering how long it would take Republicans to realize that Paul Ryan is their guy. ... Who better to rain misery upon the heads of millions of Americans? He's Scrooge disguised as a Pickwick, an ideologue disguised as a wonk. Not since Ronald Reagan tried to cut the budget by categorizing ketchup and relish as vegetables has the GOP managed to find such an attractive vessel to mask harsh policies with a smiling face. ... Ryan should stop being so lovable. People who intend to hurt other people should wipe the smile off their faces."
— New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Aug. 15.
STREISAND POLITICAL IQ AWARD
"First of all, give an honor to God and our lord and savior, Barack Obama!"
— Actor Jamie Foxx during the Soul Train Awards, BET, Nov. 25
MEDIA HERO AWARD
"People see you putting on this event, they heard you at the convention make a barnstorming speech, an incredible speech. ... I was there. You electrified the place. And they all say, 'Why do we have this (expletive) 22nd Amendment? Why couldn't Bill Clinton just run again and be president for the next 30 years?" ... We're trying to change the rules in Britain, actually, because if you can't be president again here, we'd quite like you to be prime minister in our country. Are you available if it comes to it, if I get this through?"
— CNN's Piers Morgan to Bill Clinton, Piers Morgan Tonight, Sept. 25.
KU KLUX CON JOB AWARD
"They are happy to have a party with black people drowning."
— Yahoo! News Washington bureau chief David Chalian talking over a picture of Ann and Mitt Romney, as caught on an open microphone during ABCNews.com coverage of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 28.
OBAMAGASM AWARD
"This guy's done everything right. He's raised his family right. He's fought his way all the way to the top of the Harvard Law Review, in a blind test becomes head of the Review, the top editor there. Everything he's done is clean as a whistle. He's never not only broken any law, he's never done anything wrong. He's the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American. And all they do is trash the guy."
— MSNBC's Chris Matthews talking about President Obama, Hardball, July 17.
AUDACITY OF DOPES AWARD
Host Piers Morgan: "How many times in your life, Mr. President, have you been properly in love?"
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (via translator): "I'm in love with all of humanity. I love all human beings."
Morgan: "That might be the best answer I've ever heard to that question."
— Exchange on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, Sept. 24.
QUOTE OF THE YEAR
"The land on which (the Founders) formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class. ... This is the imperfect fabric of our nation, at times we've torn and stained it, and at other moments, we mend and repair it. But it's ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, also the liberation and the hope and the deeply American belief that our best days still lie ahead of us."
— MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry, "My footnote for the Fourth of July," July 1