Wingnuts roast pros

(Read time: 5 minutes. Link to winning quotes: at your leisure.)

A number of my favorite news writers, anchors and commentators must be doing something right, because they’ve been selected winners of the Media Research Center’s annual awards for worst reporting.

The Media Research Center (MRC), which calls itself “America’s Media Watchdog,” wants to protect you from “the liberal media elite.”

The MRC Web site describes the Center as “a conservative media watchdog group dedicated to bringing political balance to the news and entertainment media.”

“The liberal media elite” can be defined as any news outlet in this country which is not Fox News or certain right-wing radio hosts.

In other words, some of the most venerable news institutions in this country. An example would be the Baltimore Sun, which Bill O’Reilly has taken to calling “radical left.”

The MRC might be taken more seriously if their award categories reflected a professional tone.

Also, telling is this from its Web site: "Past award galas have featured a who's who of conservative opinion leaders, from Ann Coulter to Laura Ingraham to Sean Hannity.” Oh, that’s rich.

The MRC likes to call its awards ceremony a “roast,” so I’ll give them that. “Noted” conservatives such as G. Gordon Liddy stand in to accept the awards in the recipients’ behalf.

At a 20th anniversary dinner on 29 March 2007 (LINK), the MRC presented the following award for the year 2006:

The God, I Hate America Award: New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger. Runners-up: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and CBS’ Andy Rooney.

The Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest (sic) Analysis: CBS’ Katie Couric. Runners-up: HBO’s Bryant Gumbel and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

The I’m Not a Political Genius But I Play One on TV Award: ABC’s Rosie O’Donnell. Runners-up: HBO’s Bill Maher and singer-activist Harry Belafonte.

The Tin Foil Hat Award for Crazy Conspiracy Theories: CNN’s Jack Cafferty. Runners-up: Katie Couric and CBS Evening News and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

The Puppy Love Award: ABC’s Charles Gibson. Runners-up: ABC’s Terry Moran and NBC’s Meredith Vieira.

Quote of the Year: New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., 21 May 2006.

To read the quotes which merited these less-than-prestigious awards: LINK

The kicker: the MRC presented Rush Limbaugh with its (seriously, folks) “First Annual William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence," recognizing Limbaugh’s "outstanding leadership in the conservative movement, defending and advancing conservative principles through the media."

By the way, my Associated Press Style Book, the bible of professional journalists, says there’s no such thing as “first annual.” The “annual” distinction comes with the beginning of the second year.