Submitted by Pie Guevara
‘Tis the season for the Media Research Center’s annual awards for worst reporting. This marks their 23 year.
The official results will be out Monday, December 17, but the MRC is now posting the favorites from their web poll. (Please note these are only the public web poll ballot results, not the official award winners and runner-ups.)
This year there are 16 categories of Worst Media Bias Quotes of 2010 in this poll which can be reviewed here.
Here are a few examples —
The Poison Tea Pot Award for Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble Winner: Tavis Smiley (4879 Votes)
Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, talking about radical Muslims: “Somehow, the idea got into their minds that to kill other people is a great thing to do and that they would be rewarded in the hereafter.”
Host Tavis Smiley: “But Christians do that every single day in this country.”
Ali: “Do they blow people up every day?”
Smiley: “Yes. Oh, Christians, every day, people walk into post offices, they walk into schools, that’s what Columbine is — I could do this all day long….There are folk in the Tea Party, for example, every day who are being recently arrested for making threats against elected officials, for calling people ‘nigger’ as they walk into Capitol Hill, for spitting on people. That’s within the political — that’s within the body politic of this country.” – — PBS’s Tavis Smiley, May 25.
Damn Those Conservatives Award Runner-up: Cenk Uygur (1618 votes)
“Tonight, we start with the party of hate. The Republican Party in this country has been running on hate and division for the last 50 years….What black person, gay guy or girl, immigrant or Muslim American in their right mind would vote for the Republican Party? They might as well hang a sign around their neck saying, ‘I hate myself.'” — Fill-in host Cenk Uygur on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, August 26.Damn
Media Hero Award Runner-Up: Brian Williams (408 votes)
“In just the span of a short few years, [Comedy Central’s The Daily Show host] Jon Stewart has gone from optional to indispensable….The old arc of a news story went like this: News happens. Media cover news. Audience reacts, then turns in for the night. For the past several years, however, there’s been another step added to the end of the process: being held to account for our faults by a comedy show with a sharp eye and a sharp tongue. How did we live without it?” – — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in December 2009 lauding Stewart as one of the decade’s “Thought Leaders” for Newsweek’s 20/10 Web project reviewing the previous ten years.
LIE: The NAACP points to the racial epithets allegedly hurled at black members of Congress by Tea Party members during the health care debate and to the racist signs that critics say they spotted at Tea Party events to support its conclusion that the Tea Party movement is a threat to the pursuit of human rights, justice and equality for all….[to Tea Party official who is black] Weve all seen the signs. There have been signs that compare Barack Obama to a monkey, there have been signs that have had the N word on them. When you see those signs, how do you feel?
TRUTH: The NAACP points to the racial epithets that were totally fabricated and proven to be untrue. The black members of Congress who lied did it to discredit Tea Party members during the health care debate and they also pointed to the non-existant racist signs not carried by any Tea Party members – critics lied when they said they spotted such signs at Tea Party events to support its conclusion that the Tea Party movement is a threat to the pursuit of human rights, justice and equality for all….[to Tea Party official who is black] The lie began with, “Weve all seen the signs. There have been signs that compare Barack Obama to a monkey, there have been signs that have had the N word on them. When you see those signs, how do you feel? The big lie told often enough will eventually be believed by those with a bias or weak minds.
If we want to see racially charged signs being “held” by the TEA baggerz, we need only to look at the hyper-hypocritical “Gate” blog!
There may not be video proof of the racist antics of the TEA baggerz, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
“There may not be video proof of the racist antics of the TEA baggerz, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Horsefeathers! The event in question was attended by all media with cameras rolling. (It’s possible that Pelosi herself alerted the media since this public march across the square was unprecedented). Had there been such an incident someone in the media would have been there to record it. IN FACT the amateur recordings that were made illustrate that the claim of a TPer spitting on one representative was a misunderstanding (per the representative in question)
What’s more, one or two signs do not make an entire group of people racist as the left radicals claim without cause!
People are people. Idiots reside in every segment of our society. We all know it so can the crap Quentin!
Incidentally…there are numerous photo’s of Bush portrayed negatively both as Hitler and, yes, it’s true, even as a monkey!
These video moments occurred without negative mention by the press, without an uproar over the lack of respect even for the office of the presidency!
It was just a deliberate pack of lies that have always worked in the past, but this time too much media, too many cameras, too many witnesses and their audacity did them in – they got caught telling lies.
Quentin says “If we want to see racially charged signs” go to some web site. He then tells us we wont see any video proof.
I have a couple of questions for Quentin. First, are you high? Second, do you have a clue what the word see means? What is wrong with you? A lot I would guess.
See Bush compared to monkey:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS377US377&q=Bush+compared+to+monkey
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS377US377&q=Bush+compared+to+monkey+You+Tube#q=Bush+compared+to+monkey+You+Tube&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADRA_enUS377US377&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=SmUNTdy_Co2CsQPs-tSwAg&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB0QqwQwAA&fp=5d5a88525b399b50
The left has no business bad mouthing any other group of people for protest shenanigans…they invented it as well as the hate-filled disrespectful politics that go with it.
I’m debating…should I post the newly acquired group of anti-Bush posters I grabbed off the web…one of them with mispellings?
Nah…Quentin and his ilk just yammer right over the evidence with the same old, stupid, boring tune.
Remember kids these awards do not go to unknown rabble-rousers from obscure blogs deep in the bowels of the internet. These are, ostensibly, respected members of the professional media who are supposed to be a cut above vast legions of half-baked, obnoxious, prevaricating, vapid, mouth foaming dim-wits from the sordid underbelly of the internet.
In other words, these awards are aimed at and all about “respectable and professional” journalists.
For the life of me I cannot see one whit of difference between them and your average Topix forum poster.
No awards for Breitbart, or any of the FOX News team? You’d think the statistics showing that FOX News viewers are more likelt to be misinformed than others would tip off the MRC to the FOX’s lack of journalistic integrity.
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/dec10/Misinformation_Dec10_rpt.pdf
“In the great majority of cases, those with higher levels of exposure to news sources had lower levels of misinformation.
There were however a number of cases where greater exposure to a news source increased misinformation on a specific issue.
Those who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that:
most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)
most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)
the economy is getting worse (26 points)
most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)
the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)
their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)
the auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)
when TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)
and that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)
These effects increased incrementally with increasing levels of exposure and all were statistically significant. The effect was also not simply a function of partisan bias, as people who voted Democratic and watched Fox News were also more likely to have such misinformation than those who did not watch it–though by a lesser margin than those who voted Republican.”