1. Republicans Pine for Segregation & NBC Recaps GOP Race-Baiting Newsweek's Evan Thomas and Eleanor Clift defamed conservatives: "Bill Clinton acidly, but not inaccurately, observed that Lott had just made the mistake of saying what too many Republicans still feel." On Monday night, NBC and CNBC both ran a story which offered the old canards about how the Willie Horton ad and the Jesse Helms "hands" ad prove how the GOP uses race to win. Soledad O'Brien assumed Republicans now embrace racial intolerance and reject non-white voters: "Still unclear tonight is whether Senator Lott's demotion represents a new era for... continue reading
1) The winning quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2002: The Fifteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." 2) A list of the 52 judges who evaluated the quotes in 17 award categories. MRC Annual Awards for the Worst Reporting The winning quotes in the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2002: The Fifteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." To determine this year's winners, a panel of 52 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers and media observers each selected their choices for the first, second and third best quote from a slate of... continue reading
1. Stephanopoulos a Conduit for Hillary's Smearing of GOP George Stephanopoulos, conduit for Hillary Clinton's unsubstantiated claim that Republicans practice racist politics. Stephanopoulos raised the allegation both on Friday's World News Tonight and Sunday's This Week. On Friday, he tied in Senator Frist specifically as he added how Democrats have asked the "Justice Department to investigate the 2002 elections. They say Republicans tried to keep blacks from voting. Bill Frist was the man leading that election charge." 2. That Frist is White and Senate Has No Blacks Stuns CNN Anchor The fact that Senator Bill Frist is white disturbed CNN... continue reading
1. Recognition of the Judges for the Annual NQ Awards Some well-earned recognition for the 52 expert media observers who served as the judges for the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2002, the 15th Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting." 2. Columns on the Quotes by Three Judges Links to columns on the quotes written by three judges: Mona Charen, Marvin Olasky and Patrick McGuigan. Recognition of the Judges for the Annual NQ Awards To determine this year's winners of the MRC's "Best Notable Quotables of 2002, the 15th Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting," a panel of... continue reading
1. Time and Newsweek Use Lott to Smear GOP as Race-Baiters Both parties have used race at times to attract votes, but this week's Time and Newsweek magazines smeared only Republicans, and especially conservatives, as the ones exploiting white resentments against blacks. Newsweek declared: "Trent Lott and the GOP grew up together in the South. They both have a painful secret." Time argued: "When the Democratic Party embrace the civil rights movement, many alienated Southerners turned to the Republicans. The effects are still being felt today." It only took 40 years. Time even portrayed the Contract with America as racist... continue reading
1. Jennings Stresses Unfavorable Parts of Pro-Bush Iraq Poll Faced with ABC News-Washington Post poll results that found both solid support for Bush's Iraq policy, a willingness to go nuclear and concern about the threat posed by Iraq as well as a desire for more evidence and a fear of the casualties a ground war might bring, ABC's Peter Jennings highlighted only the results which were unfavorable for Bush. While 62 percent favor using U.S. forces to topple Saddam Hussein, Jennings asserted: "The public is somewhat cautious about attacking Iraq." 2. ABC & CBS Deride Missile Defense Plan ABC and... continue reading
1. ABC Stresses Gore Got Most Votes & Gore Pull-Out Befuddles Stahl Reacting to Al Gore's announcement that he won't run for President in 2004, ABC anchor Carole Simpson twice reminded viewers of how Gore won the popular vote in 2000 and during his appearance on 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl seemed befuddled ("I'm still trying to understand why you won't run") and disappointed ("So this is it?") before trying to prod him into reconsidering, at least for 2008: "You said I'm not going to be a candidate 'this time.' What about 2008?" 2. Lieberman Claim of Lott Presidential Succession Not... continue reading
1. Newsweek Reporter Concedes Media Taking on Lott for Democrats Two noteworthy comments in Thursday night stories on Trent Lott: ABC's Linda Douglass invoked Dick Cheney-esque mystery in saying that Lott appeared on radio shows by phone "from an undisclosed location." And Newsweek's Martha Brant conceded on CNBC: "We're now in the media going to give this thing steam. The Democrats may not even need to fan the flames of this." 2. Time Story Fed by Ex-CNN Chief Who Agreed with Lott The cable networks all jumped late Thursday afternoon on a Time.com-posted story about how in the early 1960s... continue reading
1. ABC Finds Exiled Iraqi General Who Opposes Bush Too Leave it to ABC and Peter Jennings to find and highlight an exiled Iraqi Army General who doesn't like Saddam Hussein or George W. Bush. "The Iraqi General who wants to overthrow Saddam Hussein but does not want the U.S. to attack," Jennings teased at the top of Wednesday's World News Tonight. Reporter Mark Lee asserted that the General "worries that President Bush is turning ordinary Iraqis into opponents because they fear the U.S. intends to take over their country and steal their oil." 2. Networks Focus on Trent Lott... continue reading
1. Bush's SEC Pick "Controversial" to Jennings Without ever quite explaining why, ABC's Peter Jennings introduced President Bush's pick to run the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by calling Bill Donaldson "a controversial choice" and a "fairly controversial appointment." 2. In Lott Case, Networks Find Conservative Scolding Newsworthy With conservatives scolding Trent Lott for his suggestion that the country "wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years" if Strom Thurmond had won his 1948 segregationist presidential bid, the networks decided that what conservatives think was worthy of showcasing. ABC and NBC reporters failed to label the NAACP as... continue reading