Full program for the 2008 MRC DisHonors Awards gala

Cal Thomas, Larry Kudlow, Mark Levin and Ann Coulter highlighted the MRC’s "2008 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters" presented on Thursday night, April 10, before an audience of more than 1,000 packed into the Independence Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington, D.C.

Following the presentation of the DisHonors Awards videos in five categories (see links to videos below), a look at some "funny clips" from 2007 and the audience picking the "Quote of the Year," MRC President Brent Bozell honored Tony Snow with the MRC's second annual "William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence." Snow praised the late Buckley’s selfless efforts to identify and encourage promising young conservatives and then Snow regretted the current political rancor as he urged the audience to appreciate America’s greatness.

Cal Thomas introduces the 2008 MRC Dishonors Awards

The evening ended on a more somber note, with a video tribute to Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, a SEAL who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for selfless valor in combat in Afghanistan in 2005. MRC Trustee Boone Pickens came on stage afterward to present Murphy’s father, Daniel, and brother, John, with a $1 million check for the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation and then Daniel Murphy thanked Pickens and expressed gratitude for the 29 years he had with his son.

DisHonors Awards winners were selected by a distinguished panel of 15 leading media observers, including Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Tony Blankley, Steve Forbes, Robert Novak, Walter E. Williams and Thomas S. Winter, who served as judges.

Cal Thomas, a syndicated columnist and panelist on FNC's Fox News Watch, served as Master of Ceremonies. Larry Kudlow, host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company, presented the first two awards, followed by columnist/commentator Ann Coulter who set up the funny clips and presented the third award. Talk show host Mark Levin handled the fourth and fifth awards.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews wins the "Quote Of The Year Award" as voted on by the 2008 DisHonors Awards audience, presenters and acceptors.

In place of the journalist who won each award, a conservative accepted it in jest. Those standing in for the winners: Pollster Kellyanne Conway, Ron Maxwell, director of Gods and Generals, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) and Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado).

The evening began with welcoming remarks from Cal Thomas, an invocation by Father John De Celles and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Major Art Finch.


Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest Analysis

Presentation

CNBC's Larry Kudlow presented the nominees for the"Dan Rather Memorial Award for the Stupidest Analysis."
Pollster Kellyanne Conway accepted the award in jest on behalf of the McClatchy News Service.

Runners-up

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: “Russ Feingold wants to censure the President, the Vice President, other administration officials for the way in which they talked us into in Iraq. What do you make of it? Where do you stand on that kind of thing?”

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore: “Good idea. I think, it’s something though that, actually they should be lucky just to get censured. Personally, I’d like to see a perp walk coming out of the West Wing of the White House.”

Matthews: “Do you think they’re guilty of war crimes?”

Moore: “Absolutely.”
MSNBC’s Hardball, July 23, 2007
 
“Do you worry at all that non-believers may feel excluded and diminished at a time when we’re so divided about so much?”
Katie Couric to The Nativity Story’s Catherine Hardwicke and Mike Rich in a December 4, 2006 CBS Evening News story about Hollywood movies based on Biblical themes

And the winner is...

 
“As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch”
Headline over an October 16, 2007 story by McClatchy News Service reporters Jay Price and Qasim Zein

The I’m Not a Political Genius But I Play One on TV Award

Presentation

CNBC's Larry Kudlow presented the nominees for the "I'm Not a Political Genius But I Play One on TV Award."
Gods and Generals director Ron Maxwell accepted the award in jest on behalf of HBO's Bill Maher.

Runners-up

Rosie O’Donnell: “655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?”

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: “Who are the terrorists?”

O’Donnell: “655 Iraqis. I’m saying you have to look from, we invaded-”

Hasselbeck: “Wait, who are you calling terrorists?”

O’Donnell: “I’m saying, if you were in Iraq, and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?”
Rosie O’Donnell on ABC’s The View, May 17, 2007
 
“Over the past six years we’ve had to add to the American picture: rendition, illegal wiretapping, voter suppression, no habeas corpus, the neglect of our great city New Orleans and the people, an attack on the Constitution and the loss of our best young men and women in a tragic war. And this is a song about things that shouldn’t happen here, happening here. And so right now we plan to do something about it — we plan to sing about it.”
Bruce Springsteen introducing his song “Living in the Future” before a live concert on NBC’s Today, September 28, 2007

And the winner is...

“I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.”
Host Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time, March 2, 2007 discussing how a few commenters at a left-wing blog were upset that an attempt to kill Vice President Dick Cheney in Afghanistan had failed

Damn Those Conservatives Award

Presentation

Author/columnist Ann Coulter presented the nominees for the "Damn Those Conservatives Award."
Ann Coulter introduced Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrest who accepted the award on behalf of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Runners-up

Matt Lauer: “He [Rush Limbaugh] makes a living poking fun at Democrats, but now some think he has gone a little too far in taking on Senator Barack Obama....”

Reporter Michael Okwu: “Weeks before the Imus controversy, Rush Limbaugh started airing this ditty about Senator Barack Obama:”

Song parody: “Barack the Magic Negro lives in D.C.”

Okwu: “Which lead some to wonder, has Limbaugh been getting a free pass?...”

Paul Waldman, Media Matters: “This is basically the radio equivalent of a black-faced, minstrel show. You’re going back to Amos and Andy and all of those, kind of, racist shows in the past.”

Okwu: “For his part, Obama says he doesn’t listen to Limbaugh but says being targeted is part of being a politician....”

Song parody: “Don’t vote the Magic Negro.”

Okwu: “Legitimate political satire or something darker?”
NBC’s Today, May 21, 2007. Limbaugh’s parody was inspired by a black writer who used the term in a March 19 Los Angeles Times op-ed, “Obama the Magic Negro.”
 
“This is going to result in racial profiling. If, in her America, in Michelle’s America, when you look, ‘Is that Hispanic guy an illegal or is he legal?’ It reminds me so much of when they used to pull down the pants of Jews to see if they were circumcised or not. It is, it is so, so pathetic. It’s so un-American....I want you to know, ladies and gentlemen, that what they are doing is using the police force of the United States to break up families and sow horror and pain.”
Geraldo Rivera rejecting columnist Michelle Malkin’s argument that citizens should report illegal immigrants to the authorities, FNC’s The O’Reilly Factor, June 8, 2007

And the winner is...

“Everything you said about [withdrawing some troops from] Iraq yesterday, and everything you will say, is a deception, for the purpose of this one cynical, unacceptable, brutal goal: perpetuating this war indefinitely. War today, war tomorrow, war forever! And you are playing at it! Playing! A man with any self respect, having inadvertently revealed such an evil secret, would have already resigned and fled the country!...Mr. Bush, our presence in Iraq must end, even if it means your resignation, even if it means your impeachment....This country cannot run the risk of what you can still do to this country in the next 500 days.”
MSNBC Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann addressing President Bush in a “Special Comment,” September 4, 2007

The Barack Obama Gives a Thrill Up My Leg Award

Presentation

Mark Levin presented the nominees for the "Barack Obama Gives a Thrill Up My Leg Award."
Mark Levin introduces Congressman Mike Pence who Accepts Award in jest.

Runners-up

Senator Barack Obama: “Let’s roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, let’s make certain that those resources go to the people who need it....We’re not going to solve it by pretending that issues of poverty and struggle among working families are just going to go away magically because the stock market is going up.”

Moderator Chris Matthews: “So much of what you say just grabs people like me, because it sounds like Bobby Kennedy.”
Exchange at AFSCME Democratic candidates forum shown live on MSNBC, June 19, 2007
 
“Today they gathered by the thousands at American University, sensing a moment of history. John F. Kennedy gave the commencement address here five months before he was shot. And today the audacity of hope had its rendezvous with destiny. The Kennedy clan anointed Barack Obama a son of Camelot.”
David Wright on ABC’s World News, January 28, 2008

And the winner is...

“He’s come from a white family and a black family, and he’s married to a black woman, and they’re cool people. They are really cool. They are Jack and Jackie Kennedy when you see them together. They are cool. And they’re great-looking, and they’re cool and they’re young, and they’re — everything seems to be great....He may not win this thing because everybody in America is not going to be in a room with him somewhere. And it doesn’t quite -- It worked with you on TV, but I tell you when you’re in the room, it’s just like one of those things like Hillary Clinton, if you’re in the room you understand what a likable person she is. If you’re in with Obama, you feel the spirit. Moving.”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews talking about Democratic candidate Barack Obama on NBC’s Tonight Show, January 16, 2008

The How We Adore Clinton-Gore Award

Presentation

Radio host Mark Levin presented the nominees for the "How We Adore Clinton-Gore Award."
Representative Tom Tancredo accepted the award in jest on behalf of MSNBC's Chris Matthews."

Runners-up

Cynthia McFadden: “Last week the campaign launched and effort to showcase those people — friends, constituents, including many of them in a new Web site called ‘The Hillary I Know.’”

Woman in video: “The Hillary that I know is a compassionate woman.”

Man in video: “The Hillary I know saved my life.”...

McFadden: “As I looked at it, it’s terribly sweet in so many ways, and yet, it sort of has this Sally Field quality to it. You know, ‘They like me, they really like me.’ And I wonder if there’s not a double standard? I don’t see the guys doing it. Are you judged differently, do you think, on the personal level?”
ABC’s Cynthia McFadden interviewing Hillary Clinton on Nightline, December 19, 2007
 
“There he [Bill Clinton] goes again. The man often called the most gifted politician of his generation is once again at the center of American politics, taking over the 2008 Democratic campaign. And he’s clearly loving every minute of it....He lectures and jokes around and feels your pain and implores you to believe....It’s so unprecedented, this personal and political partnership, so fraught with history and Baby Boomer melodrama. They have already made history, and they are out to do it again, together, through it all.”
ABC’s Terry Moran after spending the day with Clinton for a report on Nightline, January 24, 2008

And the winner is...

“When I watched him [former President Bill Clinton] at Mrs. King’s funeral, I just have never seen anything like it....There are times when he sounds like Jesus in the temple. I mean, amazing ability to transcend ethnicity — race, we call it, it’s really ethnicity — in this country and, and speak to us all in this amazingly primordial way.”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball, February 28, 2007

Quote of the Year

Presentation

 

Quote of the Year voted on by the 2008 MRC DisHonors Awards audience, as judged by the presenters and acceptors

Winner

“When I watched him [former President Bill Clinton] at Mrs. King’s funeral, I just have never seen anything like it....There are times when he sounds like Jesus in the temple. I mean, amazing ability to transcend ethnicity — race, we call it, it’s really ethnicity — in this country and, and speak to us all in this amazingly primordial way.”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball, February 28, 2007

2nd Annual William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence

William F. Buckley Jr. is the intellectual cornerstone of the modern conservative movement. His founding of National Review magazine in 1955 provided the home base for conservatives in an America seemingly overrun by liberalism. With NR, and as host of television’s Firing Line for 33 years, William F. Buckley Jr. spread the cause, helped rally conservatives during the Cold War, was instrumental in helping Ronald Reagan win the presidency — twice — and continues to provide the intellectual ammunition, along with grace and wit, to strengthen conservatives in the on-going battles to preserve liberty, peace and justice in America.

In addition to NR, Mr. Buckley has written 40 books, publishes a regular column syndicated to 300 newspapers, and pens longer articles for magazines and other outlets. He has educated and inspired thousands of conservatives, especially young men and women, through his articles, books and TV appearances. These young conservatives have followed Mr. Buckley’s example and relayed the conservative message across the country and through various media, particularly the New Media: cable TV, talk radio and the Internet.

Fifty-seven years ago, William F. Buckley Jr. circumvented the liberal media’s "Berlin Wall" of bias with imagination and tenacity. His intellectual progeny now populate the airwaves and cyberspace, leaving the old liberal media in the dustbin of history. To recognize and honor the very best of these new conservative leaders, the Media Research Center is proud to announce the annual William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence.

MRC President Brent Bozell announced the recipient of the William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence.
Tony Snow accepted the Buckley Award with an optimistic speech about the greatness of America.

Judges

Tony Blankley

Exec. Vice President of Global Public Affairs, Edelman; former Washington Times editorial page editor

Neal Boortz

Atlanta-based nationally syndicated radio talk show host

L. Brent Bozell III

President of the Media Research Center

Steve Forbes

President and CEO of Forbes Inc.

Sean Hannity

Co-host of FNC’s Hannity & Colmes and an ABC Radio talk show host

Laura Ingraham

Analyst and nationally syndicated radio talk show host

Larry Kudlow

Host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company

Mark Levin

Nationally syndicated ABC Radio talk show host

Rush Limbaugh

Host of The Rush Limbaugh Show

Mary Matalin

Editor-in-Chief, Threshold Editions

Robert Novak

Chicago Sun-Times columnist and commentator for the Fox News Channel

Kate O’Beirne

Washington Editor of National Review

Thomas Winter

Editor-in-Chief of Human Events

William Rusher

Distinguished Fellow at the Claremont Institute

Cal Thomas

Nationally syndicated columnist and a panelist on FNC's Fox Newswatch

Walter E. Williams

Syndicated columnist and professor of economics at George Mason University


Highlights

Ann Coulter Presents funny videos from 2007 at the 2008 MRC DisHonors Awards.
MRC President Brent Bozell introduced a video tribute to Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Michael Murphy
An MRC-produced video documented how U.S. Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy gave his life to save his men
MRC Trustee Boone Pickens presented Lt. Murphy's family with a $1 million check for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society