FNC’s Fox Newswatch on Saturday highlighted a winner in the MRC’s online balloting, in which many NewsBusters readers took part (Friday NB post announcing who you picked for Quote of the Year), for the annual awards for the year’s worst reporting. Host Jon Scott announced:
The results are in. The Media Research Center conducted an online poll asking the public to vote on the worst biased reporting. First up, the winner of the Poison Teapot Award for Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble, goes to PBS's Tavis Smiley for this:
Viewers then saw the clip from Tavis Smiley’s May 25 program on PBS:
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.”
Back on the Fox News set, Scott cued up Cal Thomas: “Wonder why he won, Cal?”
Cal Thomas answered: “No, not at all. Can we go through the list, all Italians are members of the mafia, all African-Americans eat certain foods. The only people you can openly insuly anymore if you’re in the media are Christians, Roman Catholics and various brands.”
For all the winners and runners-up in the “public ballot” held online this past week.
On Monday, we’ll announce the winners of the Best Notable Quotables of 2010: The 23rd Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting, as selected by a panel of 46 expert judges, including talk radio hosts, magazine and editorial writers as well as syndicated columnists.
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
