Wednesday night during the Media Research Center’s 35th anniversary gala, we were honored to present our friend, legendary conservative columnist, TV commentator, and longtime MRC Gala attendee Cal Thomas with the first annual Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Emcee and WMAL host Chris Plante first recognized the five winners that we bestowed in May and then noted the MRC had “decided it was high time real recognition be given to those who actually excel at their profession.”
Plante’s WMAL colleague Larry O’Connor introduced Thomas and shared his memories of the two together, including his thoughts on how Thomas is “not only an incredible force for logic and wisdom and conservative thought in a very abusive, left-wing media, but he was also just a great guy.”
“Cal Thomas has fought the fight all these years and he has always done it with a smile on his face. He has always done it with wit and with wisdom and with integrity and with charity and love, especially for those he would duel with and who opposed him ideologically because he could always understand that they were human beings and creatures created in the image of God. And he never forgot that,” O’Connor added.
For Thomas’s part, he brought the house down with a slew of quips, including this zinger: “When you get a lifetime achievement award, the next step is the cemetery. I mean, I’m old enough in this business to remember when drag races meant cars.”
Thomas went onto thank readers for having sent him “wonderful mail” over the years as well as the MRC for giving him an award that “means a lot to me”:
Well, I want to thank the MRC, which I tremendously respect and Brent and Brent Baker and the research that they do is just impeccable. I have often quoted it in my columns. I very much appreciate this award. It means a lot to me. And I’ll see you all at the cemetery.
