It was a challenging task but an esteemed panel of NewsBusters editors led by MRC President L.Brent Bozell and MRC’s Vice President for Research and Publications Brent Baker boiled down all the biased outbursts from lefty hack hosts, anchors, reporters and pundits in 2023 and on December 18 announced The Brian Stelter Memorial Award for Quote of the Year.
Of course, every year there is way too much bias for just one category. So Baker led a panel of NewsBusters editors to break down the Worst of 2023 into eight additional categories (The Craziest Analysis Award; The Damn Those Conservatives Award; The Joy of Hate Award for Joy Reid Rants; The Jihadist Journalism Award for Helping Hamas; The Damning Florida’s Dictator Award; The Praising and Protecting Old Joe Award; The Cursing the Conservative Court Award and the Celebrity Freak-Outs Award).
Today we present the WORST OF 2023: The Jihadist Journalism Award for Helping Hamas.
Without further ado here is the winner (followed by the top runners-up):
WINNER
“Over the years I’ve made frequent trips to Gaza and have spoken with several Hamas leaders and, you know, they know their military capabilities are no match for Israel’s enormous fire power. But what they lack in fire power, they make up for in ideology and sheer determination.”
— Correspondent Imtiaz Tyab on CBS Mornings, October 10.
The following is a montage of the runners-up and winner:
RUNNERS-UP
“Last night, I asserted that this report indicated that babies were beheaded. This was an overstatement. I should have said that the report established that babies were found headless, a fact that lends plausibility to claims of beheading, but which does not prove them. The verb behead has multiple definitions, and is sometimes used to mean decapitate; the report indicates that Hamas did behead babies in that sense. But the term can also connote a form of execution using a knife, and we do not have confirmation of beheading in this sense.”
— October 22 tweet from New York magazine Intelligencer feature writer Eric Levitz’s official X (formerly Twitter) account.
“The only source for ‘Hamas beheaded babies’ appears to be the Israeli military, which is widely known to spread lies and disinformation. Journalists, this is the fog of war. You’ll be seeing all sorts of claims. Don’t amplify unverified, sensational info.”
— October 10 tweet by Los Angeles Times investigative reporter Adam Elmahrek.
“It would be very naive to just simply say every Palestinian agrees with what Hamas is doing. But Hamas is saying, ‘Well, if nobody is able to defend, what is happening for Palestinians in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, with the home demolitions, the arrests, the children being killed, the desecration of holy sites, if they’re unable to do that, then we only have the ability to do it with military might and crude weapons and military.’”
— MSNBC Host Ayman Mohyeldin on MSNBC’s Velshi, October 7.
“Of course we have heard from regional voices, we have heard from international rights groups and human rights organizations who have said that, while this attack was deplorable, and deeply unprecedented, it did not happen in a vacuum. This has come after decades of what Hamas and other Palestinians view to be occupation of Palestinian territory. It comes after decades of violation of Palestinian rights and decades of which is where the rights groups and U.N. Human rights experts have characterized as policies and practices which amount to apartheid.”
— CNN International reporter Nada Bashir on CNN Tonight, October 9.
“Night after night, the bombs rain down with the Israel Defense Forces saying they have now surrounded Gaza City. But around the world, people are recoiling in horror at the staggering civilian death toll with calls for a ceasefire growing louder. And as Secretary of State Antony Blinken does his diplomatic rounds his visit on Sunday with Palestinian Authority President Abbas was met with hostility. There is growing anger against the United States here in Ramallah, in the West Bank, with crowds chanting ‘Blinken, you’ve got blood on your hands.’”
— Correspondent Debora Patta on CBS Mornings, November 6.
