NewsBusters's parent company the Media Research Center (MRC) today proudly announces that perky Katie Couric is the “winner” of the DisHonor of the Worst Reporter in the History of Man for her outrageously pathetic bias as chronicled by the MRC over the past quarter century.
The competition was fierce, but Couric was selected from a competitive field of finalists that included Bryant Gumbel, Brian Williams, and Dan Rather by the more than 1000 attendees who cheered and jeered throughout the evening to roast the liberal media's worst of the worst at the MRC's 25th Anniversary DisHonors Awards Gala. The event was held Thursday evening at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. WMAL personality Chris Plante served as emcee with media personalities Stephen Hayes, Laura Ingraham, and Jonah Goldberg on hand as award presenters. The Davisson Brothers Band provided live entertainment.
The only true honor of the evening, the 6th annual William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence, was presented posthumously to Andrew Breitbart by last year’s recipient, Cal Thomas. The award was accepted by Breitbart’s father-in-law, Orson Bean.
DisHonors Awards were also handed out for the worst bias of 2011-12, as chosen by a distinguished panel of 12 judges: Ann Coulter, Monica Crowley, Lou Dobbs, Erick Erickson, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, David Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh, Al Regnery, Cal Thomas, Walter E. Williams, and Thomas S. Winter. Below is a full list of the awards, winners, and the quotes that earned them their respective DisHonors:
The Obamagasm Award (for drooling over Democrats)
Winner: "This guy's done everything right. He's raised his family right. He's fought his way all the way to the top of the Harvard Law Review, in a blind test becomes head of the Review, the top editor there. Everything he's done is clean as a whistle. He's never not only broken any law, he's never done anything wrong. He's the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American. And all they do is trash the guy."
— MSNBC's Chris Matthews talking about President Obama on Hardball, July 17, 2012.
Accepted by Reince Preibus, Chairman, Republican National Committee
The Vast Right-Wing Knuckle Draggers Award (for biased campaign coverage)
Winner: “I get out of all of these things that many of these candidates would rather take legislation to build a time machine and go back in time to where we had, you know, no women voting, slavery was cool. I mean, it’s just kind of ridiculous.”
— Daytime anchor Thomas Roberts on MSNBC Live, September 23, 2011, talking about the previous night’s GOP debate.
Accepted by Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
Damn Those Conservatives to Hell Award
Winner: “The Center of [sic] Budget and Policy Priorities, says 60 – you're smiling because you know about this, says 62% of the savings in your budget would come from cutting programs for the poor. That between 8 and 10 million people would be kicked off of food stamps. That you would cut Medicare by 200 billion, Medicaid and other health programs by something like 770 billion. Where is the empathy in this budget?...Do you acknowledge that poor people will suffer under his budget, that you have shown a lack of empathy to poor people in this budget?”
— Co-host Ann Curry to U.S. Representative Paul Ryan on NBC’s Today, April 10, 2012.
Accepted by Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List
The Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity
Winner: “You have what I call the ‘Get the N-word out of the White House party,’ the Tea Party.... At the end of the day, there’s a big bubble coming out of their heads saying, you know, ‘Can we just lynch him?’”
— Actor Sean Penn on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, October 14, 2011.
Accepted by Foster Friess, American Businessman
Later on Friday, visit www.MRC.org to access audio and video clips of the evening along with the Worst Reporter in the History of Man video package and all other award-winning quotes.
