The Ever-Worse Establishment Media

[Geee]

American Spectator:


If I had the lack of class and perspective that much of the establishment media has, I would call them all hateful, moronic, bigoted, murderous Stalinists.

Since I'm not, maybe I'll just leave the "hateful" and "moronic" in place.

Such reflections come as smoke pours from my ears after considering this year's ballot for the Media Research Center's invaluable, annual "Notable Quotable" awards for the year's worst reporting. The MRC asks about 40 conservative media folks each year to judge the contest, providing choices in 17 different categories such as the "Tea Party Terrorists Award" (for, yes, equating the Tea Party with terrorists) and the Obamagasm Award (for gushing, in chill-up-leg fashion, about how heroic the current Occupy the Oval Office leader is). We each rank the three worst examples of bias (or, worse, sheer hate directed at conservatives) in each category, and then also vote for the (worst) Quote of the Year.

To show just how low the lickspittle Lilliputians of the establishment media are, consider that none of the following examples even made it into my votes for "worst three" examples in any of those 17 categories. If these are the also-rans, just think how bad the others are.

1) Salon's Joan Walsh: "These people, the Tea Partiers and their friends and their enablers and their corporate friends like Dick Armey, they have created this shrieking on the right…. They're paying the lowest taxes in 50 years -- more than 50 years, more than my lifetime -- and they are still complaining. And some of them aren't complaining. There are some good business people who know this game of chicken, in particular, is deadly and it's wrong and it's hostage-taking. And you shouldn't negotiate with hostage-takers.
Host Chris Matthews: "I agree with you. I agree with you. I agree. It's terrorism." -- MSNBC's Hardball, July 5.

2) "I have a confession to make. I can describe the legal arguments and the judicial conclusions, but on a fundamental level, I just don't get the attack on the federal law…. I don't understand the moral compass of the owner of the fancy car I saw the other day that sported the bumper sticker: 'Repeal ObamaCare.'" -- Longtime New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse in a column for the Times' "Opinionator" blog, Sept. 21.

3) "So when does SEAL Unite 6, or whatever it's called, drop in on George Bush? Bush was responsible for a lot more death, innocent death, than bin Laden. Wasn't he, or am I wrong here?" -- Left-wing radio host and former CNN producer Mike Malloy on The Mike Malloy Show, May 2.

4) "The interesting question is: what is it about this President that has stripped away the veneer of respect that normally accompanies the office of the President? Why do Republicans think this President is unpresidential -- unpresidential, and shouldn't dare request this kind of thing? It strikes me that it could be the economic times, it could be that he won so big in 2008, or it could be, let's face it, the color of his skin." -- MSNBC political analyst and ex-Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe talking about the brief contretemps over scheduling Obama's speech to Congress, The Last Word, August 31.

5) "Hardball is absolutely non-partisan." -- MSNBC's Christ Matthews in an interview with local Washington, D.C. host Carol Joynt, as quoted by The Politico's Patrick Gavin in a Dec. 9, 2010 article.

And, while these last two aren't mainstream media, it's beyond contempt that the mainstream media gives a forum to such people… In MRC's category called "The Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award" for Celebrity Vapidity, consider these:

1) "America's full of such hatred in terms of politics, and the politics of hate is so rampant. And now, the only kind of minority that can really be dealt with in that way is the gay population…. I think that the Tea Party have some very, very -- some quite sensible notions, actually, when -- on paper. But also that kind of seems to be an umbrella thing that just covers up a lot of real homophobia and racism." -- Actor Alan Cumming, who stars on CBS' The Good Wife, on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, Sept. 22.