Rosen: Liberal lowlights of 2006

Friday, December 29, 2006

It's time for the 19th annual Media Research Center's awards for the most biased, manipulative or downright goofy quotes from liberals in the "mainstream" media. I'm honored to serve, once again, on MRC's distinguished panel of conservatively biased judges. Here are some of the lowlights from among the winners and runners-up of Best Notable Quotables of 2006:

• QUOTE OF THE YEAR

"It wasn't supposed to be this way. You weren't supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights, whether it's the rights of immigrants to start a new life, or the rights of gays to marry, or the rights of women to choose. You weren't supposed to be graduating into a world where oil still drove policy and environmentalists have to fight relentlessly for every gain. You weren't. But you are. And for that, I'm sorry."

From "New York Times" Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s May 21 graduation address at the State University of New York at New Paltz, shown on C-SPAN May 27

This would be liberal guilt run amuck if it weren't make-believe guilt, in this case. Sulzberger, personally, has nothing to apologize for. For years, he's done his darndest to turn the Times into a shameless propaganda platform for the liberal agenda.

• POLITICS OF MEANINGLESSNESS AWARD FOR THE SILLIEST ANALYSIS

Katie Couric: "A passionate student of history, Condi Rice believes turmoil often precedes periods of peace and stability. And she rejects the notion that the U.S. is a bully, imposing its values on the world."

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: "What's wrong with assistance so that people can have their full and complete right to the very liberties and freedoms that we enjoy?"

Couric: "To quote my daughter, 'Who made us the boss of them?' "

CBS' "60 Minutes," Sept. 24

• GOOD MORNING MORONS AWARD

Meredith Vieira: "Everybody's calling you 'the Genie.' And they want you to grant some wishes. If you had a genie, what wish would you want granted? . . . Where do you think (Osama bin Laden) is? Everybody's wondering where the heck he is, where do you think he is?"

Former President Bill Clinton: "I think he's probably in, I have no intelligence, OK? I think he's probably . . ."

Vieira, interrupting: "You have plenty of intelligence."

Clinton: "No, I mean government intelligence."

Vieira: "I know, I'm kidding."

NBC's "Today," Sept. 21

• TIN FOIL HAT AWARD FOR CRAZY CONSPIRACY THEORIES

ABC's Steve Osunsami, speaking about Hurricane Katrina: "In many black neighborhoods, they actually believe that white residents sent the barge that destroyed the levee and flooded communities."

Unidentified black man in HBO's film When the Levees Broke by Spike Lee: "They had a bomb. They bombed that sucker."

Osunsami: "To this day, the conspiracy theories are so widely held, director Spike Lee put them on film."

Spike Lee: "As an African-American in this country, I don't put anything past the government.

ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," Aug. 29

• BRING BACK THE IRON CURTAIN AWARD

Diane Sawyer: "It is a world away from the unruly individualism of any American school. . . . Ask them about their country, and they can't say enough."

North Korean girl: "We are the happiest children in the world."

Sawyer to class: "What do you know about America?"

Sawyer voice-over: "We show them an American magazine. They tell us they know nothing about American movies, American movie stars . . . and then, it becomes clear that they have seen some movies from a strange place."

Sawyer to class: "You know The Sound of Music?"

Voices: "Yes."

Sawyer, singing with class: "Do, a deer, a female deer. Re, a drop of golden sun . . ."

Charles Gibson: "A fascinating glimpse of North Korea."

ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," Oct. 19

• MADNESS OF KING GEORGE AWARD FOR BUSH BASHING

"We now face what our ancestors faced at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering: A government more dangerous to our liberty than is the enemy it claims to protect us from. . . . We have never before codified the poisoning of habeas corpus, that wellspring of protection from which all essential liberties flow. You, sir, have now befouled that spring. You, sir, have now given us chaos and called it order. You, sir, have now imposed subjugation and called it freedom. . . . These things you have done, Mr. Bush - they would constitute the beginning of the end of America."

Keith Olbermann in a "Special Comment" on the setting up of military trials for terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, MSNBC's "Countdown," Oct. 18.

Mr. Olbermann, you, sir, are hyperventilating.

• If your stomach is strong enough to handle the complete awards list, you can get it online at www.mediaresearch.org.

Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. He can be reached by e-mail at mikerosen@850koa.com.