The Best Notable Quotables of 2007
by the Media Research Center
[abridged and commented on by ETR]
Dynamic Duo Award for Idolizing Bill and Hillary
“When I watched
[former President Bill Clinton] at Mrs. King’s funeral, I just have never seen
anything like it....There are times when he sounds like Jesus in the temple.”
— Chris Matthews, MSNBC’s Hardball, Feb. 28.
Um, Chris, you might want to change your underpants right
about now.
“Nobody can bask in applause with quite so much style — the
gentle wave, the grin the shape of a sideways comma, the sense that he knows he
deserves the accolades and yet is humbled by all the clapping, which makes
people clap harder....He still has this way of presenting his ideas for reforms
as simple, elegant solutions....Listening to the man think out loud again, it
was hard not to pine for an era before bad news got really bad, before Sept. 11
showed up on the calendar every year as Patriot Day.”
— Washington Post staff writer David Segal on the launch of
Bill Clinton’s latest book, Sept. 5 Style section.
Yeah, the good old days with a president getting his rocks off
in the oval office with a woman who’s not his wife, obstructing justice, and letting terrorists attack American
interests around the world with impunity. Just go back to watching your Friends,
people. Nothing to see here.
“It’s her resilience and capacity to survive and thrive
against all comers that partly fuels the haters’ fury.... The narrative of
depravity — a tissue of inventions by conservatives — was often hard to
follow....The anti-Hillary industry has never managed to bring down Hillary
herself — in fact, the more they have attacked, the higher she has risen.”
— Newsweek’s Jonathan Darman and Mark Hosenball in “The New
War on Hillary,” June 18 issue.
Yeah, Hillary would be a shoo-in for president if it weren’t
for that Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy!
America Makes Us Sick Award
“Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape
and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform....We pay the
soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing
and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities
into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their
attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the
military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights
and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?”
— WashingtonPost.com military columnist William Arkin in a
January 30 column.
But he supports the troops. And if you don’t understand
that, it’s just because you’re too stupid to understand nuuuuance.
“I think a draft produces a better Army than the one we
would have with all volunteers, because I think you get average Americans if
you have a draft. And if it’s an all-volunteer Army, you get people who join up
because of some problem in their own lives. They don’t have anything else to
do, they don’t have a job, or they can’t find what they want to do, so they
join the Army. And it doesn’t produce the best Army.”
— CBS’s Andy Rooney on MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning, March
14.
He supports the the troops too.
“There is something tragic about Edwards’s failure to break
through. Today, 37 million Americans live below the poverty line, 12 million
more than at the time of [Sen. Robert F.] Kennedy’s death. And yet Edwards’s
call of conscience has not resonated. … His difficulty speaks to the
candidate’s inability to connect. It also speaks to the nation’s inability to
be moved.”
— Newsweek’s Jonathan Darman, July 30 issue.
Yeah, we Americans don’t give a crap about poor people. Or,
maybe we just don’t fall for Marxist rhetoric and inflated statistics being
spewed by lying ambulance chasers, unlike certain supposedly intelligent and
objective Newsweek columnists.
Damn Those Conservatives Award
“I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people
would live. That’s a fact.”
— Host Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time, March 2,
discussing how a few commenters at a left-wing blog were upset that an attempt
to kill Vice President Cheney in Afghanistan had failed.
Hmm, wishing for the death of the Vice President. Nice. And they
call Ann Coulter mean-spirited.
“[M]y very first thought upon hearing of the Rev. Falwell’s
passing was: Good. And I didn’t mean ‘good’ in a
oh-good-he’s-gone-home-to-be-with-the-Lord kind of way. I meant ‘good’ as in
‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead.’”
— Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani in her May 18
piece, “Sigh of relief over Falwell death.”
Didn’t they say the same thing when Reagan died?
Blue State Brigade Award for Campaign Reporting
Senator Barack Obama: “Let’s roll back the Bush tax cuts on
the wealthiest Americans, let’s make certain that those resources go to the
people who need it....We’re not going to solve it by pretending that issues of
poverty and struggle among working families are just going to go away magically
because the stock market is going up.”
Moderator Chris Matthews: “So much of what you say just
grabs people like me, because it sounds like Bobby Kennedy. It sounds like the
’60s at its absolute best.”
— Exchange at AFSCME Democratic candidates forum shown live
on MSNBC, June 19.
Whoa, back up the tape. According to Obama, the earned
income of wealthy American citizens is not their rightful personal property;
it’s resources for the people who need it. (And guess who decides what "need" is?)
“Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m naïve … I
guess I think that anyone who’s not going to vote for Barack Obama because he
is black isn’t going to vote for a Democrat anyway.”
— George Stephanopoulos, in an exchange with Sam Donaldson on ABC’s This Week, May 13.
No, you were right the first time, George: You’re wrong and
naïve.
“With a train whistle in the background and the sweet smell
of freshly cut grass in the air, John Edwards campaigned this month next to a
cornfield and a big sign proclaiming: ‘This is John Edwards Country.’
Surrounding him were about 100 voters, all seated on outdoor chairs provided by
the local Congregational church, in a scene that could not have been more
picturesquely American — democracy in action at its most intimate level.”
—New York Times reporter Leslie Wayne on John Edwards, July
22.
WTF??? Is this a news article or a campaign ad?
Madness of King George Award
“You could argue that even the world’s worst fascist
dictators at least meant well. They honestly thought [they] were doing good
things for their countries by suppressing blacks/eliminating Jews/eradicating
free enterprise/repressing individual thought/killing off rivals/invading
neighbors, etc....Bush set a new precedent. He came into office with the
attitude of ‘I’m so tired of the public good. What about my good? What about my
rich friends’ good?’”
— Ex-Washington Post sports reporter and Seinfeld writer
Peter Mehlman in a June 20 Huffington Post blog item.
Sports reporter?
“If someone had
murdered Hitler — a journalist interviewing him had murdered him — the world
would be a better place. I only feel good, as a citizen, about getting rid of
George Bush, who has been the most destructive president in my lifetime. I
certainly don’t regret it.”
— New Yorker magazine writer Mark Singer explaining why he
donated $250 to the liberal “Victory Campaign 2004.”
Of the same magazine that pooh-poohed
the hanging of Saddam Hussein. For some interesting reason, liberals have never
compared him to Hitler.
“Good evening. A President who lied us into a war and, in so
doing, needlessly killed 3,584 of our family and friends and neighbors; a
President whose administration initially tried to destroy the first man to nail
that lie; a President whose henchmen then ruined the career of the intelligence
asset that was his wife when intelligence assets were never more essential to
the viability of the Republic; a President like that has tonight freed from the
prospect of prison the only man ever to come to trial for one of the component
felonies in what may be the greatest crime of this young century.”
— Keith Olbermann on Bush commuting Lewis Libby’s prison
sentence, MSNBC’s Countdown, July 2.
Hey, Keith? You forgot to add “a President who personally rigged
Hurricane Katrina to slam into New Orleans because he hates black people.” No need to thank me. I’m
here to help.
Channeling the Nut Roots Award
“Congress’s job is oversight of the executive branch —
unless, of course, that oversight interferes with getting elected.”
— CNN’s Jack Cafferty, The Situation Room, Aug. 21.
Media Millionaires for Higher Taxes
“It takes leadership. After World War II, we maintained the
infrastructure we had and we built an incredible network of highways, and
leaders in both parties agreed that these were priorities. Now we have this
tax-averse society, rallied by the Republicans, tax-averse, where everything
becomes sort of a right-wing, libertarian refusal to let government spend any
money or raise any money.”
— Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift discussing the Minneapolis bridge
collapse, August 25 McLaughlin Group.
“You’re also looking
at a [global warming] solution here in Europe: smaller vehicles, more energy
efficient, many which use diesel fuel which is more efficient. And the price of
gas here is $6 a gallon to discourage guzzling. A lot of big ideas and
innovations coming out of Europe.”
— ABC’s Chris Cuomo reporting from Paris for Earth Day,
April 20 Good Morning America.
So let me get this straight:
High gas prices in the U.S. = Evil corporations price gouging.Even higher gas prices in Europe = Big idea and innovation.
I’d make sure I were in Paris too if I uttered this garbage.
Host George Stephanopoulos: “… [I]sn’t it going to take real
sacrifice, real cutbacks in consumption if we’re going to be energy
independent?...Higher gas taxes?”
Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM): “It’s going to be a
collaborative effort. No, you don’t have to do it with taxes....”
Stephanopoulos: “But aren’t higher energy taxes the best way
to get people to conserve?”
— ABC’s This Week, January 21.
I know, George. I’m just as surprised as you are. A problem
can actually be solved without raising taxes? Say it isn’t so!
O Great Goreacle Award
Co-host Harry Smith: “President Bush getting ready to go to
Europe for the G-8. The folks in the European Union want to do emissions
reductions. The President said yesterday we’re not going to participate....If
you were president, you would have probably signed on?”
Former Vice President Al Gore: “Yeah, yeah.”
Smith: “Do you mind if I-? [holds up a ‘Gore 2008’
pin]...There you go. You can hold it. [laughter]....Here, let’s see what it
looks like. [holds pin to Gore’s lapel]...All right, all right. Save that in a
freeze frame.”
— Exchange on CBS’s The Early Show, May 30.
Hey Al, will you wear my pin? [Giggle giggle. High-pitched squeal. Giggle giggle.]
“From your point of view, if you were to run for
President you could take this issue [global warming] to the next level, even
during just a campaign. And if you were fortunate enough to win the presidency,
you’d sit in the most powerful office in the free world with a real chance to
make — you could be in a position to save the planet, without putting too much
emphasis on it. Wouldn’t that be enough of a reason to run for President for
you?”
— Matt Lauer, exchange with Al Gore on NBC’s Today, December 6, 2006.
Matt, maybe Chris Matthews has a clean pair of underpants you can borrow.
Politics of Meaninglessness Award for Silliest Analysis
“Perhaps the outpouring of sympathy for [the falsely
arrested Duke lacrosse players] Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans
is just a bit misplaced....As students of Duke University or other elite
institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives....They
are very differently situated in life from, say, the young women of the Rutgers
University women’s basketball team.”
— Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran writing on his “Pushback”
blog on ABCNews.com on April 12.
OK, Terry, so if one of your kids, who will
undoubtedly attend an “elite” institution, is falsely accused of a crime and
the entire liberal media and academia sides with the accuser solely because
she’s a minority, you’ll feed him to the lions, right?
Or will you spend your millions to
ensure your kid’s acquittal so that he can go on with his privileged life?
Seriously, the inability of some people to step outside
their illogical little liberal worlds is mind-boggling!
“As part of our ongoing series of reports on the
environment, ‘America Goes Green,’ we take on the question that can make
otherwise competent adults quake with fear. We’ve all been there. You come to
the end of the checkout line and then comes that question: ‘Paper or plastic?’
For that one brief moment, we grocery buyers are made to feel like the fate of
the planet hinges on our decision.”
— NBC’s Brian Williams on the May 7 Nightly News.
How would you know, Brian? When was the last time you did your
own food shopping?
You know why I’m quaking with fear? Because somewhere
someone is still watching this ridiculous excuse for a news show.
CNN’s Larry King: “Are you sorry about that [60 Minutes National
Guard story] now?”
Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather: “No.”
King: “You think the report was correct?”
Rather: “Yes. And I think most people know by now that it
was correct.”
— Exchange on CNN’s Larry King Live, September 20.
Well, most people at the New York Times building, on the
Upper West Side, and in Hollywood. But you forgot about the rest of the
country.
But stay the course, Dan. Stay the course.
Good Morning Morons Award
“So I’m running in the park on Saturday, in shorts, thinking
this [warm weather] is great, but are we all gonna die? You know? I can’t, I
can’t figure this out.”
— Co-host Meredith Vieira talking about global warming on
NBC’s Today, January 8.
Lemme ‘splain it to you, Meredith: Look up at the sky. See
that bright yellow ball? It’s called the Sun. Heat comes out of that. Figured it out now?
Seriously, what a waste of space this woman is.
Co-host Diane Sawyer: “A number of people have already said,
‘Is there anything surprising, personal about [Iranian] President [Mahmoud]
Ahmadinejad that we didn’t know?’ Well, it turns out, someone told me he cries
a lot. That he is dramatically sentimental and sympathetic if someone comes up
and expresses a personal plight. So I just asked him, are you often in tears?”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Yes, that’s true. Not only for
Iranians, of course, they are very close to me and I love all Iranians. And
anywhere, when I see people suffering, I have the same reaction....Even when I
see on TV that, for example, some Americans, because of tornadoes or a
hurricane, they have lost their homes, I become sad.”
— ABC’s Good Morning America, February 13.
Oh, thank you, Diane! I was so wrong about A’jad! Heck with
his desire to nuke Israel into oblivion. I’ve so misjudged this sensitive guy!
Co-host Matt Lauer: “The book is called The World Without Us,
and it asks the question what would happen to planet Earth if human beings were
to suddenly disappear....And really it’s all about trying to figure out how
long it would take nature to reclaim what we’ve created.”
Co-host Meredith Vieira: “The mess.”
Lauer: “How long it would take nature to fix the mess we’ve
made?...Would the Earth miss us at all? How long would it take for it to fix
the problems we created?”
— NBC’s Today, September 4.
Gee, I dunno, Matt. But whatever length of time that might
be, that number would decrease significantly once you and Meredith
grab hands and jump off a roof together. (Sorry for the outbreak of hostility, but I so do not have the patience anymore for these losers!)
Media Hero Award
“He was not what I expected. He was very dignified. He was
warm, friendly. He likes the U.S. It’s George Bush that he doesn’t like. He
also was very personal. He talked about how hard his life was, that he wished
he could be in love but you can’t be when you are heading a country.”
— ABC’s Barbara Walters recounting her interview with
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, March 16 Nightline.
Yeah, kind of like Castro, right Babs? Oh wait, you love Castro too …
Tin Foil Hat Award for Crazy Conspiracy Theories
Co-host Joy Behar: “Is there such a thing as a man-made
stroke? In other words, did someone do this to [Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)]?...”
Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck: “Why is everything coming from
the liberal perspective a conspiracy?...”
Behar: “I know what this [Republican] Party is capable of.”
—ABC’s The View, December 14, 2006.
No comment necessary.
“… [F]rom the mindbending idea that four guys dressed as
pizza delivery men were going to outgun all the soldiers at Fort Dix, to the
not-too-thought-out plan to blow up JFK Airport by lighting a match 40 miles
away....The so-called plot happens to be revealed the day before the second
Democratic presidential debate and as the scandal continues to unfold over the
firings of U.S. attorneys and their replacements by political hacks. The
so-called plot is announced by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for Brooklyn,
New York, and by the police chief of New York City, the father of a
correspondent for Fox News Channel.”
— MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on his Countdown program June 4,
outlining his claimed “Nexus of Politics and Terror,” arguing the Bush
administration manipulates news about terror plots for political advantage.
So-called analysis by a so-called human being.
“Also in Washington
today, a lot of excitement on Capitol Hill. A movie star showed up to testify
before Congress — a movie star named Al Gore.”
— Katie Couric on the March 21 CBS Evening News.
Oh, Gawd. Gimme a freakin’ break.
“More than 46 million Americans have no health insurance. So
when it comes to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and good health,
all men are not created equal.”
— Katie Couric introducing a story about a doctor who cares
for poor patients, March 12 CBS Evening News.
“Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and good health?”
Oh, I get it! There must be an alternate, left-wing version of the Constitution
that all these media hacks have. You know, one that’s missing the Second Amendment but includes the right to abort a fetus.
Barbra Streisand Political IQ Award for Celebrity Vapidity
“I just want to say something: 655,000 Iraqi civilians are
dead. Who are the terrorists?...If you were in Iraq, and the other country, the
United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed
655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?”
— Co-host Rosie O’Donnell on ABC’s The View, May 17.
But don’t you dare question her patriotism.
“Over the past six years we’ve had to add to the American
picture: rendition, illegal wiretapping, voter suppression, no habeas corpus,
the neglect of our great city New Orleans and the people, an attack on the
Constitution and the loss of our best young men and women in a tragic war. And
this is a song about things that shouldn’t happen here, happening here. And so
right now we plan to do something about it — we plan to sing about it.”
— Bruce Springsteen introducing his song “Living in the
Future” before a live concert on NBC’s Today, September 28.
Nice quote. Now I have two reasons to give when people ask
me why I can’t stand Bruce Springsteen. (The first reason: He sucks.)
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for people to really
wake up and understand that [the Bush administration] are liars and they
are murderers. I’m sorry....After the Katrina incident, after the incompetence
that took place there, after the incompetence and the lying about this war.
[Applause] I don’t understand it.”
— ABC’s Joy Behar on The View, February 28.
Isn’t it amazing how libs to tie every Hurricane Katrina story to
Iraq, and every Iraq story to Hurricane Katrina? They must have all had a seminar.
“I don’t believe that any gun should be in the hand of a
thinking, feeling, breathing human being. Americans are by nature filled with
rage-slash-fear. And guns are a huge part of our culture. I know I’m crazy
because I’m only supposed to say that in Europe. But violence corrupts absolutely.”
— Actress Jodie Foster in an interview with Entertainment
Weekly to promote her new movie, The Brave One, September 7 issue.
That’s “absolute power corrups
absolutely,” you stupid freaking boob. Just shut up and stick to your
pre-written scripts, OK? If Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear, it’s being caused by dopes like you.
She must have that left-wing version of the Constitution that Katie Couric was using. It’s missing the Second Amendment. (But I’ll bet anyone what Ms. Foster’s bodyguards pack heat.)
Drive By Media Award for Shooting at the Competition
“A top Democrat is coming out guns blazing against
conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. It’s an angry new shot in the
dispute over the war in Iraq and Limbaugh’s charge that some veterans who are
criticizing the war are, in his words, quote, ‘phony soldiers.’”
— CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room, October 1.
Apparently, Wolf didn’t learn in school that a journalist’s
role is to report the truth, not perpetuate Democrat lies about conservatives. As the MRC
correctly explains: “In fact, Limbaugh was talking about leftist anti-war
groups touting tales of U.S. atrocities from Jesse Macbeth, a soldier who
flunked out of basic training and who is going to prison for making it all up.”
Guess that makes Wolf a phony journalist.
Not Biased Enough Award
“As we saw in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the plantation
mentality that governs Washington turned the press corps into sitting ducks for
the war party, for government, and neoconservative propaganda and
manipulation....What’s happened is not indifference or laziness or
incompetence, but the fact that most journalists on the plantation have so
internalized conventional wisdom that they simply accept that the system is working
as it should. I’m doing a documentary this spring called Buying the War, and I
can’t tell you again how many reporters have told me that it just never
occurred to them that high officials would manipulate intelligence in order to
go to war. Hello?”
— PBS’s Bill Moyers, in a January 12 speech to a conference
on “media reform” aired four days later on the left-wing Pacifica network’s Democracy
Now.
First of all, plantation mentality? What the frick does
that mean?
Second, that high officials in the Bush administration have
manipulated intelligence is and has been the conventional wisdom of the MSM for the past six years. What do you mean it never occurred to them???
“For all the howling on the right, it’s difficult to argue
that mainstream news organizations operate with anything approaching Fox’s
partisan and ideological agenda.”
— Longtime Los Angeles Times political reporter Ron
Brownstein in a March 16 column.
From a non-partisan and non-ideological column written by a
non-partisan and non-ideological reporter in the non-partisan and
non-ideological L.A. Times. Howl!!!
“As violence falls in Iraq, cemetery workers feel the pinch”
— Headline over an October 16 story by McClatchy News
Service reporters Jay Price and Qasim Zein.
Yup.
“Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch
has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al
Qaeda — worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was.”
— MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann in an interview with Playboy
magazine, October issue.
For all you Olbermann fans, let’s look at this more closely:
Murdoch/FNC = worse than Al Qaeda.
Murdoch/FNC = as dangerous as the KKK.
Can anyone explain to me why this absolute freaking moron has
his own show?
And last, but not least, my favorite:“You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken
off the jury. And the judge said to me, ‘Can, you know, can you tell the truth
and be fair?’ And I said, ‘That’s what journalists do.’ And everybody in the
courtroom laughed. It was the most hurtful moment I think I’ve ever had.”
— Co-host Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Good Morning America, July
12.
Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha!
Ooh, my sides hurt … Thanks, Diane. I needed that.
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