Last week, the Media Research Center announced the winners and top runners-up for “Best Notable Quotables of 2014,” and NewsBusters is reviewing the list as a way to reflect on the worst media bias of the year.
Today’s category: the Obama’s Orderlies Award for Championing ObamaCare. Despite the fiasco surrounding its launch in 2013, huge premiums and deductibles, and video showing one of the key architects of the law, Jonathan Gruber, boasting about the duplicitous tactics liberals used to pass it in the first place, the liberal media continued to sing the praises of ObamaCare in 2014.
Winning this award was CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, who on February 4 tried to explain away a CBO report showing that ObamaCare would mean a loss of two million jobs:
“We got a report today about ObamaCare that was both surprising and widely misunderstood. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said about two million Americans are likely to pass up full-time jobs because of the President’s health insurance program. Those aren’t necessarily jobs being lost. They’re also workers choosing to work less.”
Second place went to MSNBC host Ed Schultz, who on December 4, 2013, audaciously told viewers that God Himself would endorse ObamaCare:
“I’ll tell you what I think God thinks of the Affordable Care Act — it’s a big ‘amen.’”
Third place in this category was taken by HBO Real Time host Bill Maher, who on July 25 placed ObamaCare ahead of the moon landing in terms of great American achievements:
“I always hear that the moon landing was the last great thing that America did. I think the last great thing America did was giving health care to 30 million people. I find that to be so much more of a significant achievement than landing on the moon.”
Lastly, back on March 20, daytime host Ellen DeGeneres flattered President Obama as he appeared on her show to promote the health care law:
“It’s doing very, very well....You’ve got five million people signed up so far. [applause] An enormous number of people have signed up, so it’s successful....I think everyone’s very grateful that you did this. And I think it is important for people to sign up. It’s just better to be covered. You just never know.”
Tomorrow, the Ku Klux Con Job Award for Smearing Conservatives with Phony Racism Charges. Check out the full awards issue, with 14 categories and Quote of the Year, at www.MRC.org.
