And the Slantie Awards Go to...

Because Emmet, the star of "The Lego Movie," lived much of his life in a world where everything is awesome, he didn't have to worry about being Heathered by the Media Research Center.
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Because Emmet, the star of "The Lego Movie," lived much of his life in a world where everything is awesome, he didn't have to worry about being Heathered by the Media Research Center.

In 2014, it seems that the ConWeb listened to the film's insanely catchy theme song and picked up only on the "insane" part. It was another year full of lies and craziness, and it's time to honor their work with ConWebWatch's 12th annual Slantie Awards.

Let's get to work, shall we?

* * *

The first award is for the most egregious example of bias in "news" coverage. And the Slantie goes to ... CNSNews.com for its biased unemployment reporting. The employment picture in the U.S. is improving, but you wouldn't know it by reading CNSNews.com, which cherry-picks the not-so-good numbers while burying or completely ignoring the good news. If it's a positive development for President Obama and the country, it won't see the light of day at CNS.

* * *

Our next award is the Power Behind the Throne Award, which we give to ... Tim Graham of the Media Research Center.

It was revealed last year that Graham for years has been ghostwriting the syndicated columns of his boss, Brent Bozell, as well as pretty much everything else that appears under Bozell's name. ConWebWatch had previously noted that the copyright for the 2013 book "Collusion," which listed both Bozell and Graham as authors, was only in Bozell's name despite promotions claiming that proceeds from the book went to the MRC.

Bozell and Graham didn't deny the situation -- actually, they rather cowardly refused to speak on the record about the situation at all (though MRC officials spoke anonymously to media blogger Jim Romenesko by trying to laughably spin the situation as being just like President Obama having speechwriters). Their syndicator added Graham's byline to Bozell's for the syndicated column, but the MRC has so far refused to officially give Graham retroactive credit for his ghostwriting work.

The exposure of this ruse shows that Graham provides the intellectual heft (such as it is) for the MRC, while Bozell is little more than a temperamental figurehead who's apparently good for little more than fundraising, pop-veined TV appearances on Fox News and trading off being the nephew of renowned conservative William F. Buckley.

* * *

The next award is the LoBaido Award for the silliest statement made by a writer for a conservative news Web site (named after Anthony LoBaido, who wrote a post-9/11 column for WorldNetDaily that was so unhinged -- he blamed the attacks on America's immorality since "all that is evil in the world can be found in New York" and, for good measure, called Hillary Clinton "openly Marxist, treasonous and abortion-mongering, occultic" -- that WND eventually pulled it from its site).

There were many nominees, but the Slantie goes to ... WND columnist Mychal Massie for writing this:


In the final analysis, blacks are worse off today, morally and spiritually, than at any other time in their history in America. Over the past 50 years, as other Americans have progressed, blacks as an aggregate have regressed in a horrific way.

It takes a special kind of blind spot to ignore little things like slavery and Jim Crow, as Massie does.

* * *

Our final award is the Slantie Award for Career Achievement in Conservative Bias. This goes to a reporter or commentator with a consistent record of biased and slanted reports that fly in the face of time-honored journalistic practice, the truth and/or common sense.

This year's honoree is ... WorldNetDaily's Bob Unruh. Unruh came to WND from the Associated Press in 2006, and he immediately forgot everything the AP taught him about journalism in order to do it the WND way -- that is, reporting only one side of the story (the side that aligns with WND's right-wing agenda) and misrepresenting the other side or ignoring it completely. Since then, Unruh has cared even less for time-honored journalistic principles like truth and fairness, preferring to be a stenographer and to promote falsehoods.

There are few right-wing journalists who have so debased and whored out any journalistic integrity they might have had in the service of propaganda than Unruh. Congratulations, or something.

(An extended version of this column, with all nominees, is posted at ConWebWatch.)

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