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Most outrageous statements of
2005
Media Matters
December 23, 2005
Here are the most outrageous statements Media Matters for America has
documented this year. From attacks on women, Muslims, and African-Americans to
a call for the assassination of a foreign leader to an open invitation for Al
Qaeda to "blow up" San Francisco to a claim that gay marriage would lead to
unions between "a man and his donkey," these statements acutely represent the
extreme conservative speech we found in the news media in 2005. (We tried to
limit the comments to a Top 10 list, but it was simply impossible.)
- Former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou
could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go
down." [Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America, 9/28/05]
- Pat Robertson: "If [Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez] thinks we're trying
to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."
[Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, 8/22/05]
- Bill O'Reilly to San Francisco: "[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you
up, we're not going to do anything about it. ... You want to blow up the Coit
Tower? Go ahead." [Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly,
12/8/05]
- Bill O'Reilly, agreeing with caller that illegal immigrants are "biological
weapon[s]": "I think you could probably make an absolutely airtight case that
more than 3,000 Americans have been either killed or injured, based upon the 11
million illegals who are here." [Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill
O'Reilly, 4/15/05]
- Rush Limbaugh: "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women
easier access to the mainstream of society." [The Rush Limbaugh Show,
8/12/05]
- Rush Limbaugh on the kidnapping of peace activists in Iraq: "I'm telling
you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this." [The Rush Limbaugh Show,
11/29/05]
- Ann Coulter: Bill Clinton "was a very good rapist"; "I'm getting a little
fed up with hearing about, oh, civilian casualties"; "I think we ought to nuke
North Korea right now just to give the rest of the world a warning." [New York
Observer, 1/10/05]
- Ann Coulter: "Isn't it great to see Muslims celebrating something other
than the slaughter of Americans?" [Syndicated column, 2/3/05]
- Radio host Glenn Beck: "[Y]ou know it took me about a year to start hating
the 9-11 victims' families? Took me about a year." [Premiere Radio Networks'
The Glenn Beck Program, 9/9/05]
- Tucker Carlson: "Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin
you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice,
but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada." [MSNBC's The Situation with
Tucker Carlson, 12/15/05]
- American Family Association president Tim Wildmon: Liberals "don't have the
kind of family responsibilities most people have, and certainly not church
responsibilities." [American Family Radio's Today's Issues, 5/11/05]
- David Horowitz on Cindy Sheehan: "It's very hard to have respect for a
woman who exploits the death of her own son and doesn't respect her own son's
life. ... She portrays him as an idiot." [MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast,
8/16/05]
- Radio host Neal Boortz on the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams:
"[T]here will be riots in South Central Los Angeles and elsewhere. ... The
rioting, of course, will lead to wide scale looting. There are a lot of
aspiring rappers and NBA superstars who could really use a nice flat-screen
television right now." [Boortz.com, 12/12/05]
- Pat Buchanan: "Our guys" in Iraq "have got every right to have good news
put into the media and get to the people of Iraq, even if it's got to be
planted or bought." [MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, 12/1/05]
- National Review editor Rich Lowry: Given EPA-mandated "small-flush"
toilets, "[h]ow is it possible to flush a Quran down the toilet?" [Young
America's Foundation speech, 8/5/05]
- Neal Boortz, suggesting that a victim of Hurricane Katrina housed in an
Atlanta hotel consider prostitution: "I dare say she could walk out of that
hotel and walk 100 yards in either direction on Fulton Industrial Boulevard
here in Atlanta and have a job. What's that? Well, no, no, no. ... Well, you
know what? [laughing] Now that you mention it ... [i]f that's the only way she
can take care of herself, it sure beats the hell out of sucking off the
taxpayers." [Cox Radio Syndication's The Neal Boortz Show, 10/24/05]
- Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson: Same-sex marriage
would lead to "marriage between daddies and little girls ... between a man and
his donkey." [Focus on the Family radio program, 10/6/05]
Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid: "Have you noticed that many news
organizations, in honor of former ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, have
embarked on a quit smoking campaign? So why don't our media launch a campaign
advising people to quit engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual
lifestyle? ... It appears that the homosexual lifestyle is as addictive as
smoking." [Accuracy in Media column, 12/14/05]
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