The 25 Dumbest Media Quotes of 2005

10) "Last night, we showed you the full force of a superpower government going to the rescue." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews, on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, with a completely straight face, Sept. 1, 2005

9) "And in all fairness to the Department of Homeland Security right now, I mean this is a brand new Department that was formed after 9/11. In many ways this is a 'learn by our mistakes and figure out what to do better' type of scenario." --CNN anchor Kyra Phillips, on the federal response to Hurricane Katrina

8) "You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold." --CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans' hurricane evacuees

7) "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" --White House "correspondent" Jeff Gannon, asking President Bush a question at a news conference. Gannon, a Republican shill known for lobbing softball questions, is also known as James Guckert, a paid escort for wealthy homosexuals and the creator of Web sites titled Hotmilitarystud.com, Workingboys.net, and Militaryescorts.com.

6) "I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." --Bill Bennett, former Education Secretary and host of Salem Radio Network's "Bill Bennett's Morning in America"

5) "I just wished Katrina had only hit the United Nations building, nothing else, just had flooded them out, and I wouldn't have rescued them." --FOX News' Bill O'Reilly

4) "If I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, 'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.'" --FOX News' Bill O'Reilly, on San Francisco voting to ban military recruiters from city schools

3) "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city. And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there." --Rev. Pat Robertson, after the city of Dover, Pennsylvania voted to boot the current school board, which instituted an intelligent design policy that led to a federal trial

2) "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." --Rev. Pat Robertson, calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

1) "Well, I think that's bullsh*t and I hate that. Just let it go." --CNN commentator Bob Novak, to James Carville, before storming off the set (Watch video clip)

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