Friday, March 30, 2007

Dinner with MRC   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Congratulations to the Media Research Center, which celebrated its 20th anniversary Thursday night in Washington.

To be honest, I always hesitate a little to attend the dinner. I know there will be cringe-worthy moments. It's easy for liberal media dishonor awards to get a little carried away — the orginal material often being as ridiculous as it is. And so there were – who knew how many times Al Gore weight jokes would get a laugh (many)? Such things bum me out a bit because MRC and conservatives are better than that.

My heart went out to Mary Matalin at one point in the program. She, who was a fill-in, got stuck on stage as a parody of an Osama bin Laden tape played —“Death to MRC.” Here, a woman who was working at the White House on 9/11, had to be a good sport about this – Osama bin Laden making CNN jokes. Give me more Karl Rove rapping instead — I just don’t want to be joking about Osama bin Laden. There’s nothing about Osama bin Laden that’s funny. Sorry.

A few bad decisions aside though, I am fond of the guys and gals at MRC. The Media Research Center is an important resource – that stuff that shows up on YouTube now at the drop of a hat? That’s stuff only MRC had not so long ago. And no one documents – and has the patience for watching the news like they do … to this day.

Some of the news of the night:

Michael Steele, with a pretty imposing presence for a guy who lost, promised he’s going to run again. He said that November “wasn’t about us” – about a rejection of conservative values. It was about “trust, honor, and commitment.” He said, “when you walk away from that, America responds.” America responded.

G. Gordon Liddy’s laugh line, thanking Neal Boortz for his intro: “For years, my standard introduction was, ‘may the defendant please rise.”

If America’s senior citizens only knew: Pat Sajak’s real calling in life may have been to be a stand-up comedian.

But the laughs he got wasn’t what impressed me. The impressive thing about Sajak? He sees things clearly. Accepting a “dishonor” award for Rosie O’Donnell for equating radical Christians with radical Muslim terrorists, he quipped, “Last night I was at church – it was, you know, our Wednesday night beheadings.” It's Bernard Lewis in a game-show host.

If it hadn’t been for Rush Limbaugh, Sajak might have been the highlight of the night.

And about Rush Limbaugh. The man is a national treasure. And, actually, an international treasure, considering the work he does to explain the world, day after day, in his clear and honest and entertaining way. Rush Limbaugh is funny, confident, conservative.

At the MRC dinner he was given an award that was an honor for me to be in the audience for. That Rush Limbaugh was given the William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence is appropriate and speaks to why it is so important that we have MRC. Who else would realize a) we need to have an award in Bill Buckley’s honor to encourage and celebrate alternative media excellence; b) we need to give it to Rush Limbaugh?

God bless MRC. God bless WFB. God bless Rush.

03/30 02:36 AMShare