Gala ‘dishonors’ liberals

It was a media roast that hit all the right, or rather left, targets: Hollywood, Hillary, Helen Thomas, Jane Fonda, Chris Matthews, Alec Baldwin and Geraldo.

What else but the “2006 DisHonors” awards dinner hosted by the Media Research Center, a watchdog group that monitors outrageous “liberal mainstream media.”

More than 900 guests wined and dined at the Grand Hyatt Thursday night, cheering as the nominees and award winners were announced. The jury — headed by such conservative notables as William F. Buckley Jr., Robert Novak, Rush Limbaugh, Steve Forbes, The Washington Times’ Tony Blankley, Ann Coulter and MRC founder L. Brent Bozell III, chose the most deserving candidates, — including Mr. Matthews, who got the Cindy Sheehan Media Hero Award, and Ted Turner, winner of the “Quote of the Year” prize for his defense of the communist North Korean regime.

The winners weren’t present, of course, and the crowd, emceed by syndicated columnist and “Fox News Watch” panelist Cal Thomas, poked good fun during the often-raucous evening, which has become an annual rite for many leading conservatives.

Stan Evans, founder of the National Journalism Center, brought down the house after accepting an award on behalf of Rosie O’Donnell (who ranted her displeasure with President Bush’s Iraq policy on a television interview with Geraldo Rivera last year).

Admitting he hadn’t watched television “since ‘Baywatch’ was taken off the air,” Mr. Evans noted one of the judge’s comments regarding Miss O’Donnell: “She lights up a room just by leaving it,” then confided to the crowd that Hollywood was preparing a film based on newly discovered information that “Columbus was gay. He was actually trying to find a shorter route to San Francisco.”

— Stephanie Mansfield