It’s long been obvious that the Republicans had a special gift for “I know you are but what am I” politics. (Some people refer to this as “projection” in which someone applies their own faults and flaws onto another.) One example of this is how they routinely threaten to shut down the government unless the Democrats acquiesce to their outrageous demands by insisting that it’s the Democrats who are shutting down the government by failing to acquiesce to their outrageous demands. It’s a very common right-wing tactic designed to twist liberals into pretzels trying to explain why that makes no sense.

But perhaps the single greatest achievement of this sort of projection is their insistence that the media is liberal. (This goes hand in hand with another very successful right-wing tactic called “playing the refs” in which they mau-mau the press by accusing them of being tools of the left.) This tactic has its roots in the 1960s and ’70s when the far right exploited cracks in the so-called liberal consensus, aided and abetted by establishment opinion writers who found themselves discomfited by the cultural changes of the era.

Nobody has been more successful at this game than L. Brent Bozell, the head of the Media Research Center, which has spent decades chronicling the alleged biases of the liberal media. Each year the MRC gives out a series of awards to the liberal media in which they clutch their pearls over all the liberal hate they are forced to endure. You see, they are deeply concerned about the incivility and rudeness of liberal America so they get together each year to give what they call the “Dishonor awards” to reporters, commentators and citizens whom they believe are polluting the discourse.

Judged to be 2014s most horrifying leftist quote, which had the likes of delicate flowers such as Erick Erickson and Neal Boortz calling for the fainting couch, was this one from CNN’s Carol Costello:

“Okay. I’m just going to come right out and say it: This is quite possibly the best minute and a half of audio we’ve ever come across — well, come across in a long time anyway. A massive brawl in Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly involving Sarah Palin’s kids and her husband. It was sparked after someone pushed one of her daughters at a party….And now police have released audio of that interview. It does include some rather colorful language from Bristol. Here now is Bristol’s recollection of how that night unfolded. So sit back and enjoy.” — CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello on Oct. 22, introducing audio of Bristol Palin describing how a man shoved her, dragged her on the ground and repeatedly cursed at her.