MediaBloodhound's 2007 Fact or Fiction Challenge

The following are quotes and headlines culled from this past year at MediaBloodhound (keep in mind some were said/written prior to '07 but were noted here during the year). Some are real (fact) and some are from satirical articles (fiction) posted under "The Wounded-Courier." See if you can distinguish between the two. Take the 2007 Fact or Fiction Challenge:

1) "The real danger here for Democrats is looking overly beholden to the rule of law." - NBC's Tim Russert

2) “It was a bloodbath. I haven’t seen anything like it since Chevy Chase’s talk show.” - Anonymous reporter on Rich Little's White House Correspondents Dinner performance

3) "As I sit across from Barack Obama in his Senate office, I feel like Ingrid Bergman in 'The Bells of St. Mary’s,' when she plays a nun who teaches a schoolboy who’s being bullied how to box." - NY Times  columnist Maureen Dowd on Barack Obama

4) "What exactly was it that Jose Padilla was convicted of doing today?" - PBS Newshour anchor Jim Lehrer

5) Headline: "Humans Caught 'Crabs' from Gorillas"

6) “Though I may differ in substance with the strategic and epistemological underpinnings driving President Bush’s new direction in Iraq, faced as he is with the febrile chorus of hand-wringing naysayers who have fashioned no plan of their own, I must say I admire the president’s tenacious Hobbesian pluck.” - ABC's George Will

7) "The media unleashed a full-scale coverage orgy, with CNN at one point going 90 minutes without a commercial, making the death of Anna Nicole Smith a more significant news event than a State of the Union address and slightly less than 9/11." - Jon Stewart 

8) “Some will say Tom Vilsack never had a chance. But Tom Vilsack was the first to drop out of this race. Number one. And no one can ever take that milestone away from him.” - Hillary Clinton

9) "Assholes." - Kurt Vonnegut's response to the question: "What targets would you consider fair game for a satirist today?"

10) "You can’t say, ‘She was slurring her words with Entertainment Tonight a week ago; that’s why she died.’ I will say I saw the video where she was getting her picture taken with Hulk Hogan and Don King. She didn’t look ill and she doesn’t look like someone who suffered from a long-lasting illness.” - CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Anna Nicole Smith

11) "Beyond his smooth-jazz façade, the reassuring baritone and that ensorcelling smile, the 45-year-old had moments of looking conflicted." - NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd on Barack Obama

12) Headline: "Woman Faces Jail in Toilet Paper Theft"

13) "The law’s no barrier to this patriot. And I have every confidence the attorney general will once again rise to the occasion.” - George W. Bush on Alberto Gonzales

14) "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention." - Molly Ivins

15) Headline: "Golfer, 76, Saves Drowning Dog, Plays 18 Holes"

16) "Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me." - Time magazine columnist Joe Klein on President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" flight suit moment

17) "Nobody wants to see this guy reading bedtime stories to your kids, but he’s got that requisite loony don’t-screw-with-me quality that makes every American a little weak in the knees." - MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Vice President Dick Cheney 

18) "Volume II of a lengthy Washington saga that captured the media's attention - and pretty much no one else’s - is over.” - CBS journalist Hillary Profita on coverage of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's verdict

19) “No one has made the case for the necessity of U.S. soldiers to stay in Iraq better than has Mr. al-Zawahiri." - National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley

20) "The people of Iraq are living in a Marquis de Sade version of Groundhog Day. " - Counter-terrorism expert Larry Johnson

21) Headline: "Edwards' Hair Takes Over in Campaign Shakeup"

22) "I think it is Emersonian even, or Fitzgerald." - MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Ann Coulter's book Godless: The Church of Liberalism

23) Headline: "Hillary Clinton's Tentative Dip Into New Neckline Territory"

24) "When you look at the calculation that goes into everything that Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil, OK?" - CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood on Hillary Clinton's cleavage

25) "And his favorite actress is Glenn Close, who had to dub Andie MacDowell’s lines in her first big part, 'Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan,' because her Southern accent was so thick." - NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd on John Edwards

26) Headline: "Democrats Sign Resolution for Presidential 'Timeout'"

27) Headline: "Lightning Shreds Pants on Man Mowing Lawn"

28) "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist." NY Times columnist Tom Friedman

29) “When I referred to Rudy Giuliani’s derogatory statement the other day about our brave 9/11 first responders as evidence he’s taken a break from reality,” said Edwards, “I couldn’t have known the depths of Mr. Giuliani’s delusional episodes until watching him attack a candidate who doesn't exist. This man is right out of Dr. Strangelove. How long before we’ll hear Rudy Giuliani talking about how we must defend ourselves from a ‘conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.’” - John Edwards

30) "In a sense, the media were victims of their own professionalism. Because there was little criticism of the war from prominent Democrats and foreign policy analysts, journalistic rules meant we shouldn't create a debate on our own." - Washington Post columnist David Ignatius

ANSWERS:

1) fiction; 2) fiction; 3) fact; 4) fact; 5) fact; 6) fiction; 7) fact; 8) fiction; 9) fact; 10) fact; 11) fact; 12) fact; 13) fiction; 14) fact; 15) fact; 16) fact; 17) fiction; 18) fact; 19) fiction; 20) fact; 21) fiction; 22) fact; 23) fact; 24) fact; 25) fact; 26) fiction; 27) fact; 28) fact; 29) fiction; 30) fact

So how did you fare? Get all thirty correct and you'll receive a year supply of free Tom Friedman "Suck On This!" pacifiers and a copy of Maureen Dowd's new book All the Snark That's Fit to Shiv: How I Destroyed Al Gore and Opened the Floodgates of Hell. (Yes, fiction. Sort of.)

Comments

[Brad Jacobson]

MediaBloodhound's 2007 Fact or Fiction Challenge

[Kim Carnes]

Pretty scary how many of the "fictions" seemed like they could easily have been "facts."

[Avedon]

90% of them seemed like things I'd read/heard in the news.

I think I would have formatted this differently, though - this way takes too much scrolling around.

[Adnan]

> So how did you fair?

Did you mean "fare"?

[Brad Jacobson]

I did. Typo. Fixed - thanks, Adnan.

[Michael Free]

We need sanity and a return to liberty. VOTE RON PAUL!!!

[Brad Jacobson]

Good suggestion, Avedon. Collapsed the answers into one paragraph. I think my brain is running on holiday speed.

[jharp]

I thought it was a trick and they were all true.

[cronopio]

I got 8 out of 30 wrong, which I think is a lot better than a random guess (though I'm not a statistician). Note also that I don't follow this site.
Maybe the problem isn't that fact resembles fiction, but that people don't much bother trying to tell them apart anymore.

["Fair and Balanced" Dave]

I missed #22. I really didn't believe Tweety was THAT delusional. I was wrong.

[chervilant]

One can only imagine George Will sitting around thinking, "just what can I say that will sound erudite and get quoted?" Never mind that his words have no basis in reality...

[Gabriel Mares]

In regards Coulter's book, the better quote was (I don't remember who) saying that she was a modern day Mark Twain, and that the book was positively Swiftian.
As for George Will, there is still no parody of him that can touch his Baseball "gameshow" from SNL with Dana Carvey as Will, Jon Lovitz as Tommy Lasorda, and someone playing Mike Schmidt.
I honestly think the NY Times editors don't read Dowd, otherwise how could they print that smut? I mean, thinking back to her coverage of Gore, I have to say it seems like she was projecting.
But thank you for this list - reminds us of the absurdity we put up with every day.

[vizal]

are you absolutely certain that numbers 13 and 29 are fiction. i'm just saying.