The liberal press likes to scold what it sees as lapses in civil rhetoric, usually from conservatives who fail to properly respect the icons of the Left. But as documented by the MRC's Best Notable Quotables of 2010, the media elite itself lurched into some pretty uncivil rhetoric this year — especially when the targets were Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party and other conservatives.

PBS's Tavis Smiley won MRC's "Poison Tea Pot Award for Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble" (and was runner-up for "Quote of the Year") for arguing with author Ayaan Hirsi Ali that everyday Christians and the Tea Party were just as dangerous as radical Muslims.

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NPR's weekday afternoon talk show Talk of the Nation addressed the year 2010 in terms of how it went for Muslims, gays, blacks, and on Thursday, "The Year for White Americans." All four segments were interviews with guests on the left. While the minorities received a predictable NPR sympathy, the triumph of Tea Party candidates clearly suggested to NPR there's something wrong in white America. Host Neal Conan welcomed liberal historian Douglas Brinkley to suggest there's just too many whites who are racially anxious with a black president, that white people feel "perhaps we are losing something in America, the, you know, white male ascendancy. If you look at even a children's breakfast mat, you'll see it's all white presidents. And now, suddenly, there's Barack Obama."

The segment's first caller jumped in: " I disagree with the gentleman's premise. You know, I'm a white man. I'm an educated white man. And I have to tell you, I resent being called a racist because I don't necessarily support the programs of, you know, President Obama." NPR's Conan defended the liberal guest, claiming Brinkley "said that there's a racial aspect to it. He did not say that anybody who disagrees with Barack Obama is, per se, a racist." The caller refused to budge and said " I heard everything he said and I resent his position because I don't think it's true."

Brinkley did not say all Obama opponents were racist, but he clearly described white opposition to Obama with the vaguest of generality as anxious about white dominance, and even hailed literary archetypes of uptight white Protestants as evidence:

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The folks at NewsBusters would like to wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

National Public Radio spent the last week of 2010 feeling the pain of minorities in America on their afternoon chat show Talk of the Nation. On Monday, NPR host Neal Conan discussed the mistreatment of Muslims with Moustafa Bayoumi of the City University of New York, author of How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America. When Conan briefly diverted from victimization of Muslim Americans to those radical Islamists "alleged to have been involved" in bombing plots, it was all the fault of the U.S. wars in Muslim countries:

CONAN: We have also, this year, seen more arrests of American Muslims who are alleged to have been involved in plans to target American – army bases, to recruitment centers, subways, Times Square?

Prof. BAYOUMI: Yeah. In fact, I think that's right. And I think that this is a problem. And I think it's a problem that has something to do also with the longevity of these wars. It seems to me that the longer that these wars go on the more opportunities there's going to be for this kind of attributive, you know, act. And that's why it's more important than ever to find some kind of conclusion to these wars.

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 On Friday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Sharyl Attkisson filed a report previewing how new health care reform provisions are expected to effect seniors. After beginning her piece by predicting that "a lot of them will probably like" the first changes that take effect, she recounted a number of benefits that will be offered to Medicare recipients at a substantially lower cost, and featured a soundbite of a reform advocate who claimed that the new benefits would actually lead to lower costs.

Attkisson then give attention to more pessimistic predictions that seniors will have to wait longer time for medical care because some doctors will stop accepting Medicare patients, but, as she concluded her report, she dismissed critics by reiterating the claims of Obamacare supporters that the changes "are quite popular and will be hard for anyone to take away." Attkisson:

Republicans have promised to do what they can to stop or roll back health care reform, but advocates say most of these first provisions taking effect are quite popular and will be hard for anyone to take away.

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Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas was upset on Thursday that Gary Bauer would claim that Muslims would fare much worse if they were treated like Christians are in Ameica. He shot back: "wait, what if Christians were treated like Muslims?"

Christians would be racially profiled at public places and transportation hubs. Christians wouldn't be allowed to build churches wherever they pleased. Christians wouldn't be allowed to wear their traditional garb without mocking and angry looks. Christians wouldn't be allowed to say the word "Jesus" without triggering alarm bells at the NSA. Christians wouldn't be allowed to go to church without having their property vandalized, and even being physically attacked. Christians would be the villain in every action thriller. Christians wouldn't be able to run for office without having bigots accuse them of being in league with terrorists.

The weirdest claim is that "Christians would be the villain in every action thriller." Every? How many action thrillers since 9/11 have had Muslim villains? Some film versions of books with Muslim villains were scrubbed clean when they became movies.

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