The P.U.-Litzer Prizes for 2000

As usual, the competition for P.U.-litzers has been fierce.

For the ninth year in a row, I have worked with Jeff Cohen of the media watch group FAIR to sift through the many entries for the annual award that pays tribute to this nation's stinkiest media performances.

And now, the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2000:

* SWALLOW THE MONEY PRIZE -- Barbara Walters and ABC

The panel on "The View" program broke into a chorus of the "M'm M'm good" jingle when Walters asked, "Didn't we grow up eating Campbell's soup?" It was all according to plan. In November, blurring the line between programming and advertising, parts of eight episodes of ABC's daytime chat show became paid infomercials for Campbell's. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Walters and her panel agreed to "try to weave a soup message into their regular on-air banter." An ABC News executive defended the hucksterism of Walters, a news personality, by saying that "The View" is an entertainment show and that "people wear many hats."

* COOL YOUR JETS AWARD -- New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post

It was a quiet media deal: The three most influential newspapers in the country would get the first crack at reporting on plans to merge United Airlines and US Airways -- on condition that the papers agreed not to call any other sources for comment. The deal unraveled only because the website of a British newspaper, the Financial Times, broke the story first, negating the agreement. Washington Post financial editor Jill Dutt defended the agreement to allow the subjects of a news story to dictate who the papers could talk to. "It does a better job for readers to have the story on the first day than not to have the story," she said.

* NO NEED TO DEBATE PRIZE -- ABC's "Nightline"

On the eve of the May vote in Congress granting China permanent normal trade relations (PNTR), "Nightline" presented a panel composed of a former House speaker, a former senator and a former ambassador to China -- all strong supporters of PNTR. In response to complaints that the panel was one-sided, a senior producer wrote that "we never intended to have a debate" because "by the time that we went on the air, the vote was really not in doubt." The last time the program had debated China's trade status was 1991. In the intervening years, "Nightline" found time for a total of 40 episodes on O.J. Simpson, Elian Gonzalez, and the conflict involving skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.

* SEPARATE BUT EQUAL PRIZE -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox

Decades ago, Martin Luther King Jr. commented that the most segregated hour in America came on Sunday morning, in the nation's churches. This year, on the Sunday morning chat shows, a similar tradition seemed firmly entrenched. On NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC's "This Week," CBS's "Face the Nation" and "Fox News Sunday," the guest list was approximately 97 percent white, according to an NAACP survey released in July.

* BREEZING THROUGH HISTORY AWARD -- NPR's Liane Hansen

On NPR's "Weekend Edition," in mid-December, host Hansen was effusive about "Gone With the Wind," the 1939 movie that exudes nostalgic warmth for Southern slave owners. She told listeners: "The film remains immensely popular to this day, and I think it's safe to say it's become part of the basic DNA of this country, if not the world."

* GOING FOR THE GOLD -- NBC NEWS

News executives indignantly deny that the economic interests of corporate owners influence their coverage. But in 2000 (as in previous years) journalists at the TV network airing the Olympics found the games to be much more newsworthy. NBC -- which had broadcasting rights to the summer Olympics -- aired 83 minutes of "news" about the Olympics on its weekday nightly newscasts. The contrast was sharp at rival networks: only 16 minutes on ABC and five minutes on CBS.