As part of its 2005 “DisHonors Awards” program on April 21, the Media Research Center (MRC) honored the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth with the “Conservative of the Year” award for their “courageous role in the 2004 presidential campaign.” MRC president L. Brent Bozell III presented the award to Swift Boat Veterans co-founder John O'Neill, who accepted it on behalf of the group.

Had Media Matters for America been invited to the awards ceremony, we might have learned exactly what the group did during the campaign to merit the term “courageous.” For our part, Media Matters documented the group's numerous (here, here , and here) smears and falsehoods against John Kerry in the form of ads, print, and TV and radio appearances. Editorials across the country denounced the ads run by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called on President Bush to condemn the ads.

The judges for this year's MRC “DisHonors Awards,” which mocked “the most outrageously biased liberal reporters of 2004,” included Ann Coulter, John Fund, Lucianne Goldberg, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Robert Novak, Kate O'Beirne, Cal Thomas, and William F. Buckley.