LDV Awards 2008: Political Journalist/Broadcaster and Political Programme of the Year

Many thanks to the 200+ LDV readers who took part in our end-of-year awards, which ran between 23rd and 28th December. Voting was conducted via Liberty Research using the alternative vote method of ranking the nominees for each of the eight categories. In the last two days, we have revealed the winners of Lib Dem Politician of the Year, and By-election Performance of the Year; and Lib Dem Campaigner of the Year, and Most Desperate Press Release of the Year. Today, we turn our attention to two non-Lib Dem categories:

Political Broadcaster / Journalist of the Year

17% – Andrew Rawnsley (The Guardian);
29% – Evan Davis (The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4);
27% – Keith Olbermann (MSNBC);
5% – Nicky Campbell & Shelagh Fogarty (BBC Radio 5 Live);
14% – Robert Peston (BBC);
8% – Simon Mayo (BBC Radio 5 Live).

Eventually, after excluding Nicky & Shelagh, Simon, Robert and Andrew, it came to a run-off between…

62.5% – Evan Davis (The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4);
37.5% – Keith Olbermann (MSNBC).

Congratulations to Evan – I suspect this story may have given him a helping hand among LDV readers.

Political Radio / TV Programme of the Year

12% – Any Questions? (BBC Radio 4);
14% – Newsnight (BBC2);
17% – Saturday Night Live,for Tina Fey’s impressions of Sarah Palin (NBC);
6% – The Daily Politics (BBC2);
47% – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central);
4% – This Week (BBC1).

After the elimination of This Week and The Daily Politics (LDV readers are not fans of Andrew Neill, it seems), and redistribution of their votes, the final result was:

13% – Any Questions? (BBC Radio 4);
18% – Newsnight (BBC2);
20% – Saturday Night Live,for Tina Fey’s impressions of Sarah Palin (NBC);
51% – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central).

A pretty definitive win, then, for Jon Stewart’s acerbic, irony-laden Daily Show. In honour of which, can I take this opportunity to replay the most famous Stewart clip, when he takes on the horrendously smug Crossfire (CNN) and totally destroys its co-hosts, Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. Really quite scinitillating stuff.