Fox News’ Chris Wallace Receives Award For ‘Unbiased Journalism’ From Clinton Alum Leon Panetta

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace received the Panetta Institute’s Jefferson-Lincoln Award for representing the importance of an “unbiased” media.

The award was handed out on Saturday at a black tie gala in Pebble Beach, California.

In announcing the nominees for the Jefferson-Lincoln Awards, The Panetta Institute for Public Policy singled out Wallace’ work as an example for other media to follow. 

“The honorees have been selected because of their proven dedication to the most important principles of our democracy,” an announcement states.

Wallace, they write, demonstrates “the importance of a transparent and unbiased press.”

POWER PLAYER: Our very own Chris Wallace was honored last night at the Panetta Institute with the Jefferson Lincoln award for his incredible contributions to journalism. pic.twitter.com/KsSKFYnDZu

— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) November 7, 2021

RELATED: Chris Wallace Blames The President For Debate Disaster, Trump Responds On Twitter

Chris Wallace Accepts Journalism Award

While Chris Wallace does occasionally investigate both sides of the political aisle with his journalism he is by no means unbiased.

Neither is Leon Panetta, the namesake of the institute, someone who can reasonably assert such a claim. 

Panetta, if you recall, is a life-long Democrat who served as Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff, and Barack Obama’s CIA Director and Defense Secretary.

The Fox News anchor was widely panned for his presidential debate performance last October due to his inability to get both Donald Trump and Joe Biden to stop arguing and talking over each.

Wallace blamed Trump for the disastrous performance, though evidence would suggest it was actually Biden who got things off to a rocky start.

Trump “bears the primary responsibility for what happened” he would later accuse.

.@AriFleischer is 100% correct about the debate. Here’s a video of the first three interruptions, and they’re all Biden interrupting Trump: pic.twitter.com/f9b1zyQQZM

— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) October 1, 2020

Wallace, also at that debate, showed remarkable ineptitude by presenting the Charlottesville hoax almost as fact when he questioned Biden about running for President (emphasis mine).

“Vice-President Biden, you say that President Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville three years ago, when he talked about very fine people on both sides, was what directly led you to launch this run for president,” he stated.

That italicized comment had already been widely debunked at the time.

Here is the video of Trump saying it: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally”

Joe Biden denies that this happened pic.twitter.com/AejOrmskoe

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 8, 2019

RELATED: Trust in Media Just Hit An All-Time Low

Wallace The Activist

Aside from the debates, Wallace has spent the better part of the past couple of years having difficulty wiping the drool from his chin when discussing Democrats.

Last summer, in discussing Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC, Wallace gleefully reported that the former First Lady “really flayed, sliced and diced Donald Trump.”

Here is how Fox News anchor Chris Wallace reacted to #MichelleObama speech last night #DNCConvention #DNC2020 pic.twitter.com/Ku3z5YCVWN

— Amaka Ubaka (@AmakaUbakaTV) August 18, 2020

The Fox News anchor let the hyperbole fly when analyzing President Biden’s inaugural speech as “the best inaugural address I ever heard.”

“I thought it was a great speech,” Wallace said. “I’ve been listening to these inaugural addresses since 1961 — John F. Kennedy, ‘ask not.’ I thought this was the best inaugural address I ever heard.”

Fox News’s Chris Wallace: “This was the best inaugural address I ever heard.” pic.twitter.com/W2tauGp5g5

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 20, 2021

Unbiased journalism, according to the Panetta Institute.

Just last month, the award-winning journalist Chris Wallace made the claim – with a straight face, mind you – that White House press secretary Jen Psaki is “one of the best press secretaries ever.”

That’s something Psaki couldn’t even believe.

.@FoxNews Chris Wallace Calls Psaki ‘One of the Best Press Secretaries Ever,’ https://t.co/4lTY62uQBi via @mediaite

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) October 23, 2021

Wallace, in his acceptance speech, perhaps provided the best proof.

Wallace claimed he gets “stopped a fair amount these days by people who want to praise me for being fair, for playing it straight.”

“Look, it’s simple,” he continued. “Reporters don’t take sides, reporters don’t push agendas, reporters report the facts. And facts and the truth are non-negotiable.”

That is a laughable assertion, though Wallace may have simply been encouraging his colleagues to start acting in that manner and not trying to state a fact.

Further underscoring the unseriousness of the Panetta Institute’s Jefferson-Lincoln Awards, Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and James Clyburn (R-SC) were also honored at the event.

Cheney, who has, like Wallace, been overstating the events of January 6th, was highlighted for “loyalty to country above party,” while Clyburn was emblematic of “the protection of free and fair elections and the need for equal justice in applying the rule of law.”