http://www.azreporter.com/news/10-20...lbertpoll.html
Second Annual Dilbert Weasel Awards Poll Announced
President Bush, Recording Industry and France Named 'Weaseliest'
Source: United Media
Published: Monday, October 20, 2003
weasel n: any person or group that operates in that vast gray area between good ethical behavior and the sort of activities that might send you to jail. --Scott Adams
NEW YORK -- President George W. Bush was voted overwhelmingly the number one weasel in the 2003 Dilbert Weasel Awards Poll by Dilbert readers who also named the Recording Industry Association of America and France as being the "weaseliest."
The Second Annual Dilbert Weasel Award Poll, inspired by the sharp, funny, and frighteningly true theories outlined in the new paperback edition of Scott Adams' book, Dilbert and The Way of the Weasel (HarperBusiness; October 2003; $14.95), drew more than 35,000 voters who named the top weasels in six categories of individuals and organizations on Dilbert.com. In his book, Adams defines weasels as manipulative, scheming, misleading, cheating and blame shifting among a host of other antisocial traits.
Microsoft won over Halliburton and MCI WorldCom as the weaseliest company, politicians beat out lawyers and the news media as the weaseliest profession and blaming fast food restaurants for making one fat was voted the weaseliest behavior over religious extremism.
Dilbert fans spared no one in their voting. Among organizations, the White House and Democratic Party were runners up as the weaseliest. Documentary director Michael Moore and Yassar Arafat followed President Bush as the weaseliest individual. And the U.S. came in second to France as the weaseliest country, beating Saudi Arabia.
Winners and runner-ups in each category include:
Weaseliest Individuals:
13959 - George W. Bush
5104 - Michael Moore
3057 - Yasser Arafat
2820 - Jacques Chirac
2141 - Saddam Hussein
1883 - Tom Daschle
1105 - Arnold Schwarzenegger
1095 - Al Franken
1023 - Ariel Sharon
932 - Bill O'Reilly
695 - Ann Coulter
483 - Charles Schumer
400 - Sean Penn
383 - Jayson Blair
230 - Richard Grasso
195 - Gerhardt Schroeder
188 - Bill Bennett
146 - Jack Grubman
Weaseliest Organization:
7950 - Recording Industry Association of America
6322 - White House
4470 - Democratic Party
3989 - ACLU
3859 - Organized religion
3039 - Fox News Corporation
3008 - Republican Party
1860 - Congress
1323 - New York Times
Weaseliest Country:
12739 - France
10761 - USA
5845 - Saudi Arabia
4668 - North Korea
801 - Iran
509 - Canada
219 - Germany
Weaseliest Company:
12854 - Microsoft
7645 - Halliburton
7220 - MCI WorldCom
2425 - Kmart
1313 - Merrill Lynch
1173 - HealthSouth
1017 - Freddie Mac
970 - Salomon Smith Barney
Weaseliest Profession:
10309 - Politicians
7854 - Lawyers
6234 - News media
6059 - Tobacco executives
4217 - Oil executives
1043 - Accountants
Weaseliest Behavior:
18877 - Blaming fast food restaurants for making you fat
5748 - Religious extremism
4688 - Creating computer worms/viruses because you can't get a date
3997 - Driving a Hummer
1487 - Using cell phones in restaurants
1077 - Using speaker phone in cubicle
Adams, who created the Weasel Award Poll in 2002 to give his fans a chance to rate some of the wide-spread weasel behavior of the year has been overcome by the spirit of weaseldom and has decided to be a weasel himself. Over the past few months, he has engineered a plot to get five well-known cartoonists to do his work for him for one week while he sits back and rakes in the profits. From October 20 through October 24, Adams' Dilbert strip will be drawn and created by a different mystery cartoonist each day and featured in newspapers nationwide and on
www.dilbert.com. Each day dilbert.com will provide the answer to who is the guest mystery cartoonist.
Reflecting on becoming a weasel himself, Adams said, "Avoiding work is one of the weaseliest things you can do, only the most cunning weasels can succeed at getting paid for doing nothing. Amazingly, the other cartoonists fell for my story about the 'creative challenge' and even acted happy about it. I almost sprained my arm patting myself on the back for this one."
Each mystery guest cartoonist left clues to his or her identity, but to check your guesses, go to
www.dilbert.com the day of the strip's publication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Scott Adams is the creator of DILBERT, the comic strip that now appears in more than 2,000 newspapers, 65 countries, 25 languages and on the Web at
www.dilbert.com, which receives over 1.4 million unique visitors per month. His books, The Dilbert Principle, Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook, The Joy Of Work, and The Dilbert Future were all New York Times bestsellers.
ABOUT DILBERT
Dilbert, the United Feature Syndicate comic strip, is the most photocopied, pinned-up, downloaded, faxed and e-mailed comic strip in the world. Many readers, particularly those employed at large corporations, are convinced that Adams works at their companies since he conveys corporate inanities so perfectly in his comic strip.
ABOUT UNITED MEDIA
Dilbert is licensed and syndicated by United Media. United Media (UM) is a worldwide licensing and syndication company that focuses on building brand equity around a wide range of creative content. United Media is an E.W. Scripps Company.