Our weekly recognition of less-than-meritorious excellence in journalism is worthy of Pulitzer Prize consideration.

As an extension of the media-mocking venture at Townhall, Riffed From The Headlines, we once again recognize the exalted performances in our journalism industry and compile worthy submissions to the Pulitzer Prize board in numerous categories. To properly recognize the low watermark in the press, let us get right to the latest exemplars of journalistic mis-excellence.

Distinguished Local Reporting

• Action News 4 – Pittsburgh

Call it deeply unfortunate chyron use, but when Channel 4 News was reporting on the story of an elderly man arrested for inappropriate behavior with a pre-teen girl, the mistaken graphic photo used also managed to carry with it a dose of familiarity. Maybe we can describe it as A Freudian Clip.

This is one of the greatest live TV moments of all time pic.twitter.com/il4Nx9O6LP

— Jewish Patriot 🚛 (@MAGAJew2) March 1, 2022

Distinguished International Reporting

• Nicole Williams — Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Things become deeply revealing when a news event can be roundly despised by the media, and yet after said event concludes, we get to see just how much these same press mavens cannot let go of the storyline. Call it, The Trump-Echo Effect. This time, it is the despised Canadian trucker revolt that is unable to be relinquished by the press.

After weeks of decrying the resistors and backing the state oppressors, once it has been disbanded, the CBC strives mightily to find a way to continue with their outrage and their preferred narrative. The answer: claim residents are experiencing nightmarish flashbacks of trucks.

Post-traumatic stress from weeks of honking is a temporary ‘mild trauma,’ a psychologist says. The trucks have since been removed…even still, some downtown residents say they’re haunted by ‘phantom honking’ — what sounds like blaring truck horns, but no actual sounds are there.

The trucks have left Ottawa, but 'phantom honking' lingers for many downtown https://t.co/WfRsNN6krZ #ottnews #ottawa pic.twitter.com/6nroNQcnps

— CBC Ottawa (@CBCOttawa) February 26, 2022

Distinguished Public Service

• Andee Tagle – National Public Radio

NPR has its finger on the pulse of the trauma of the Ukrainian invasion.

Even after weeks of bracing for an attack amid speculation, global tensions and diplomatic attempts to stave off invasion — the reality of conflict is always a shock to the system.

Grave and serious words, to be sure. Wartime conflicts are never easy to manage. One point of note here; they were not describing the horrors being met by Ukrainian citizens. This introduction was for those poor folks who are here — watching it on television.

On the case here is NPR, providing tips for how people can grapple with the deep anxiety produced from a severe activity: watching the news. The solution for this paralyzing condition? One is to…breathe. Another is to eat some food. You can also move around. Life-saving tips for those who…did not think enough to remember to breathe.

🧵 Thread: Russia’s attack on Ukraine means there’s a stressful news cycle ahead of us. The reality of conflict is always a shock to the system.

Here are 5 ways to cope.https://t.co/L3NR6BONZt

— NPR (@NPR) February 25, 2022

Distinguished National Reporting

• Jennifer Rubin – Washington Post

The main job of a political writer is to describe what is happening regarding policy and the parties involved. Jenn Rubin is famed for getting the correct story completely incorrect. She has now set a new mark for being wrong, when she came out with this declaration regarding Joe Biden’s selection for the Supreme Court.

Looking forward to how Rs will intentionally mispronounce Brown Jackson’s first name

— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin 🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@JRubinBlogger) February 25, 2022

Then Ms. Rubin’s prediction came true…sort of. Usually, it takes days or maybe a couple of weeks for Rubin to be shown way off base. Here, we got someone screwing up the name, but they were someone decidedly not Republican and someone who should be extremely acquainted not only with the woman chosen but the spelling of the name.

Jen Psaki managed to get Brown’s name wrong that afternoon, but even better, after assuring us of GOP typos, Rubin managed to be embarrassed in just over an hour by another member of the Biden White House staff.

Happy Kentanji Brown Jackson Day! pic.twitter.com/afgNPViuTi

— Natalie Montelongo (@natimontelongo) February 25, 2022

Distinguished Feature Writing

• Stuart Thompson – New York Times

There is always two ways of looking at a news story. When tech corporations alter the results on their search engines by either redirecting to preferred outlets and/or shielding users from finding other sources, a user might seek out a search engine that does not resort to such manipulations.

Or, it could be that conspiracy kooks are rushing out to a safe haven in a nefarious bid to circumvent the companies trying to silence them. Sounding oblivious to his own conspiracy weaving, Stuart Thompson declares that the people moving to DuckDuckGo for their internet queries are the very undesirable firms like Google are striving to save us from in our internet lives.

The embrace by some conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists is part of a broader effort to shift people away from Big Tech. Praise for DuckDuckGo has become a popular refrain during the pandemic among right-wing social media influencers and conspiracy theorists who question Covid-19 vaccines and push discredited coronavirus treatments. 

And just to hammer home the undesirable aspect of this, Thompson notes early on that Joe Rogan uses the platform.

i reported on privacy before coming to disinfo, so that meant using DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine loved by privacy activists. so it was odd when I entered disinfo spaces and found that they, too, seemed to use DuckDuckGo.

here's what's up: https://t.co/sHPKqV37rJ

— Stuart A. Thompson (@stuartathompson) February 23, 2022

Distinguished Explanatory Reporting

• Nicole Hannah-Jones – New York Times

It would appear that the crafter of The 1619 Project is now setting her sights on ruining another scholastic topic. After bastardizing American History with her revisionist tale of this nation’s founding, Jones has made an odd declaration when it comes to geography.

What if I told you Europe is not a continent by defintion, but a geopolitical fiction to separate it from Asia and so the alarm about a European, or civilized, or First World nation being invaded is a dog whistle to tell us we should care because they are like us.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) February 27, 2022

Distinguished International Reporting

• The Russian Times

The invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin-led Russian troops has led to widespread international resistance, and Vlad is starting to feel the pinch. It was announced that as a direct result of his aggressions, Putin will have his honorary blackbelt in Tae Kwan Do rescinded by the international federation. To go along with that, he has also been removed as honorary president of the International Judo Federation.

The International Judo Federation today suspended Vladimir Putin as honorary president.

Putin is a judo blackbelt and a keen fan of the sport. https://t.co/nWIlbFIE3h

— Axios (@axios) February 27, 2022