The Remmys Fractured Media Nominations: Air Force Vids, Racist Raids and Resistance Birds

It is time for a new round of nominations for nefarious news nonsense! In recognizing the efforts of press unprofessionalism, journalistic sloth, and generally deserved media mockery, we nominate the efforts for end-of-the-year honors. To commemorate that past of muckraking reporting and shoe leather investigation, we have created The Golden Remington Awards. Our trophy honors the olden days when hard-scrabble hacks committed actual journalism and hammered out dispatches on those hefty wordsmith devices.

Throughout the year, we compile some of the most fractured examples of journalism, nominating them for the uncoveted dishonor of “winning” our undistinguished Remmy Award. At the end of the year we recognize the greats by gathering examples in a number of categories and judiciously choosing the deserving performances. Here are the latest nominees for The Remmys.

Distinguished National Reporting

Karoun Demirjian, Sharon LaFraniere - New York Times

In what can only be described as a Hail Mary attempt to undermine the Pete Hegseth nomination as Secretary of Defense, his former sister-in-law filed an affidavit where she described how Pete's ex-wife - detailed her fears and experiences with abuse from her husband at the time. The Times’ reporters explored all of the details and even the other accusations leveraged against Hegseth. They did this despite a glaring contradiction – the ex-wife denies all of it.

In what should have been completely prioritized comments, the alleged victim denied that any abuse had taken place and stressed that no one else was speaking on her behalf. Instead, what were disqualifying quotes were buried 18 paragraphs deep in this slanted report.

An ex-sister-in-law submits a sworn statement to senators accusing Hegseth of being so “abusive” toward his second wife that she once hid in a closet from him and had a safe word to call for help if she needed to get away from him. @karoun @SharonLNYT https://t.co/hOMSt6z7gW
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) January 21, 2025

The Sam Adams Award for Fraudulent Reporting

Sig Christenson - San Antonio Express

Following the Hegseth confirmation Friday evening, a story broke that the Air Force had removed historical training videos about the POC pilots, The Tuskegee Airmen. This was said in the report to be done at the direction of Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies, but in reality it was done internally at the USAF as a means of causing problems for this new policy.

The press ran with this garbage claim and the racial implications it carried, but it was beaten back and the video restored before the weekend was over.

Obeying Trump order, Air Force will stop teaching recruits about Tuskegee Airmen https://t.co/4Z2mrZUexj
— San Antonio Express-News (@ExpressNews) January 25, 2025

Distinguished Breaking News

Kasie Hunt - CNN

The press has shown that it is clearly bothered by the Trump administration policy of deporting illegal immigrants. This has led to all manner of criticism of the actions, and at CNN, they went to a ridiculous complaint. Kasie Hunt pointed out that she sees an issue with the fact that the agents rounding up the illegals are wearing gear where the letters I.C.E. are prominently displayed – as is common practice for any law enforcement agency.

But for some reason, now it is wrong, as they are saying this is being done specifically “for the cameras.”

“Straight out of central casting.” Trump’s deportation forces have been told to “dress for the cameras” in order to “generate media attention”. (Video: CNN) pic.twitter.com/3J3gOjr6NB
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 27, 2025

Distinguished Feature Writing

Brock Colyar - New York Magazine

It seems rather sophomoric that the press continues with the impotent charges of racism towards the Republicans, considering how little impact this has ever made. Yet we see this in play with New York Magazine as it covered one of the gatherings in celebration of the Donald Trump inaugural. They chose as a cover image a shot of primarily white attendees, using this as proof that there was a white takeover of D.C.

In order to sell this, however, the outlet cropped the picture in racist fashion, eliminating the POC attendees that were just off frame. But more than this, it chose an event that was staged by a black conservative, C.J. Pearson.

.@NYMag accused me of hosting a white-only inauguration rager.

I guess none of these black people got the memo? @XAVIAERD @VernonForGA @WakaFlocka pic.twitter.com/kSRwKbHuAv
— CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) January 28, 2025

Distinguished Editorial Cartoons/Graphics

The New Yorker

It seems a desperate dose of coping from the magazine that it needed to display the cover it had ready to run for a Kamala Harris election victory. The magazine went to the length of having an artist draw up a somewhat elaborate graphic, but the real amusement comes in the copy that joined its posting of this well after her loss.

While it commissioned a Kamala artwork, the magazine had nothing in place in case Donald Trump won, and following the election result, it had to scramble to get a hastily made image for the subsequent cover.

“Kamala,” by Kadir Nelson, would have been the cover of the November 18, 2024, issue of The New Yorker, had Kamala Harris had won the election. Read about the cover that never was: https://t.co/GlOlEFKmR8 pic.twitter.com/VaQqfPMcSm
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) January 20, 2025

Distinguished Editorial Writing

Margaret Renkl - New York Times

Among the negative impressions of the Trump inauguration came this editorial where we were given yet another negative opinion – from birds.

Renkl decided to speak on behalf of the avian set and used this as a reason to launch into a lengthy treatise on how Trump is wrong for the environment, of course.

“On this Inauguration Day that brings no hope for help from elected officials to address climate change or protect vulnerable species, including our own,” writes Margaret Renkl, “the living world is showing us what to do.”

Read: https://t.co/XgT8mKH66N
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) January 20, 2025

The New York Post Plaque for Headline Writing