Throughout the year, we have (dis)honored the national press with our regular feature, the antithesis of the Pulitzers, where we recognize media unprofessionalism, journalistic sloth, and generally deserved press mockery. After months of doling out nominations for fractured journalism practices, now it is time for: The Golden Remington Awards.

Catch up on Rounds 1 & 2:The Golden Remington Awards — (Dis)Honoring the Year In Fractured Journalism: Part 1

The 2025 Golden Remington Awards — (Dis)Honoring the Year in Fractured Journalism: Part 2

Our Trophy is a nod to the olden days when hard-scrabble hacks committed actual journalism, hammering out dispatches on those hefty wordsmith devices. To commemorate that past of muckraking reporting and shoe-leather investigation, we acknowledge those journalists or outlets who fall short of that once respectable goal. 

In this final round of prizes, we have the heftier awards categories, culminating with the highest (dis)honor, the big Public Service award. The nominees will be listed, with the winner declared in each. Let us now adjust our tuxedos and take the stage, as we recognize some of the most galling examples in journalism in 2025. Here are the winners as we continue our celebration of The Remmys.

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Distinguished Explanatory Reporting

     WINNER

Lawrence O’Donnell - MSNBC

After President Trump brought troops into D.C. to tamp down on crime in the nation’s capital, Larry provided definitive proof for why they were not needed: He played a clip from the 1939 film, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington; the fact that no National Guard troops were in that fictional scene meant Trump was out of line.

DISTINGUISHED LOCAL REPORTING

     WINNER

Marc Brown - ABC 7 LosAngeles

With the anti-deportation riots breaking out this summer, the press was somewhat eager to recalibrate the violence in support of the opposition. Marc was trying to suggest that law enforcement quelling the violence would actually provoke more, and he was straining to do so while live images of a car fire played on their feed. He described a genteel scene of neighbors commiserating, and there was no need for police. “It’s just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn.”

DISTINGUISHED INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

     WINNER

Countries have gone full throttle on wind turbine energy production in the North Sea, with hundreds of these aeronautic eyesores littering the coastal waters. The Netherlands has a legitimate gripe with Belgium, according to one Dutch meteorologist, because its wind farms are popping up in areas ahead of Holland’s windmills. This is leading to him lodging a complaint: Belgium is guilty of stealing wind from the Netherlands. 

DISTINGUISHED BREAKING NEWS

     WINNER

Jacob Soboroff - MSNBC

When the second No Kings protest was held, there was a common thread seen from the variety of locations across the country. People, for no discernible reason, were out in costumes of various creatures, from frogs to dinosaurs. Despite the perplexing idiocy of this display, Soboroff rushed up to one to conduct his interview, mashing his microphone into a plastic muzzle to conduct a live interview with an inflatable pink unicorn.

DISTINGUISHED INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

     WINNER

Daniel Boguslaw - Rolling Stone

Dan was excited about one of the Epstein emails selectively leaked by Congressional Democrats. He proclaimed culpability with one message where a female was set to meet Jeffrey Epstein at a residence, but said she would come in if Trump was there. This proof was blown into confetti because the self-proclaimed investigative journalist was unable to glean that at the time Trump was president, his whereabouts were detailed in the media, and Epstein was on another continent, while the president was in the panhandle of Florida.

DISTINGUISHED NATIONAL REPORTING

     WINNER

Scott MacFarlane - CBS News

In an extreme example of Main Character Syndrome, MacFarlane explained he had PTSD from the Donald Trump assassination attempt because he came close to dying that day. He was not imperiled by the sniper, however. No, he nearly died at the hands of the Trump supporters in attendance. Yes, he seriously said this: “You could see it in their eyes – they were coming for us! And if he didn’t jump up with his fist, they were coming to kill us!” What - the - heck?!

And now, it is time to award the main prize. This is the big trophy to be granted to a news outlet displaying significantly notable coverage over a period of time throughout the year.

DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SERVICE

Teen Vogue – Time To Leave The Nest

Publisher Conde Nast announced it would be ending the run of Teen Vogue, cutting the staff and folding the basis into the parent magazine. The laid-off staffers gave a protest and basically justified that the decision to cut ties was a smart move. After the decision, some staffers from other publications complained to management about the closure, and their obnoxiousness got them fired as well.

For some reason, this outlet was especially focused on Vatican activity involving Vice President JD Vance, and for that same reason, they consistently got things wrong. The outlet claimed that JD Vance broke a Vatican rule by taking pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, except the pics were taken by the White House photographer while they were on an official guided tour. In April, it claimed that Pope Francis refused to meet with JD Vance, and then, one day later, was shamed into reporting the two had a private meeting — but tried to say the Pope was critical of the vice president. Then it repeated this lie with the new Pope Leo, with a similar disqualifying follow-up. It ended the same way for the outlet.

It was a bad year for the British outlet. Early on, it was hung by a Gaza-based documentary about the children in the region. It claimed full credit for the production, but soon, it was revealed that it had been made by Hamas sympathizers and was eventually taken down. There were a number of Gaza reports that had to be corrected or revised. Then an internal report detailed a lengthy list of journalism problems, the biggest being how it deceptively edited Trump’s January 6 speech. This led to executives stepping down, and a lawsuit has been brought by the president.

While it has always been the case that the networks — especially the cable nets — are available to assist Democrats in image repair, CNN was especially active in helping party members spin their problems late in the year. In rapid succession, we saw the network bring on Stacey Plaskett, Hakeem Jeffries, Jasmine Crockett, Ilhan Omar, Keith Ellison, and Mark Kelly to try to repair the controversies swirling around them, and the compliant network allowed them to filibuster to beat back criticisms.

    WINNER

The Miami Herald

After the announcement this summer that Alligator Alcatraz would be opening in South Florida, there was a furor in the media. Of particular note was the Miami Herald, which began reporting on the complex in the weeks ahead of operations, and continued as detainees were brought in. The conditions were reportedly inhumane.

The paper thought it newsworthy when Democrats complained about the facility. It claimed one detainee was hospitalized when they had a minor injury that was tended to, and they were returned the same day. It errantly declared that children were being held inside the complex.

In one obsessive stretch, the Herald had produced 200 reports on Alligator Alcatraz within a period of less than one month.

Happy New Year, readers!