After a year of mocking the mockable aspects of journalism, here are the year’s dis-honorees unworthy of the Pulitzer Prize.
Each week here at RedState we look at some of the more risible, mirth-filled, and just plain ridiculous aspects of our journalism industry. Looking beyond the biased coverage and narrative-building there is also this component of the media – celebrating the asinine.
This is the first of a two-part awards ceremony. Grouped into a variety of categories, we will kick things off with some special honors, before launching into the actual journalism accolades. Be ready for the ridiculousness.
The Joe Biden Frozen Commentary Bowl (Sponsored by Klondike)
*Recognizing distinguished coverage in ice cream news.
- White House pool reporter Josh Boak, from the Associated Press, was on the beat as Jose Biden bought some ice cream.
- An art collective made a point – we think – by selling ice cream that was in the shape of the heads of billionaires.
- With the first televised January 6 hearing, in D.C. they staged an outdoor viewing “event” where people could watch on a large screen and enjoy free ice cream.
- Biden makes a creepy visit to an ice cream shop but C-SPAN saw nothing objectionable to report beyond what was ordered.
- The news came out about the demise of the Choco Taco.
- Winner: Thomas Friedman, New York Times – Friedman had an exclusive White House interview with President Biden. The entire discussion was off the record. As a result, we got quite a bit of…shall we say, filler. “President Biden invited me for lunch at the White House last Monday. But it was all off the record — so I can’t tell you anything he said. I can, though, tell you two things — what I ate and how I felt after. I ate a tuna salad sandwich with tomato on whole wheat bread, with a bowl of mixed fruit and a chocolate milkshake for dessert that was so good it should have been against the law.
The Samuel Adams Committee Tankard (Sponsored by Sam Adams Beer)
*Recognizing fabricated news items, named after the infamous newspaper exploits of the colonial.
- Rolling Stone offered a small SCOTUS Roe vs. Wade scandal when it exposed a pro-life group was praying with justices. Small detail buried was that this solemnity had last taken place in 2020 – the Court has since been closed to the public due to the pandemic.
- Chuck Todd tried to claim that more people accepted Abraham Lincoln’s election result than the election of Joe Biden. (That no states have voted to secede from the union has been lost on Chuckles.)
- Matt Levietes at NBC News gives the story of two teachers forced to quit because of the new Florida parental rights law. One was a 6th-grade teacher not affected by the new law, and the other had already quit before the bill had even been passed in the state legislature.
- In a widely-repeated news item, Manu Raju reported that on a podcast Ron DeSantis sparked a feud with Donald Trump. Gripping drama to be sure, except Raju ignored that DeSantis:
- 1) Had been discussing Anthony Fauci
- 2) Never even mentioned Trump
- Winner: Jumi Bello – The writer was found to have plagiarized portions of novel, which was subsequently pulled by the publisher. Bello wrote an essay in Western Journal about the experience – and that essay also had been discovered to have been plagiarized. Then, making this a case of plagiarism inception, it was found she lifted that content from a plagiarism website.
The RIcecake Reporting Platter (Sponsored by Quaker Rice Cakes)
*Recognizing the best content-free reporting.
- Ashley Parker from the Washington Post, serving as a pool reporter, detailed that during one European trip President Biden sat down and had a slice of pizza. It had jalapenos on it.
- Matt Keely at Newsweek had a report of intolerance in the arts, regarding homosexuality being protested. Sort of. There was a walkout from a play due to the gay content. It was the decades-old production “Rent.” One person walked out. This took place in Great Britain.
- In Crystal Lake, Illinois a family renovating their home removed a wall section and found a bag from McDonald’s with wrappers and some french fries that was left there since the 1950s. It was called “a historic discovery” that they found 60-year-old garbage.
- CNN”s Kate Bennet delivered a deep profile on Willow Biden, the president’s cat.
- Winner: Mirna Alsharif, Austin Mullen/NBC News – During a stage performance of “It’s A Charlie Brown Christmas someone shouted a racial slur. That is it, that’s the entirety of this national news report. We are not told what was shouted, no information on who said it, nothing regarding if the performance was interrupted, and only get told the symphony is investigating the matter. It took two reporters to deliver 123 words, telling us next to nothing.
The Jennifer Rubin Honor
*Recognizing those who contradict their own reporting. (Rubin is so consummate in this practice she has since been retired from competing.)
- Gabe Ortiz from Daily Kos was viscerally defensive about those who delivered a stigma if they were critical of John Fetterman’s mental decline. Years earlier he was content claiming Donald Trump exhibited “cognitive decline”.
- When the Brittney Griner prison swap was being criticized, Jemele Hill from The Atlantic mocked those who acted like experts on geopolitical affairs. Of course, her condescension means the former ESPN reporter forgot her own lengthy opinionated coverage of Griner’s case.
- Media lobbyist Jason Kint was outraged that Elon Musk suspended a handful of journalists, and he pledged to take the matter to Congress. Under the prior Twitter ownership Kint had taken an outrage-free stance about the actions of a private company.
- Chris Hayes described Ron DeSantis sending immigrants to the affluent liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard as “deeply sick.” This, despite that months earlier Chris was defending affluent liberals as being perfectly willing to live alongside immigrants.
- Winner: Mehdi Hasan – While complaining about the Republican takeover of the House and their pledge to investigate Hunter Biden, Hasan claims that the Democrats never investigated the Trump family.
Uh, Mehdi? The Democrats most certainly investigated Trump's family. Just like today, it was the first thing they embarked on after gaining power after the 2018 midterms.
Sorry you missed it all… https://t.co/OUl1gOkKNP pic.twitter.com/lP7Pag3zgi— Brad Slager: Free Agent for New Social Platform (@MartiniShark) November 17, 2022
The New York Post Screaming Bold-Type Prize
*Recognizing the best work writing headlines.
- Mid Hudson News – “Crack Dealer Arrested On Weed Street”
- NPR – “Beekeepers Are Setting Up Sting Operations To Find Stolen Hives”
- New York Times – “‘How to Murder Your Husband’ Writer Convicted of Murdering Husband”
- The Guardian – “Man Who Paid $2.9 Million For NFT of Jack Dorsey’s First Tweet Set to Lose Almost $2.9 Million”
- The National – “Monkey That Was Flushed Down a Toilet and Offered Cocaine Now Has a Boyfriend”
- Winner: Daily Star – “Topless breastfeeding mum in boxer shorts tackles bald eagle to save pet goose”
Distinguished Sports Reporting
- The Baseball HOF enshrined the mask worn by Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Washington Nationals game.
- CNN details how two organized leagues sanctioning the game have changed from the name “Quiddich”, due to author J.K. Rowling saying controversial things, such as females should be defined as “women”.
- AP beat reporter for the Buffalo Bills Josh Wawrow expressed dismay that at the team’s practice facility the music played rarely features female artists.
- During the NCAA women’s basketball tournament ESPN’s on air team felt the need to comment on the then controversy of the Floroida parental rights bill. Not only did this have nothing at all to do with the sport or the broadcast, but the commentators did not mention the recent news of WNBA player Brittney Griner arrested in Russia.
- Winner: Wall Street Journal – The paper gave us a very long and detailed report on the cheating scandal becoming exposed in the sport of professional Cornhole.
A cheating scandal called “BagGate” has thrown professional cornhole into a tizzy and sparked new regulations. “We’ve really had to crack down.” https://t.co/lA3CDdcDaa
— WSJ Sports (@WSJSports) November 2, 2022
Distinguished Photography Journalism
- Reuters posted a shot of Ukraine soldiers supposedly repelling Russians from the Sumy region. The soldiers depicted were in paintball gear.
Ukraine says it has repelled Russian incursion in Sumy region https://t.co/dE81E0R9P6 pic.twitter.com/une4hkj0M6
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 16, 2022
- USA Today saw the need to fact-check a photo of a couple displaying their aborted fetus as not being accurate. It was a plastic model created for a video game franchise.
Fact-checkers were all over this story of a supposed couple posing with their aborted fetus to protest the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
It was a promotional prop from the video game Death Stranding.https://t.co/59tg8X3c6N pic.twitter.com/zQ29kCcGUU— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) January 1, 2023
- Reuters shared with us an image of a mascot exiting from a vagina model display at a menstruation event in Taiwan.
The mascot of the GoMoond Period Party, the first menstruation-themed event, walks out of the vagina-shaped entrance, in Taipei, Taiwan May 28. REUTERS/Ann Wang pic.twitter.com/XtODIDAzvO
— Brad Slager: Free Agent for New Social Platform (@MartiniShark) January 1, 2023
- IndieWire made a profile/interview with actress Jessica Chastain. She complained about not being featured in the promotions for a film she had starred in, “Zero Dark Thirty”, and that she was not featured on the movie poster. The promo for the article used the same still photo that was in fact used on the movie poster.
Ummm, the still pic used for this article promo was used in the key art for the film… https://t.co/dRkzIq9B9B pic.twitter.com/GZJ2JDwZA2
— Brad Slager: Free Agent for New Social Platform (@MartiniShark) November 17, 2022
- Winner: Politico – Legal action was pettily threatened against Senator Josh Hawley when he was using an image of himself on items sold from his campaign website. Politico purchased a smaller news outlet that had taken the photo of Hawley outside the Capitol on the morning of January 6 raising his fist to supporters as he entered the chambers. Claiming newly-acquired exclusivity rights the site implied Hawley was not entitled to use his own image on his own merchandise.
New: Josh Hawley is officially selling his 1/6 fist-pump as a mug pic.twitter.com/sNzCbaam1B
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) February 14, 2022
Distinguished Political Cartoons
- In order to deflect from the sexual materials being pushed in schools Pat Byrnes tries showing the GOP as hysterics, but actually equates groomers with Jesus.
GROOMER RUMOR by Pat Byrnes https://t.co/DPpQgZvhKe pic.twitter.com/zHaYFB7usz
— The Cagle Post (@CaglePost) April 21, 2022
- John Darko had a commentary on the redacted affidavit for Donald Trump. That he is on the side against Trump is not surprising, but that he delivers the trope of numerous guilty convictions when Trump has none against him sinks this even lower.
The humor was also redacted. pic.twitter.com/JBiIUtXO7Q
— Lie-Able Sources (@LieAbleSources) January 1, 2023
- The New Yorker is known for producing cartoons occasionally that land with the subtlety of a plunging window A/C unit. But when they print one that universally is received with scorn for making no sense that sets it apart. This Emily Bernstein ‘toon was so obtuse that the magazine was filtering the sheer amount of negative comments it generated.
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Emily Bernstein. #NewYorkerCartoonshttps://t.co/tfve2krD3E pic.twitter.com/FKhVeDsCuu
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) December 28, 2022
- Devotion to Fauci is one thing, but when you cannot provide any criticism of him, while delivering a base interpretation of Republican reactions to the man, you come off as more slanted and more unfunny than a late-night monologue.
LIFEGUARD FAUCI by Rick McKee https://t.co/4AyI6Kv47j pic.twitter.com/5ohzjWfevk
— The Cagle Post (@CaglePost) August 26, 2022
- Winners (Tie): Michael De adder, Lara Antal-Washington Post –
1. De adder delivered an image of Ron DeSantis killing children with his Florida parental rights bill. The cartoonist was then sent scurrying when he could not defend the fact that he had used the famous image of a dead Syrian toddler for his panel.
Classy touch tracing the photograph of Alan Kurdi – a dead Syrian child who was photographed on a beach in Turkey in 2015. https://t.co/5mZaDMUcwz https://t.co/GKgljkNZSF pic.twitter.com/X9QSKB1OK3
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 4, 2022
2. Following the January 6 Committee hearing testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson WaPo commissioned a team of writers to write up a narrative and then had Lara Antal illustrate it in graphic novel fashion. The melodramatics were only slightly undercut by the realities of Hutchinson’s testimony unraveling as this was published.
These illustrations are from the Washington Post. “Visual: Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony from the Jan. 6 hearing… Like no witness before her, Cassidy Hutchinson brought the public inside the West Wing on Jan. 6 and in the days surrounding it.”https://t.co/D70yxxXYmq pic.twitter.com/4ZXh96vSA5
— Jerry Christmas 🎅🏼🎄 (@JerryDunleavy) July 5, 2022