To recognize the breadth of this journalism implosion that we cover daily in the “Riffed From the Headlines” column we are awarding an honorarium dubbed "The Heckler Awards." The flood of media malpractice was so extensive we can deliver the (dis)honors seen in the press in four stages: Industry-wide issues, independent examples of notoriety, and then the final two parts covering the categories seen in the column.
In this, the third installment we start digging into the categories involving the outlets or named journalists. In each category we have the nominees, with the winner highlighted. Let’s get to handing out the trophies to the degraded news sources or news makers from the past last year.
Heckler Awards Pt. 1 - Media Trends
Heckler Awards Pt. 2 -- Individual Special (dis)Honors
STEALTH STORY EVOLUTION - Outlets that altered content on the sly
WINNER - “60 MINUTES”
The vaunted TV news magazine ran into a buzzsaw of controversy when it ran a Sunday morning promo for its upcoming interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The nonsensical meandering answer from Harris was so roundly mocked that day that by the time it was broadcast many noticed her onscreen answer was altered, along with numerous other notable edits and jump cuts in her responses. The network explained this was due to time constraints, but what made no sense was why an answer that fit into a 90 second teaser clip could not be included in the full primetime broadcast.
REPORTING ON THE MIRROR - When the newsmakers are the news story
Recommended
WINNER - POLITICO
In a grand investigative piece, the outlet found that reporters who fly with the presidential contingent have been looting Air Force 1 of anything that is not bolted down, leading the the White House Correspondents Association issuing a warning to its members. In one example: “Several colleagues of one former White House correspondent for a major newspaper described them hosting a dinner party where all the food was served on gold-rimmed Air Force One plates, evidently taken bit by bit over the course of some time.”
RACE TO THE BOTTOM - The most pathetic attempts at injecting race into a story
WINNER (in a close contest) - Joy Reid, MSNBC
With the controversy swirling over the potential removal of Joe Biden from the party ticket, Ms. Reid decided it was a racist move by rich whites in the party. She decided it was somehow racist to push out the white guy in favor of the POC female candidate.
PROSE AND CONTRADICTION - When reports manage to disprove within themselves
WINNER - Laura Strickler, NBC NEWS
In a deeply trenchant report that was debunking claims that illegals are able to vote the explanation is that they do not actually vote because it is illegal to do so. (People here illegally will not vote illegally, goes that logic.) Then towards the end of the report she not only lists municipalities allowing illegals to vote but confirms that in Texas alone thousands were found to have voted why they should not have done so.
PRE-WRITTEN FIELD REPORTS - Examples of reports completed before committing journalism
WINNER - PROPUBLICA
Coming up with its own hit piece on Pete Hegseth, ProPublica spent days in contact with West Point regarding the possible acceptance of him at the academy. The outlet spoke with a number of representatives and then had its piece ready before contacting Hegseth’s people with a 60-minute window to respond before publishing. They ended up killing the story when they finally learned he had an acceptance letter to disprove the entire premise.
PRESENTATION PARADOX - Reports that defy the accepted media narratives
WINNER - Linda Qiu, NEW YORK TIMES
In an effort to disprove a Fox News report that there were tens of thousands of missing immigrant minors the paper declared this was entirely misleading. They went on to explain these kids are not missing, they are simply unaccounted for. “These children were not “lost,” though the report chided immigration officials by noting that without an ability to monitor the location of the children, they were more susceptible to “trafficking, exploitation or forced labor.”
POUNCE OF PREVENTION - When reactions by conservatives are more serious than the news item
WINNER - Laura Kelly, THE HILL
While at the same time the press was insisting that Kamala Harris was the last person in the room for all major administration decisions, whenever the Afghanistan withdrawal was mentioned suddenly, she was no longer in the zip code, and somehow Trump became the responsible party.
Pathological Media Amnesia - When reports are made defying prior reports on the same issue
WINNER - Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC
When the crew at “Morning Joe” wanted to address the violence seen on college campuses, hostess Mika said, “What are these universities doing? Why aren't they doing something? And I'll echo the horror that this does look like January 6th.” Sometime after this Al Sharpton was on another episode and invoked that same date to refer to the violence, and he was rebuked. “Good Lord! Don’t make a parallel to January 6!”
This came from Mika Brzezinski. She said it just…two - days - later.
NEWS AVOIDANCE SYNDROME - The press showing bias in what stories it will not cover
WINNER - Various Outlets
For the bulk of the Biden administration, we have been told crime rates were plummeting (despite no definite Biden policy credited, curiously enough.) We previously covered how the brand-new FBI data collection was deeply flawed, leading to lower numbers. Once the FBI got around to updating their data and showing an actual increase in crimes no news outlets were interested.
MATCHING MEDIA MEMORANDUM - When the same message is shared across the media landscape
WINNER - VARIOUS OUTLETS
Just ahead of Biden’s debate meltdown there was a flurry of news clips emerging showing Biden in various forms of problematic conditions and speaking erratically. The White House fell back on a novel description for these accurate portrayals, and suddenly every news outlet was declaring accurate depictions of the president to be “Cheap Fake Videos”.
LOW OCTANE GAS LIGHTING - Noting completely fabricated news items
WINNER - Jeffrey Goldberg, THE ATLANTIC
The Executive Editor of the outlet published a completely debunked report, based on anonymous sources, claiming Trump vulgarly insulted a fallen soldier in racist fashion to refuse paying for funeral costs. People named at that meeting came forward to deny any of it was accurate, as well as the family of the soldier, and their lawyer. When called out for this, Goldberg called those in attendance liars, and dismissed the words of the Gold Star family in rude fashion.
LEGALIZED PRESS-TITUTION - Blatant support for Democrats from press members
WINNER - Al Sharpton, MSNBC
After the election disaster, and the financials of the Kamala Harris campaign was made public, it was discovered that the campaign had shelled out $500,000 to Al Sharpton to get a favorable interview in October. The network has been shamed and remained mostly silent about this blatantly unethical discovery.