Hats off to the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito, who was chosen on Tuesday as the nation’s top “Bulldog Awards” columnist.
In naming Zito the country’s No. 1 columnist, the Media Research Center said, “The ‘Middle America-whisperer,’ relaying the views and passions of the heartland to those on the coasts. As she best explains herself: ‘In my estimation, there is no patch of geography in this country that is the ‘middle of nowhere.’ This is America; everywhere is the middle of somewhere.’”
Zito, who also writes for the New York Post and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and is a hot commodity on TV, uses her base in diverse Pennsylvania to find out what real America is thinking, especially as it readies for another presidential election.
She knows it all, from the state’s biggest cities to its capital of Harrisburg to what’s hatching on Spring Creek, the heart of Pennsylvania’s fly fishing “Fisherman’s Paradise.”
In acknowledging the award, Zito tweeted, “An honor to win the bulldog award — you don’t win awards like this because of yourself, you win it because of the people whose stories you tell & whose lives you get to spend a little time with and share with the world. Thank you Washington Examiner for giving me that opportunity.”
The Media Research Center, which partners with Secrets for our weekly “Liberal Scream of the Week” feature, times its Bulldog Awards for when the Pulitzer Prizes are announced.
This year, it chose Victor Davis Hanson for the MRC Bulldog Award for lifetime achievement. MRC said Hanson “has for decades offered wise guidance on a wide range of issues, providing intellectual fuel for conservatives battling the latest liberal schemes to undermine traditional American values.”
In announcing this year’s winners, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said, “Like everything else the Left controls, major journalism awards are rigged to reward people who advance their most radical agenda priorities. If you want to win a Pulitzer, write about ‘climate change’ or ‘systemic racism’ or ‘reproductive health’ or promote ‘Russian collusion.’ If you want to win a Bulldog Award, tell the truth. This year’s winners are great American truth-tellers.”
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Other winners were:
— Ben Shapiro for outstanding podcast
— Seth Dillon for outstanding social media personality
— Peter Schweizer for outstanding investigative journalism
— Kassy Akiva for outstanding blogger
— Dennis Prager for outstanding radio talk show host
Bozell said, “I applaud Victor’s wise insights, Ben’s savage podcasts, Seth’s mockery of the Left and defense of free speech, Salena giving voice to Middle America, Peter’s damning investigations, Kassy’s war coverage and exposing antisemitism, and Dennis’s can’t-miss radio show and work at PragerU. Congratulations to this year’s winners!”