Our weekly recognition of less-than-meritorious excellence in journalism is worthy of Pulitzer consideration.
As an extension of the media-mocking venture at Townhall, Riffed From The Headlines, we once again recognize the exalted performances in our journalism industry and compile worthy submissions to the Pulitzer Prize board in numerous categories. We must recognize journalistic mistakes-excellence to be able to correctly identify them.
Distinguished Public Service
Jack Dorsey, the founder of social media platform Facebook, was no longer with us. This meant that the new regime would have to establish its own rules and standards. Some of these would include imposing restrictions to punish those who spread false information about COVID. Here is the challenge though, if you are going to police those about following the science — you need to be aware yourself of just what the science is on the subject.
This is part of the new virus directive:
“We may apply labels to tweets that contain, for example… false or misleading claims that people who have received the vaccine can spread or shed the virus (or symptoms, or immunity) to unvaccinated people.”
It could get uncomfortable. This could be a problem. What happens when the government authority responsible for the pandemic becomes aware that they are not following the rules of a glorified chatroom on the internet?!
Let’s now answer the question.
Can I get in trouble for showing that it is the Center For Disease Control that claims vaccinated people can spread Covid-19…???? pic.twitter.com/VFxVReLBPy— Brad Slager – Incontinent On Another Continent (@MartiniShark) December 15, 2021
Distinguished Investigative Reporting
- Jeremy Barr – Washington Post
Fox News was interested in this development when an arsonist set fire to the Christmas tree Fox News had installed in Manhattan.
What was their level of interest? To answer your question, Jeremy Barr (WaPo’s media analyst) decided to channel Brian Stelter. He meticulously tabulated every mention made by their network of torched Tannenbaum. This is some brave work.
I monitored a total of one day’s coverage on the Fox News Christmas Tree fire. It was mentioned at most once yesterday by every Fox news show.
The outrage has been going strong today as well.https://t.co/V3d4AbbAvv
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) December 10, 2021
Distinguished Feature Writing
- Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan – Financial Times
Q-anon is still the focal point of media attention, despite conservatives not believing any of these crackpot theories or following the Q movement. However, the media loves to make it seem like this is a legitimate movement shaping the GOP. All done to humiliate and denigrate conservatives.
There may be no better example than this piece from FT that celebrates…one year since Q stopped sending conspiracy theories. When you reduce the anniversary to something that is no longer happening to be a problem, you must admit it.
A year ago today, QAnon made their final post – I spoke to @PokerPolitics @AnnieKNK @Leparisdechine @aoifegall @TheOndrakGuy @JordanWildon @ixisnoxInformation about current events and lessons to be learned from super-conspiracy. https://t.co/i16rlQIjFf
— Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan (@SVR13) December 8, 2021
Distinguished Sports Reporting
This sports leader remembers an historic hate crime that has never occurred. You can’t imagine how you could make a better piece of journalism. But, as a media outlet, there is no shame in this embarrassing show of journalistic integrity. For reasons only they can explain – yet don’t – ESPN has a new documentary out about the infamous noose in the garage story surrounding POC driver Bubba Wallace
FBI confirms that the garage doors were installed in that area the previous year. They also confirmed there had not been any connection to Wallace. The report was filed one and a quarter years ago. ESPN continues to promote the lack of tolerance. In one segment McGee mentions members of NASCAR who had remained silent at a time of the controversy, and Wallace defiantly says, “Oh, I still don’t forget. I don’t forget the ones who were silent.”
He is carrying on a grudge for an event that didn’t take place.
NASCAR issues a statement about the situation pic.twitter.com/RC6asyMxMn
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) June 23, 2020
Specialized Explanatory Reporting
- Peter Wade – Rolling Stone
One of the most prolific writers at Rolling Stone in 2021 is not one of their reporters — it is the person charged with penning the corrections on their stories. The facts were clear enough that the outlet needed to amend one of its articles this year. The outlet had to change an article about Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about protestors.
Correction: Trump’s request that law enforcement “bust some heads” of Black Lives Matter protesters was made as they demonstrated during a June 22, 2020 protest in Lafayette Square. In an earlier version, this story stated incorrectly that Trump spoke on June 1st. He walked from Lafayette Square to the nearby church following protesters having been removed.
In this case, the difference is that it wasn’t the result of bad journalism, fraud documents or misquoting a source. It was due to poor comprehension. Mark Meadows had just released a book. The report described the events in an ink-on-paper article. It is funny that they didn’t do the basic research correctly. The other thing I find amusing about this story are all of the notable people who responded to it and then had to retract.
This tweet was deleted because it appears that the @RollingStone article it’s based on is egregiously, embarrassingly wrong. pic.twitter.com/acx8AlcCMZ
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) December 10, 2021
Outstanding Local Reporting
- The Editorial Board – South Florida Sun-Sentinel
In a Broward County election for a representative seat, the vote was remarkably close — the winner was decided by FIVE votes. However, the problem was that 300 of the ballots hadn’t been counted as the required deadline had passed.
The local paper naturally looked over all of the facts and made a determination — Ron DeSantis needs to be scorched over this travesty. “Tallahassee’s silence is the most common thing we hear about this topic. That’s because Republicans don’t really want every vote to count.”
These journalistic wizards made the determination to blame the GOP governor — despite the fact that this was a Democratic Party primary election in a deeply blue county, and the Supervisor of Elections there is also Democrat, dealing with a problem verursacht durch the non-delivery of 280 ballots by the postal office to the precinct. Blaming DeSantis for this is as desperate an excuse as any.
In the most recent Dem primary, 286 voters voted #fl20The election was decided by five votes. However, the ballots were mailed before Election Day and did not get counted. It is not right that an election be decided by. @USPS. https://t.co/nvZRYATfnY
— Sun Sentinel Opinion (@SoFlaOpinion) December 8, 2021
Distinguished National Reporting
- Danielle Weiner-Bronner – CNN
The latest report contains some interesting grocery news. You may notice that diet products are not as plentiful in grocery stores. The lack of diet drinks on shelves is not due to any of the problems with shipping, pandemics, or the ongoing national shipping crisis. No, it’s those damned millennials once again.
You will not be facing empty shelves, reports CNN; it is simply that the soda makers are steering away from the word ‘Diet’ on their labeling. Marketing experts have concluded that the term is not popular with younger customers. So the drink purveyors are opting to go with ‘Zero Sugar’ as their choice of transitioning.
It isn’t a problem to make these options taste better, it seems.
As you make your way through the soda aisle, you may notice a lot less of the word “diet” than you used to https://t.co/V2bng5Rx5K
— CNN (@CNN) December 14, 2021
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