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Biden’s Polls Broken, Canadian Pets Choking, and a Dogg Is Caught Smoking – Opinion

By Pluralist / February 16, 2022

Our weekly recognition of less-than-meritorious excellence in journalism is worthy of Pulitzer Prize 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. Let’s get to the best examples of journalistic failure-excellence in order to properly identify the low watermark in journalism.

Distinguished Breaking News

  • Jaclyn Hendricks — New York Post

The Super Bowl Halftime Show was an event that attracted a lot of attention. Snoop dogg was one of those who performed. Breaking EXCLUSIVE: The Post is out with something that’s hardly both of these things. The man who built an entire career around his affinity for smoking pot was seen just before his performance – get this – smoking pot.

Specialized Explanatory Reporting

Joe Biden’s first year has delivered some of the harshest data seen for a new president. His approval ratings plummeted faster than the sand dunes in a tsunami, his party has seen a growing list of THREE retirements before a guaranteed GOP surge and there are no political topics where he’s viewed positively. New polls show how awful things are within the Democratic Party. Dems were asked if they would like Biden running again in 2024. 51% responded that they did not want another candidate. Looking at that staggeringly bad result, Chris Cillizza finds good news – in the form of a restaurant metaphor.

He states that once another candidate is defined, then Biden will seem better…somehow. The way this supposedly works, if you regret your fish order, you may want something else, but if you could ONLY order chicken, then somehow you are satisfied with the dead fish Biden…I think…?

“Now, consider that same scenario, except that when you are halfway done with the too-fishy fish, the waiter comes over and says that they would be happy to exchange your fish for the chicken entree. Now, you already chose the fish over the chicken for some reason — maybe you didn’t like how it was prepared or maybe you just didn’t feel like chicken. You are FAR more likely to stick with the fish in this scenario.”

I…have nothing. Just know this – in the same poll, after Barack Obama’s first year, 80% said they wanted him to run again.

Internationally Distinguished Reporting

  • Joseph Tunney — Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

It has become rather clear the Canadian media outlets are none too thrilled with the truckers’ protest in Ottawa. We can see the difference between the objective-less news media operating North of the Border by the fact that we hear only negative stories and very little balanced reporting about the reasons for the occupation.

Taking things to the next level was this CBC report, detailing the real danger of the semis in the Capital — Canadian pets could be made uncomfortable!

The Best Local Reporting

  • Marilys Llanos — Telemundo 51-Miami

There is much laughter in Florida as Nikki Fried, the Democratic Agriculture Commissioner, believes she can unseat Governor Ron DeSantis. Her not-at-all racist comment recently made is a clear indication of how well things are going — and her words not generating any media outrage is a sign of the propping up she will require to have a fighting chance.

Fried gave an example of Fried’s struggle with media and campaigning when she sat down for an interview with an affiliate in South Florida Spanish. She explained how her strategy was to reach out to Hispanic voters.

Distinguished Editorial Writing

  • Paul Waldman — Washington Post

It is still difficult for the press to explain away Joe Biden’s government-supplied drug paraphernalia. Paul Waldman tried to get on board the Biden Defense Team, but he made the effort of calling Republicans racist. The problem; in order for there to be racism, we have to start with this columnist insisting that crack cocaine is a “black drug.”

At issue is the Washington Free Beacon’s initial report, where Waldman pounces on conservatives suggesting crack pipes are involved, in order to imply racial intent.

“This is race-baiting, pure and simple. Crack cocaine is associated in the public mind with Black people in cities (even though people of all races have used it), just as crystal meth is associated with White people in rural areas (even though people of all races have used that, too).”

Except, the supposed racist report he cites mentions both of the products – those that Waldman assigned a race to – as his “black” and his “white” drugs are both mentioned as being used with the White House-supplied drug smoking kits.

Distinguished Public Service

  • Graham Richardson — CTV News

Richardson got his hands on the exposed donor list to the protest by truckers and went about working. Richardson, not being bothered that the List was an illegal Hack of GiveSendGo’s fundraising platform, went on to scan the name list and contact numerous people, asking them questions about why they gave money.

It was bad enough Richardson did not feel uncomfortable engaging in Stassi-like activities for the purpose of protecting federal government officials, but Richardson also boasted about his brown-shirt investigation.

Internationally Distinguished Reporting

As the Winter Olympics were just underway, we gave you the oddly hilarious story of the Chinese authorities clamping down on foreign journalists. It was an act of extreme ineptitude by Chi-Com censors to live-stream their muzzling. Another example is slightly less obvious but still amusing.

There has been some consternation here in the States that American-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu has decided to participate as a Chinese athlete due to her mother’s heritage. Gu responded to accusations that China suppresses social media users and online conversations as a way to show her concern about maintaining a positive image of China. Gu smiled when she was asked about how she managed to post entries to Instagram while the platform was blocked in China. This was seen as proof that Chi-coms are not as restrictive as some people claim.

Soon after, Gu’s posting was censored by Chi-Com authorities.

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