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. Let’s get to the best examples of journalistic failure-excellence in order to properly identify the low watermark in journalism.
Specialized Explanatory Reporting
At the moment, a protestor group made up of young people is outside of the White House to support climate change. To force the passage of legislation that will save our planet from an impending apocalypse, they are holding a hunger strike. (Bite them, they’re dumb children. CNN’s Bill Weir is striving for Chris Cillizza-level notoriety by declaring that what these kids are experiencing is far worse than what Gandhi had to endure when he protested in kind.
It is clear that his personal attack, which included being beaten and spat on and then thrown into prison, does not match the intensity of these teenagers being mocked by Tik Tok videos and flamed on Twitter!
These are the responses to your posts @HungerStr1keShow the digital insult-to-injury culture. Cesar Chavez, Gandhi, and Cesar Chaz never had the need to confront videos that showed hecklers eating doughnuts as a way of mocking their motives. https://t.co/m1bcwuxgi2
— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) October 27, 2021
Distinguished National Reporting
- Lux Alptraum — NBC News
Kyrsten Snema, a recently elected senator from the LGBTQ community was being celebrated not too long ago. It was historic, it was important and it was landmark. This has changed, however. She isn’t giving Joe Biden the Monopoly money printing machines to help him fund his infrastructure projects. Sinema is seen as a bad representative of the community by the Arizona senator.
Lux Alptraum – Is Arizona’s Senator Sinema bad news for bisexual Americans – @NBCNewsTHINK https://t.co/bKJ1aK6lpm
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 27, 2021
Distinguished Cultural Commentary
- Jim Swift — The Bulwark
I don’t want to imply that at the infamous anti-Trump outlet they have run out of ammunition to go after Kyrsten Sinema — so I’ll just show you that this is the case. A recall effort will be imminent, based on “Who Wore It Better” editorials any day now.
Ted Cruz and John Ensign were the men who preceded Sen. Sinema wearing terrible outfits in the U.S. Senate. It is hard to praise either of these men, but they pulled it off as the presidency officer. Sinema ought to be ashamed.
— Jim Swift (@JimSwiftDC) October 26, 2021
Internationally Distinguished Reporting
- Zeke Miller — Associated Press
Breaking news — The State Department has announced it will begin issuing passports with a gender designation of “X” for those non-binary individuals. Miller’s refusal to go beyond the basics on this subject makes him stronger than me.
WASHINGTON (AP) — US official: US to issue its first passport with an ‘X’ gender marker for those who don’t identify as male or female.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) October 27, 2021
Distinguished Sports Reporting
- Gabe Fernandez — SanFrancisco Gate
He can be forgiven for not covering this game. Although the Monday Night Football match between San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts was already an interesting event, the constant rain rendered the game unwatchable. One of these fans was particularly interesting because of his extensive coverage with his camera. One fan, who was sitting in the seat while it rained down, was wearing a swimming cap with goggles.
We’ll save you a click. The “Full Story” is the fan brought the props with him to the game, and then he put those on and took off his shirt. This is it.
I got a chance to speak this kid’s very proud dad about the costume that even got Al Michaels chuckling https://t.co/t8hJdibnlM
— Gabe Fernandez, but spooky (@thelatinochild) October 26, 2021
Distinguished Investigative Reporting
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Jeremy B. Merril, Will Oremus — Washington Post
In the wake of an internal complaint by a whistleblower about Facebook’s operations, the media has taken out the knife on Facebook. It is clear that right-leaning news sources make up the majority of traffic receivers. The media must stop this. A Washington Post report recently revealed how Facebook engineers can drive greater engagement.
They place more importance on negative user reactions, which gives those posts greater exposure and encourages more users to participate. It was achieved by calculating a score for emojis. Then, the algorithm used that data to calculate the scoring. Literally, this meant that an “angry face” emoji would get a higher measurement than positive reactions, and posts that enraged people would be seen by more users.
Facebook secretly weighted reaction emojis, including “angry,” as 5x the value of “likes”–over the integrity team’s warnings.
We wrote about the obscure, often arbitrary, human decisions that shape Facebook’s algorithm and how we all interact online: https://t.co/CdsciNOpQV
— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) October 26, 2021
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