Pulitzer Prize, Meet the WALTER DURANTY PRIZE
We try not to be sore losers at PJ Media.
So after our first ever attempt at a Pulitzer Prize for Christian Adams & Hans von Spakovsky’s series “Every Single One” – revealing how every single Obama Justice Department appointee has been a liberal — lost this April, you won’t hear a peep out of us. We will not complain even though a 2007 Pulitzer was awarded to a similar series that detailed how 57 percent of Bush’s Justice Department appointments went to conservatives. (Okay, that’s maybe a peep.)
We know the biases of the Pulitzer Prize and did not expect to win.
No, at PJ Media we don’t get mad or complain… we get even.
Starting this year, PJ Media, in conjunction with our good friends at The New Criterion, will be awarding the first annual Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity.
Walter Duranty – it will be recalled — was the New York Times’ Moscow correspondent in the 1920s and 1930s who whitewashed Joseph Stalin’s forced mass starvation of the Ukrainians (the Holodomor) and many other aspects of Soviet oppression.
Duranty was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his efforts.
Despite numerous attempts by Ukrainian organizations and others, the prize has never been revoked. Duranty’s photograph remains in its honored place on the New York Times’ wall along with the newspaper’s other Pulitzer winners.
The Duranty Award
The first annual Duranty Prize will be given for what our readers consider the most egregious example of dishonest reporting for the fiscal year 2011-2012 (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012).
We will be officially accepting nominations from PJM and TNC readers starting May 1, 2012, at Duranty@pjmedia.com (but if you want to go ahead now, no one’s going to stop you – the email address is functioning).
A Duranty Prize Committee of seven journalists and writers will then sift the nominations and decide the winner (or winners) to be announced at a ceremony in New York in the Fall.
Committee members are: Peter Collier, Roger Kimball, Cliff May, Ron Radosh, Glenn Reynolds, Claudia Rosett, and Roger L. Simon.
The intention of this award is to highlight the continuing extreme bias and misreporting of our media. Nominations are welcome in text and video forms, in print or on the web. The committee would appreciate an Internet link with your nomination.
Since this is a new prize the committee also solicits your suggestions on how we should carry on our work and any other suggestions regarding the Walter Duranty Prize in the comments section. You are free to put your nominations in the comments section as well, but in order for them to count, please remember to send them to Duranty@pjmedia.com.
Sadly I have suffered from high blood pressure for most of my adult life, and this medical condition prevents me from reading as many liberal publications as would be required to make an honest attempt to find an article deserving of this award. I think it’s an excellent idea, though.
I can save you from high blood pressure very easily. Every article in the lieberal press qualifies. No need to read at all.
That’s what I was thinking: where does one start and end with the blatant lies of the consensus media?
Are we allowed to submit Canadian entries?
Would a non-story be better for your blood pressure? If so, the clear winner is the LA Times hiding the Obama-Khalidi tape.
I have been trying to promote a J. Goebbels Prize for documentary film making for years now, but this idea will work as well. Unfortunately, I think Michael Moore would be a perennial winner of any Goebbels Prize, and I’d hate to have him get any more public notice than he already receives.
Try Leni Riefenstal Prize.
But the majority would miss the irony.
Well, for sheer mendacity and the all-inclusive scope of that mendacity, there’s nothing that even comes close to attempting to point a finger of guilt, not only at white people, but at the very history of America, recent and far, like the Trayvon Martin case.
It not only neatly bundles and decontextualizes the entire history of America up to 2012, but reduces it to one of racial considerations. The liberal Left, already in Wanssee Conference territory with its theory that, by using multiculturalism and diversity, America would be much better off with fewer white people in a bewildering and Orwellian display of how race does/doesn’t matter, took a Hispanic, turned him white, then turned him into a member of a de facto assassination squad comprising police officers and Joe Blow mowing his lawn in Minneapolis.
I’m surprised someone hasn’t made a political animated cartoon where innocent gangbangers with big, sad eyes like you see in those weird paintings of children, are set upon by Hispanics and Asians with machetes with a sign around their necks that says “OFFICIALLY WHITE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE” while the Crypts/Bloods Eagle Scout Troop is trying to help old ladies across busy intersections. Violin music and images of sad clowns crying by a river would be a given.
White Americans have been talking in code on again off again since the Declaration of Independence, where Massachusetts outlawed slavery only on a technicality/practical joke and a law everyone disagreed with because the Left knows when everyone disagrees with laws – they have a weather vane that says when and it always points to whatever makes white people look like racists.
Minnesota regiments didn’t go off to the Civil War to fight slavery, but to get off the farm. Alabama regiments didn’t go off to the Civil War to get off the farm, but to fight for slavery.
Americans today talk in racial codes and ‘dog-whistles’ cuz, well, they have to I guess. No word on why they did so in American film from 1930 to 1955, where every bad guy was black, every film displayed an overarching interest by whites in racial supremacy and Americans were 100% on board with Federal Jim Crow laws but for some reason not 100% on board with Federal Prohibition.
I am not interested in white-washing the history of bigotry and racism, slavery and Jim Crow and sundown towns in America. What I am interested in doing is preventing that history from being grossly exaggerated until Oregon was built on slavery, Americans all punched blacks in the stomach on the way to school and only like Michael Jordan and Eddie Murphy and Oprah because we have Zimmer-ized them into WHITE PEOPLE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
Are these straw man arguments? Well, it would seem so on the ridiculous face of it. But try reading the black press regularly. Read the insane articles at The Root right next to major hotel chain and car ads, read the insane Tim Wise, Dr. Boyce Watkins. To say these morons have only bowdlerized American history as well as current events, is like saying Jews took trains to concentration camps the better to concentrate.
The Left has dropped an A-Bomb on American history despite a frickin’ blueprint by Mr. Orwell enjoining them on the inadvisability of doing so. They have taken cross hairs on a political website, called it a lynching, and have taken a lynching by mainstream American celebrities and called it justice.
Sorry to once again go so long. But this Martin case is a watershed moment in race relations and political correctness in America, the most important in a half-century. The Left has overextended and exposed itself. From NBC/Universal to the NBA Player’s Association to nearly every black celebrity and white liberal pundit – they will ignore the shame but they will never live it down.
Fail Burton,
Ditto to all your comments.
Yep…..the bastardizing, hyper-salivating/ventilating coverage, of the heretofore concluded investigation/media inspired lynching, into the death (it’s NOT murder if its self defense, which is what it really looks like)of the choir boy, poster-child of the truly RACIST, mendacious, anti-justice left-AKA, Trayvon Martin!
That about sums it up.
Adina Kutnicki, Israel
You forgot the jewel in the crown – when they reinvented Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic”. He has to be white, you see, at all cost. They’re beyond Orwellian, they’re insane.
Hispanic is a LANGUAGE GROUP. Hispanics can come in any race, creed, color or point of national origin as long as they are either native Spanish/Portuguese speakers or – in this country – have a recognizably Hispanic surname. It is quite possible to be a white Hispanic or a black Hispanic or an Yellow Hispanic (the former President of Peru was of Japanese ancestry) or a Red Hispanic (the current president of Bolivia is of Native American ancestry). A Hispanic could be Afro Puerto Rican, Rosario Dawson or Brazilian of German ancestry blonde hair, blue eyed Gisselle Bundchen.
How the Zimmerman/Martin incident would have played out had Trayvon Martin been a black Hispanic – let’s say Trayvon Martinez – shot by a white Hispanic – George Zimmerman – is simply too mind boggling to contemplate. Heads no doubt would have exploded in the major media, while trying to figure that one out.
Fail Burton – Excellent!!
Wells said. I think the racialists have miscalculated in the Martin case. Martin’s parents wanted justice for Trayvon. Thanks to the race hustlers, the story du jour is not about a poor, defenseless African-American soul vs. the overwhelming power of The Man. It’s about poor, defenseless George Zimmerman vs. the overwhelming power of the new African-American lynch mob. It’s not about whether a black man can get a fair trial in America. It’s about whether George Zimmerman can get a fair trial in America. It’s Rodney King in reverse. Maybe some people like it that way. But they should realize that the power equation has reversed itself in this case. The more they bluster, threaten, and assault people, the less they look like the victims and the more they look like the bullies. They’re not doing poor little Trayvon any favors.
http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2012/apr/24/2/matthew-owens-update-76305-vi-127906/
A white man (not incidentally a model citizen himself) is beaten by more than 10 black adults and is in critical condition, after he chased some black kids off his property with kitchen knives.
What he did was foolish, but the sheer brutality, cowardice, and brazen criminality of the adults’ reaction is going to get the attention of the American public. The race-baiting Leftists have indeed overstepped and the result will be quite the opposite of what they expect. Or did they even think that far ahead?
Brazen criminality is chasing after kids with knives. He asked for trouble and received it.
So is it alright to beat someone into a coma for poor judgement (or “brazen criminality” as you put it)? Would it be ok for people to hunt down the 10(?) people who beat the man into a coma and beat them into a coma? Would it then be ok for people to beat those people who beat the people who beat the man into a coma? When will the beatings end?
If I remember correctly it is still a right for one to protect their property (which includes removing kids from it). Are we not still a country of laws, not “law of the jungle” (to quote Bush Sr.)? If the parents really felt their kids were threatened they should have used the legal route, not the illegal one. The man beaten into a coma did not hurt anyone (though I can understand how the kids could have been frightened). And the man beaten into a coma was done so while still on his own property (supposively on his own front porch). Why did the kids not ask the property owner if they could use his property? Was there not another property that they could use (one of their own families home or apartment complex, public space)?
Afraid I have to agree. Chasing kids with knives is asking for it. To some degree, Zimmerman was asking for it when he started following Martin around the neighborhood. But the incidents themselves are not at issue here (although in a sane world they would be ALL that’s at issue). The problem is the grievance mongers’ reaction to the incidents. So far, I haven’t heard Al Sharpton or the NBPP howling for the knife guy’s blood. I also don’t know whether the knife guy’s beatdown was supposed to be “payback” for Trayvon. I have read of other incidents that apparently were. Those are the ones I’m talking about.
Framed according to the PC narrative, the Trayvon business should have been Trayvon’s aggrieved parents vs. the heartless white police chief and the unjust Florida justice system. Now it’s lone citizen Zimmerman vs. the mob and, possibly, the mob-intimidated, ass-covering, bad-publicity-dodging Florida justice system. Major backfire.
It’s not alright to assess punishment for poor judgement. However his lack of judgement put himself in harm’s way. We’re talking about reality here and not what should happen. I don’t deserve to die for poking bears with sticks, but I probably will.
Sorry but I am having a serious problem with your logic (or lack there of) that the man beaten into a coma, was “asking for it” or “his lack of judgement put him in harm’s way”. A person (allegedly) chasing kids from his yard with “kitchen knives” is a far cry from beting said man into a coma (or at all). Is it “asking for it” or “his lack of judgement put him in harm’s way” for a Black man to wear a hoodie at night and therefor acceptable to just beat them into a coma (hey “most robbers are Black wear hoodies”)? Is it “asking for it” or “his lack of judgement put him in harm’s way” for a man to be White (Caucasian) to just be beaten into a coma because he is White (remember “all White people are racists”)? Is it “asking for it” or “his lack of judgement put him in harm’s way” to beat a person into a coma because they carry a gun (legally, but of course he “MUST be going to use it to harm others”)? Is it “asking for it” or “his lack of judgement put him in harm’s way” to become arguementative and therefor acceptable to beat the arguementative person into a coma?
Even if the man had “shown poor juedgement” it is NOT acceptable to beat them into a coma (or attack them at all). Two wrongs NEVER make a right. If it did we might as well throw away our legal system, our culture, and society and just begin attack all who “asking for it” or “his lack of judgement put him in harm’s way”…
If he did have knives, one can bet that the black folks doing the beatings stole them. I don’t believe the knife part because the media has zero credibility on these issues. By the way, here in Chicago, people have been dragged from cars on multiple occasions following accidents and beaten to death by mobs of similar AA “concerned citizens”. Would that, under the stupid logic cited above about asking for trouble, also be an appropriate ending?
Kitchen knives?
This is the first I’ve heard of that particular wrinkle.
Kind of explains why he wasn’t armed to the teeth as he should have been though.
Kitchen knives weren’t mentioned in the article I read earlier today. Some kids were playing basketball in the street at 8:30 p.m. and he asked them to leave, which they did. About 20 black adults returned and beat him, on his own front porch, with anything they could get their hands on: belt buckles, chairs, paint cans. The victim’s sister was there, and she said that when they left, they said “that’s justice for Trayvon.”
What exactly do these reports mean when they say “kitchen knives”?
Are they talking about a 12 inch butcher knife? Or the kind of knife you typically use to butter your toast? The two are vastly different in terms of how threatening they are. A photo or an accurate picture of the knives used by the victim would bring some real enlightenment to this discussion. Otherwise, this starts to sound a lot like someone spinning the story in one direction or another….
Where did you hear about kitchen knives? I have read several reports on this incident and nothing was said about the vic being armed with a knife. Also I read that the kids were playing basketball in the street in front of his home (late evening)and he ran them off to stop the noise. I further read that the perps were adults from the kids families mostly.
No it does not.
That’s exactly the point of this article: the story won’t make the headlines.
Bugs,
I believe this comment of yours nominates you for an award as well! “To some degree, Zimmerman was asking for it when he started following Martin around the neighborhood.” Neighborhood watch. “watch”, get it? Being followed does not mean you get to attack and beat the follower’s head on the concrete. Trayvon had a cell phone and could have called 911 to report a suspicious person watching him. He chose violence instead. Violence begets more violence.
I concur with Fail Burton’s taking the long view of racism, in all its variants, in our history. There is overt racism and there is the more subtle forms of racialist thinking known as multiculturalism. I just finished a blog that identifies this more subtle racism (expressed as primitivism) in the writing of Edna Ferber and Oscar Hammerstein II, admiringly noted in the literature as precocious antiracists. See http://clarespark.com/2012/04/24/the-subtle-racism-of-edna-ferber-and-oscar-hammerstein-ii/. It is a very concrete blog, filled with quotes to prove my point.
You could hear a pin drop when the person who killed the white mother of a 3 year old and then stole the baby turned out to be a black woman. Not one peep of racism, hate or tea party could be heard.
Dear Mr. Simon, congratulations on launching the Walter Duranty Awards and best wishes for the success of this brilliant concept. Here are thoughts and suggestions. Your awards should be structured to reflect Duranty’s diverse body of work in the Soviet Union. Like most propaganda, his corpus can be divided into three broad categories: 1) Pure propaganda, or the rehashing of the Party line 2) Disinformation, or the spreading of falsehoods and 3) Attacks on enemies of the State, which can combine 1 and 2 but have a distinct and special purpose. This approach will give you three categories of excellence to recognize – just as the Pulitzer Committee bestows multiple awards. My suggestions regarding the respective category names are: 1) The Walter Duranty Pravda Award, after the infamous and ironically-named State-controlled newspaper 2) The Walter Duranty Department A Award, after the KGB Department of Disinformation (I believe it was a part of the First Chief Directorate) and 3) The Walter Duranty Special Assignments (or Operations) Award. Perhaps the overt tie to the KGB is a bit heavy-handed, but it certainly has satirical logic. All the best.
Bogie,
I don’t think you overstated your proposal. In fact, I applaud it. By making distinct categories we can serve up a diverse plate of awardees. The Department A award has so many volunteers coming out of the White House that they are begging for special notice. What can be said for poor Jay Carney, these days?
Occupy Wall Street coverage gave us so many moments of skewed coverage that it can fill the ballots for years to come. Meanwhile, MSNBC has prided itself on always siding with the Democrats (which currently means President Obama) and always attacking anyone who disagrees.
Excellent sugestions all.
2) The Walter Duranty Department A Award, after the KGB Department of Disinformation (I believe it was a part of the First Chief Directorate)
The Soviet Secret Police didn’t acquire the acronym KGB until long after Duranty’s time in the Soviet Union. Duranty served as bureau chief of the New York Times in the Soviet Union from 1922-1936, The KGB acryonym wasn’t adopted until 1954. Duranty would have known the secret police as the NKVD, the OGPU, and then the NKVD again.
The Soviet secret police were initially called the Cheka, but changed names several times. This Wikipedia article summarizes the various name changes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_secret_police
Ironically, the acronym KGB, so widely associated with Stalin, would have been unknown to him since it wasn’t adopted until after his death!
“So after our first ever attempt at a Pulitzer Prize for Christian Adams & Hans von Spakovsky’s series “Every Single One” – revealing how every single Obama Justice Department appointee has been a liberal — lost this April, you won’t hear a peep out of us. We will not complain even though a 2007 Pulitzer was awarded to a similar series that detailed how 57 percent of Bush’s Justice Department appointments went to conservatives. (Okay, that’s maybe a peep.)”
Maybe the Pulitzer committee thought your submission was derivative of the one that won in 2007. Perhaps writing something original would help next time.
Can you not even understand the difference between 57 percent and 0 percent?
Your reply confuses me. Can you not tell the difference between 0 percent and 100 percent?
He was talking 57% conservative vs. 0% conservative, not 57% conservative and 100% liberal.
I submitt Fox news for not reporting on the Sheriff Joe Arpaio on going CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION and the numerous Obama ballot challenges going on across the country. There is a huge Obama ballot challenge about to happen in Florida where Attorney Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and now Freedom Watch will be leading the charge to keep Obama off the Florida ballot. Fox is no longer a conservative friend, they are carrying Obama’s water by ignoring the biggest scandal in the history of our government. They are ignoring the Constitutional crisis of the century. They get the prize hands down!!
Water Duranty is not dead. He lives i the hallowed halls of NYTimes building and every other MSM organization in USA and Europe and many other countries of the world!!
Naming the award after Walter Duranty is brilliant. It’s too bad that so many of today’s “journalists” seem all to eager to adopt his methods.
You could have an award for ignoring a story and name it after Walter “don’t worry about those Jews in Europe” Lippman. (Please correct if I mixed people up.)
Duranty – The edited Zimmerman 911 tape
Lippmanm – non-coverage of Fast and Furious
I’ll bet “today’s ‘journ[o]lists’” don’t even know who Walter Duranty is. And, if they do, they probably think he’s a hero.
Based on this year’s Pulitzers, it would seem to be the latter.
Perhaps there should multiple categories of awards. Categories could be by media type and/or subject matter. For example, a Duranty for reporting on each of politics, the environment, race relations and the economy.
With so many deserving candidates it’s very hard to choose…I do, however, think you should award Krugman a lifetime achievement award!
Damn! You beat me to it!
But I second the nomination.
And don’t forget to cruise by Amazon to order Fred Beloit’s “Reich and Krugman, The Clownishness of Bearded Economists” in ten volumes, Halyard University Press.
Also the first one who came to my mind. Tom Friedman was a close second – particularly for being such a self-serving, one-note windbag.
Krugman is not a reporter doing news stories.
He’s a columnist.
Columnists also get Pulitzers.
It has to be the NBC/Zimmerman “he looks black” edit. Unless they manage to top that one before the deadline.
Many worthy contenders, though. Really, they’re all winners!
I second that. It was an intentional edit that drastically mischaracterized what happened, and conveniently played into Dear Liar’s hand. But easily exposed nowadays.
In terms of its importance – and possibly violent ramifications – I agree that the Zimmerman edit (shades of the Zimmerman telegram – no relation!) is far and away the clear winner of this absolutely necessary new award. But for second runner-up, or at least honorable mention, I want to nominate David Carr’s cowardly attempt at posthumous libel of Andrew Breitbart. Not because of any intrinsic importance, but simply on account of it P***ING ME OFF PERSONALLY.
I also back the nomination of the Zimmerman media tar and feathering. Not just slanting, but doctoring the news as well. Stirring up racial hatred to make political points. Running rough shod over constitutional rights. Using old and misleading photos of the key figures. Not since the days of William Randolph Hearst has yellow journalism been so fabulously exhibited. This nomination has to be a favorite in a year of standouts.
On another note. Can I nominate the Hurricane Katrina propaganda fest for Lifetime Achievement award?
I emailed in my nomination of the news agencies that have committed the lie of omission. By not covering the Fast and Furious scandal those networks deserve special praise in carrying the water for this administration. All in a scandal that dwarfs anything Nixon could have dreamed of!
Reporting on the lack of scandal in the Obama administration would have to be a finalist in my mind!
Without a doubt for sheer dishonesty and rank fabrication NBC with regards to the Trayvon Martin case.
There still is time for the press to top that one. Let’s give them a fair chance, okay?
I don’t understand why your organization (PJ Media) continues to focus on the negative aspects of other parties rather than the positives of your own. That’s no way to build a business! I mentioned this a while ago to a PJ Media broadcast I used to watch – they had an intro that showed images of the very people they opposed.
This is kinda like Ford running an ad with all GM cars and a tag line that says “All their cars suck”. Would that motivate you to consider a Ford?
Please pass this along or share this idea. I want PJ to succeed.
I nominate Jon for the award for vicious troll who poses as a civic minded citizen wanting conservative media to succeed.
The most serious assault on truth by the media is not what they report but what they DELIBERATELY do not report. A man, a white man, was beaten near to death by a black mob in Alabama for the crime of coming out on his porch and shushing some black kids who were making a racket in front of his house. Silence. A non-story. Crickets. Why? It doesn’t fit the template. Reality be damned. It doesn’t fit the agenda. The AGENDA is God. And if you’re on the wrong side of the agenda? You’re a non-person. Die non-person. Welcome to the USSA.
There is no money in spreading around stories that shine the light on hateful, spiteful black people & their senselessly violent escapades. Count on Obama & Co. to stoke these fires to the hilt as the election season unfolds. Fun. Fun. Fun!
Besides, it was only 20 against 1. That’s why we have affirmative action – to eliminate bigotry and achieve fairness.
The fawning coverage accorded Mrs. “Stand By Your Ruthless Dictator” Bashir al-Assad.
“Baghdad Bob”! That character was an icon for brazen misinformation and a well spring of humor in the path of destruction. Perhaps there could be a subcategory for Bob under the Duranty award.
I was going to pick someone else but then I saw this. I second “Baghdad Bob”
And I nominate Debbie Wasserman Schultz for the first Baghdad Bob award for misinformation
Although the Trayvon case looks like the lead horse, I think we may want to reserve judgment until the election is over.
I suspect the MSM are just getting warmed up as far as egregious misreporting goes. Wait until it looks like the race is too close to call and see what they come up with to help Uhh-bama over the finish line.
The October surprise (as if anyone would be surprised by media mendacity) story would be the nominee for next year’s award. The deadline for this award is 6/30/2012.
The field of candidates for the award will be ripe for the picking from now until November 6th. But the mega-harvest will occur after the defeat (hopefully) of Obama. The MSM will be in full punishment mode. The larger the margin of victory the worse it will be. The mainstream media will sound the charge. Their battle cry will be THE AMERICAN VOTER MUST BE PUNISHED FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE! The punishment will go non-stop 24/7 and it will come from every source and direction possible. There will be an endless list candidates acting as purveyors of lies, distortions, sob-stories, fabrications, phony statistics, half-truths, and on and on. Just wait until the NEA gets into high-gear and spreads their venomous hate and anger directed at our kids in the classrooms all across America. It will be ugly and the candidates many.
This is a GREAT idea, and long overdue. How about a “Useful Idiots” award, too? Maybe the first recipients could be those Norwegian buffoons who gave O the Peace Prize just for being his own extra-groovy self.
More brilliance! For the “Useful Idiot
Award”, I would also nominate the OWS movement.
This is a brilliant and hilarious concept. A concept that may help to make a few more members of the public aware of the duplicity of the Progressive Marxists and their propaganda bureaus of the MSM.
I have a nomination; although, it is not as compelling as the cold-blooded shooting of a virgin Black adolescent by a blood crazed White supremacist, but it is just as dishonest. This is the non-coverage of Fast and Furious, with Eric Holder’s immunity from perjury.
I deal with the public in my daily business life, and I doubt if 20% of the public is even aware of this breach of authority and the public trust. Unfortunately, the death total of federal agents and of Mexican and American citizens won’t show the true accounting for decades; since these weapons of murder and mayhem will continue to build on Obama’s Legacy long after he has become an embarrassing footnote in America’s history.
roger, where’s belladonna? I miss her.
lots of people can have their political and professional lives in order, and have a high, holy mess in their private life. she sorted that sort of thing out. and her commenters were interesting and usually kind.
and, she’s funny, rather than angry.
she hasn’t posted in a month. now that her vacation is over- when will she be back?
I miss her too. Hopefully RLS will get back to us on that.
Belladonna Rogers is on hiatus but will be back in a few weeks. Watch for a few new surprise columnists as well.
I would like to add my voice to the others and wonder when Belladonna will be back. Her insight and presentation far exceeds anything I have found in the so-called “advice column” narratives from others that passes for insight and wisdom. Hope she returns very soon.
I love Belladonna Rogers, she is a ray of light every day.
That’s great news, Roger.
Wouldn’t be the same place without her.
I mean, seriously, where can you find a conservative advice columnist … much less one who doesn’t rely on “moral cliches.” That’s not quite the right way of saying it … but it’s pointed in the right direction.
Thank you for that update. I did google her & note she is working on her own website, BelladonnaRogers.com. She already has a list of previous articles linked under “Topics.”
thank you. it seems like people are more like people on her columns, rather than megaphones on others. I know I read more carefully the commentors who post on her pages, b/c I have a better sense of what they are like as human beings.
and, golly, she’s funny. her obama bumper-sticker column, with it’s polite little sabotage letter–
Thanks Ari …
You read my mind. I was just thinking about this the other morning when I found myself waiting for the next Belladonna column. Missing her …
Bravo! Terrific idea! How about a video of a presentation ceremony, a la the Oscars, listing the five to ten nominees and an opening of the envelope to announce the “winner”. I also like the, above-mentioned, “Baghdad Bob” award. It suggests a future expansion of the “prize” to other categories, such as the “Michael Moore Award”.
Anything Eugene Robinson wrote, in the time period for which nominations are being accepted.
Dear Mr. Simon,
Please read until the end.
I nominate PJMEDIA for The Duranty Prize for NOT investigating if a “seasoned” producer” was fired from NBC doctoring the Zimmerman audio.
PjMedia cared about the story until the traffic started dropping ?
PS. I love PjMedia. I just hope you are interested in the truth more than money from advertisements.
road to hell, and all that….
I’m rooting for the NY Times to win this one. Will they display next to the Pulitzer that that liar won?
There needs to be a Collective Silence award for the MSM’s deliberate and nearly universal* refusal to investigate the Fast and Furious scandal. Even when it results in the President of Mexico criticizing Obama to his face at an international summit’s joint press conference, it makes news everywhere except the United States.
*the sole laudable exception being Sharyl Atkinson of CBS
Couple of questions to my friend, Roger.
Just one?
I have a ton of suggestions for multiple categories.
In the “Sham-wow” category, NBC wins in a landslide by intentionally mal-editing the Zimmerman-dispatcher conversation and then leading with it on their morning show, airing the mal-edit five times and then covering up their own malfeasance. Basically, tampering with evidence, intentional inciting of racial tension, with malice aforethought. And to think, this did NOT stem from their truth serial killer outlet, MSNBC.
In the “Leftist Tarp” category for an ongoing coverup, I would nominate the LA Times for the suppression of material information in a tape of Obama at a Rashid Khalidi function, coupled with their disingenuous and empty rhetoric reasoning behind the clear attempt to keep the American public separated from the truth about Obama and his attitude toward Israel.
In the “I’m Soros, So Soros” division, I would nominate Media Matters for not only distorting the news, but for hiring spies to infiltrate the personal lives of Fox News employees. The Orwellian implications of this are staggering.
In “The Big Shill” category, it would be hard to beat Chris Matthews, but my candidate has to be CNN and World B. Fareed, also known as Fareed Zakaria and his broken GPS, which seems always to point to nautical Mideast, and while he is not a paid intern in the Obama administration, he is racking up credit card points before declaring moral bankruptcy.
And finally, in the “This Is All So Unexpected”, award, I would nominate all of the 400 leftist JournOlistas who continue to report that every bad turn produced by this administration’s assault on capitalism as “unexpected”. Since the JournOlista crowd was outed outside of the fiscal year timeframe, Paul Krugman would have to be this year’s “Unexpected Recipient”, because if ever there was an economy and it’s non-recovery that needed a poster child, this miserable one and Krugman deserve each other.
How about an annual listing similar to those on awards shows of “those we have lost”? Call it something like “The Golden Bus Tire Treads of Dishonor” to highlight those previous icons who were unceremoniously tossed under the bus for daring to have an independent thought during the previous year. Don Lemon would be the most recent recipient.
I offer this candidate, for sheer lack of any sense of American justice and for the brazenness of the author, a former felon[can a felon be a former felon?FB]. And the candidate is…Mansfield Frazier, none other.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/18/trial-of-george-zimmerman-could-trigger-another-rodney-king.html
For every Rodney King, there’s a Reginald Denny (maybe more). But, oh, how we ignore black racism (we “owe” them, after all).
“RobertMN
For every Rodney King, there’s a Reginald Denny (maybe more). But, oh, how we ignore black racism (we “owe” them, after all).”
You are aware that the story of Reginald Denny is more complex than “black vs white”, specifically how and who rescued him:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/l-riots-good-samaritan-remembers-scary-truck-driver-105229769.html
And the first person I nominate for winner of the Walter Duranty prize for mendacious reporting is…ME! I just produced the following winning report for 2012:
So this reporter (me) was visiting a local zoo when, to his shock and amazement, this lion reaches through the bars of his cage and grabbed a young girl. He was slowly dragging her screaming through the bars when this young fellow jumps in, stomps the lion’s paw and rescues the girl. That was the finest act of bravery I’ve ever witnessed, I exclaimed. Who are you? I’m just a marine on leave from combat in Afghanistan he replied modestly. Oh, I answered dejectedly, then the thought came to me. Here was my lede on next day’s front page. Marine steals lunch from African immigrant!
Not bad huh? Well back to working on next year’s prize winning story.
Every journalist who calls the terrorists “militants”.
Fast and Furious. It is disgusting how the main stream media tried to cover that up just because a Democrat is in the White House. Obama should be forced to look the family of that dead border patrol agent in the face and tell them that Eric Holder knew nothing about that. Oh, and to make matters worse, not a single person at the FBI, ATF, or the Justice Department even got fired over Fast and Furious, let alone go to jail. Disgusting. It makes my head spin to think what the main stream media would have done with Fast and Furious if a Republican was in the White House. Disgusting.
There are two situations that preclude the use of the term ‘former.’ A felon and a Marine.
I nominate Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute for his attack on the Heartland Institute. Gleick impersonated a Heartland Institute board member to get the board materials for an upcoming meeting. Then when those did not implicate Heartland as he wanted, he forged a document to embarrass them. He then sent all of these documents out to friendly media who published them with great glee.
How about anything to do with ANYTHING Nancy Pelosi has said? Ever. (Especially her political epitaph: “We have to pass this bill . . . . ” ) And not questioning her legally-binding oath to protect and defend the Constitution, or questioning her sanity. Ever. Or Wasserman-whatever, the Pelosi-in-training.
Or when the Dems — in the most egregious example of deception — tried to position Obamacare as a cure for our debt, only to discover it was just the opposite? Treasonous. And from the press that’s supposed to question everything and get to the truth? Crickets. But, no, they’re not biased.
This award could be given on a daily basis.
Or Barack’s Nobel, for things he was going to do (and hasn’t, and won’t. Should there be a COMEDY subcategory? This is certainly is a laugher.) And, oh, how the press thought he was — and still is — so worthy.
Or, back to Wasserman-whatever, and her defense of Harry Reid’s refusal to produce a budget (because they have Big-Government plans in the form of Big-Government taxes for everybody that will absolutely blow a crater in our economy, but they don’t care because all they ever wanted was their wet-dream national healthcare system — and to hell with whatever it costs, we’ll figure out all that annoying financial stuff later).
All these are for the lack-of-coverage “Non-story” category (The Jiminy Cricket Award?)
Perhaps you can also have some Walter Duranty style classics. I’m thinking along the lines of the Al-Dura hoax and the faked Iranian missile pictures.
For story non-reporting – there are so many – Arpaio’s press conference( whether you believe it or not, still newsworthy), the massive voting fraud that went on during the democrat primaries, the almost certainty that Dreams from my Father was ghostwritten (likely by everyone’s favourite weatherman), just to name a few.
Coverage of the barrack obama administration …………..
I remember John Stossel pointing out that when he was a percieved liberal with
ABC, he won lots of EMMY’s. Now that he’s gone over to the dark side (FOX)
he never gets nominated. Same principle>
Unless you are going to award this on an hourly basis, nobody could possibly keep up.
This is an excellent idea, I love it. The only contribution I have is that there should be several categories for the prize. You know a Duranty for mendacity, one for obfuscation, one for prevarication, another for hyperbole and lastly how about one for equivocation. Since there are so many kinds of lies and so many liars to choose from, we should sow the seeds “liberally”. Instead of holding one liar up for special consideration.
I think NBC news runs away with the prize for their “Fast and Furious – never heard of it” coverage. Under a Republican administration this would have been the main NBC story 24-7 with breaking bulletins all the way through impeachment.
“Bigger than Watergate” “Watergate didn’t have a body count” “Republicans arm right wing death squads here in the US”
Any leftist reporting on the economic havoc that has been wreaked in Cuba this last half century by Castro, Guevera and his cronies would certainly qualify for a Duranty award since it has to be connected by direct lineage. The motivations from that of Duranty are no different, and worse, since the modern Communist apologists have 80 more years of historical evidence, and the Eastern European Spring of 1989 not to mention the night satellite picture of Korea, both North and South. How can they think their lies and coverups will help anyone? Frankly, I’ve read a million explanations, including comparison to the medieval monks who thought it was important to determine the number of angels dancing on the point of a pin, and I still don’t get it. Who voluntarily wants to embrace evil in exchange for the allure of transient power? I will never get it.
My nominee is:
“Inside the Racist Mind: The fact that you may honestly believe you are not biased does not free you from unconscious racism”
By Touré
Time Magazine (April 19, 2012)
This diatribe from Time’s resident racemonger lays the groundwork for establishing a Thought Police.
However, this especially applies to the above-us-all Lefties — so welcome to the club.
Just read that and it’s a doozy ain’t it? Typical gibberish passed off as wisdom which says racial stereotypes are wrong and employs racial stereotypes to do it. Mysteriously, black folks always come out 100% clean in this philosophy. It’s the same article one can read 800 times in the black press with the words rearranged and the end is always – blacks folks good, white folks bad.
The essay is an excellent example of the notion that there’s simply no cure for brutal stupidity.
I think this should be made into an annual feature film. It may not gain much at the box office, but would certainly go viral on the Internet.
Can journalists from other countries compete? There is a slew of them out here. You might consider creating an ad hoc section. Italy has shiploads of them, in monthly, weekly, daily, televised and radio formats. Of our public state-owned television’s three channels, one is permanently and entirely assigned to the Leftist parties. The other two are divided up among the others.
The time it would take to sort out the mendacity which is proper to them, from the obfuscations, omissions, distortions etc. of their sources in Rome and in the judiciary, might be a problem.
Come to think of it, now that we have a “technocratic” government… attempting to deal objectively with the subject of Truth can be risky. We are in full Orwellian mode, with the government making laws named the opposite of what they do. Take for example the one termed “simplification decree”, which is so replete with complications that it is difficult to believe this is not done on purpose.
So maybe I’d better shut up. That’s what the majority parties are doing, both left and right: agreeing to basically smile and shut up.
But don’t give up on us please. Stay informed. I just went to see Woody Allen’s latest film, To Rome With Love, and in commenting on the young left-liberal character the mother-in-law-to-be says that “Communist parties don’t even exist anymore.” Well, guess what? There are still TWO parties that go by the name of communist, not to mention the ex-Communist party that has been renamed “Partito Democratico”. Communism is alive and kicking. What is dead is people’s mistrust of communism. That was the whole purpose of Gorbachev’s tearing down the Berlin Wall, the most successful Trojan Horse in history.
Oh, my. The media here in Israel would be chock-full of prizes. We could have one for treason (we would actually need several), and one for self-contradictory articles on Ynet that are later cleaned up without mentioning the change.
Yeah, but you guys have Latma to make up for it.
I love LATMA (great way to learn Hebrew, BTW) but what is their viewership? The MSM here is rediculously powerful.
I recall an opposition member in the Knesset (a moderate one, yet!) stating in Knesset (in a POSITIVE manner!) that there were four traditional strongholds of the left – I believe the media, academy, the judiciary – I forget the fourth – and lamenting that this was changing! Not to mention the the elites are not only left-wing, but that Jews from the Arab world are way under-represented.)
Maybe you could pair the Duranty prize with a companion Breitbart prize for the person(s) who best countered the prize winner? I’d contribute to an actual monetary honorarium for that.
Hands down: Joe Thugman (aka Jack Krugman) for anything and everything he writes.
There are so many that perhaps there should just be a Duranty Hall of Shame. Or just give the first one to the entire mainstream media.
There are so many, almost l every day. But I think NBC rewording George Zimmerman’s conversation with the dispatcher was absolutely the worst.
Just about anything by PolitiFact about Republicans/conservatives. (PolitiFact is operated by the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times.)
When I first started reading I thought you were going to give prizes and/or do a series of articles on the pulitzer prize winners themselves, how they are actually undeserving. Either that or have people nominate who actually SHOULD have been nominated/won the pulitzers.
You know, looking at that picture of the Durante statue, with his long nose, it reminds me of a very fitting Pinocchio!
“You know, looking at that picture of the Durante statue, with his long nose, it reminds me of a very fitting Pinocchio!”
I think you are confusing Walter Duranty, the so-called “journalist” who was head of the New York Times bureau in Moscow in the 1930s with Jimmy Durante, the comedian famous for his big nose.
Walter Duranty was a notorious liar. Jimmy Durante was just funny.
But they did give the statue a long nose. I would not of course sully the great Jimmy Durante with any such association.
Save time and bandwidth. There is only one candidate who stands head and shoulders above the rest and that is:
Barrack Hussein Obama — Master Mendacist.
My vote is for the Daily Rash article on Keith Olbermann’s interview with Casey Anthony. http://www.thedailyrash.com/keith-olbermann-lands-first-interview-with-casey-anthony OK, it’s purposely deceptive, but I still vote for it!
The most egregious examples of dishonesty — no, LIES are anything Obama has said for the past 3 1/2 years. HE should receive the LIE OF THE YEAR AWARD.
Too bad there are time limits on this award. Come to think of it there shouldn’t be – anymore than there is a statute of limitations for capital crimes. And capital crimes are what I nominate the entire broadcast media, local and national, for criminal acts of both commission and omission in the months leading up to the Rodney King riots – which led directly to the deaths of over 50 people.
Commission in that they intentionally edited the videotape of the incident, leaving out the first 15 or 20 seconds where King physically assaulted the officers. Adrenaline pumped officers who had been engaged in a potentially deadly 100+ mph chase with King through residential neighborhoods. Officers who, through their experience, made a reasonable assumption that the burly King was under the influence of drugs, perhaps PCP, that would give him unnatural strength. Officers who after their shift was over, probably wanted to go home to family, rather than to the hospital or the morgue. Showing King’s beating, without the pictures of his initial aggressiveness would bring the effect of stirring up rage in the public. Conversely, showing the pictures of King attacking the police would have dampened much of that rage with the understanding that he was asking for trouble. The media chose its narrative consciously and deliberately.
Omission in that the media completely ignored the fact that there was a 2nd individual in King’s car. Also a black man. A black man who was untouched. Untouched because he obeyed police commands. But this fact would have gone against the narrative of racist white cops, on the prowl and looking for black men to beat up. As a matter of fact, that detail would have put the lie to the entire narrative, as all but the most radically jaded police-haters would have seen. If the cops were racist vigilantes, why did they not beat up the other black guy? Probably because they were not racist vigilantes.
And over 50 people died in the ensuing riots. And several police officers lives were ruined. The media was responsible for all of this. And no one ever paid a price for it.
That was my epiphany. I haven’t listened to or trusted so-called mainstream media since. They showed their colors long before their Pravda-like bastardization of the 2008 election or the Martin/Zimmerman case.
I know I’ve not kept to the rules of the nominating process – and hereby disqualify myself – but…I just had to get this off my chest.
“Commission in that they intentionally edited the videotape of the incident, leaving out the first 15 or 20 seconds where King physically assaulted the officers. Adrenaline pumped officers who had been engaged in a potentially deadly 100+ mph chase with King through residential neighborhoods. Officers who, through their experience, made a reasonable assumption that the burly King was under the influence of drugs, perhaps PCP, that would give him unnatural strength. Officers who after their shift was over, probably wanted to go home to family, rather than to the hospital or the morgue. Showing King’s beating, without the pictures of his initial aggressiveness would bring the effect of stirring up rage in the public. Conversely, showing the pictures of King attacking the police would have dampened much of that rage with the understanding that he was asking for trouble. The media chose its narrative consciously and deliberately.”
I think it was Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, who said the best way to lie was to tell the truth, but only to a point. The media did that in spades by omitting Rodney King’s assault on police in their editing of the tape. This was every bit as dishonest as NBC’s recent editing of the Zimmerman-dispatcher tape.
That the officers were “pumped up” after the chase, or angry because they were attacked is no excuse. They are the ones who are supposed to be the professionals. They are the ones whose training is supposed to allowed them to overcome normal human reactions. We expect, and pay them, to act better than we would in those situations. We equip them with everything from cans of mace all the way up through Tasers to lethal weapons. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer that no one with my temper (short) be walking the streets armed with a 15 shot Glock. “They were only being human”, is the wrong thing to hear when we’re talking about the actions of our police officers.
One impotant nitpick – it was “Golodomor”, not “Holodomor”. “Holod” => “cold”, “golod” => hunger.
Otherwise, excellent idea. The time has come. I propose that if a candidate for the recepient of the prize happens to receive Pulitzer as well, this should break the tie among other worthy candidates.
Hmm….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
This is one of those things. The Ukranian word spelled in Cyrillic is “Голодомор”, where the first letter “Г” corresponds to the Latin “G”.
My best guess is that the confusion started because in Ukranian, “G” is pronounced much softer than in Russian, a throaty closer to “H”, although still different from the sound of “H” which corresponds to Cyrillic “X”. The Ukranian emigrant organizations, which brought the word into American vocabulary, probably wanted to emphasize their distinction from Russians, as occupied peoples with languages related to their occupiers tend to. I cannot blame them, but the result is a linguistic atrocity.
I won’t even blame you if you leave the word as it is
I speak both languages natively, by the way.
In Ukrainian, there’s no such sound as english H, and there’re two approximants: voiced Г and voiceless Х. Х is traditionaly transcripted as Kh (e.g. Kharkiv). Г – the same origin as Russian Г (“G”) – has no spelling in Russian, so, in Soviet tradition of translating everything through Russian, it was transcripted as G; but it’s a mistake for transcribing directly to English. Compare: ukr. Гамбург “Hamburg”.
Sorry for poor English.
Sounds like a great idea. How about making sure we can access the stories behind the awards so we can parade the articles under the noses of those who deny the MSM of having biases?
Unfortunatley, this entire idea might backfire, since the “winners” will probably not see anything wrong with what Duranty did, and they may be proud of the award and start posting in thier bios.
For these past 80 years, the powers that be at the NYT have never seen anything wrong with what Duranty did — loathsome. Also, see the wikipedia posting on NYT reporter Herbert Matthews for his role in boosting Fidel Castro & Co.
I reckon there should also be a prize in Mere Punditry, but Tom Friedman would win the top 8 places.
Suggestion: have separate categories for print, television, radio and online.
Nomination: 60 Minutes report, “Christians in the Holy Land,” by Bob Simon. Original broadcast, Sunday, April 22, 2012. About 15 years after the crime of Fatah and Muslim radicals pushing Christians out of Bethlehem through violence, intimidation and murder, Bob Simon comes along and tells America that Israel and the security fence are the reasons why there are very few Christians living in Bethlehem today. With Christians being harassed and violated all over the Middle East, surely Bob Simon’s report is worthy of a nomination for mendacity.
It would be interesting to see an essay on how the NY Times explains its Duranty episode: how it happened, why it happened, what effect Duranty’s misreporting had on events. Stuff like that. Anybody got a link to this essay on the NY Times and its Duranty Era? If not that, then how about a piece on how Paul Krugman’s economic prescriptions and predictions have turned out so far, say, over the last 15 years since Paul took his throne as one of the world’s foremost writers on political economy.
I had hoped that there would be enough space for a memorial award of some high dishonor recognizing M,Rather’s singular contribution to media mendacity. I also vote for an offsetting Brietbart award which would quickly eclipse the Pulitzer as the pinnacle of journalistic excellence.
Since the stories are so numerous, witness this thread, I also submit some sort of grading system could clarify the levels of mendacity. Pinocchio has already been spoken for. I suggest a fart grading system scaled from one to five with five being the most noxious lie. An appropriate sound clip could accompany the award. Should there be different categories, it might be helpful to add a hurling symbol and sound effect to signify level of repugnance. Think what the sound of five hurls could do for your appreciation of the reporter and his/her/its story. If these categories are a bit of a dry cob, consider using knee pads as emblematic of the skill level of fellatio the story demonstrates. The sucking sound of a masterful example would signify more than just jobs slipping across the border. You could of course combine all three to further refine the gradations of mendacity. Imagine the kind of story that would produce four farts, three hurls and five knee pads.
Great idea, but won’t Paul Krugman win it every year?
The Duranty prize? Lack of coverage for pro life marches, and the smear about prolife violence, which is very rare.
The Lippman prize for ignoring a story? The story of one million Catholic Christians (mainly Filipino or from India) who have no legal way to worship because they live in Saudi Arabia.
If the NY Times refuses to give up Duranty’s Pulitzer prize even when confronted by the truth of Duranty’s deception, why don’t you write a screenplay about it, Roger? Use your skills to tell a story that shines light on the subject for the masses, and brings shame to the commie-sympathizing left?
I can’t find it, but somebody recently wrote a column (WSJ? TIME?) about how lucky the Cubans are because of their low carbon footprint.
Oh, the black guy at the tea party, and they cut him to show his gun so they could say how rrraaaccccist the tea party is. Or the slur/spitting episode during the healthcare nightmare, when Breitbart put out the money to prove it happened, only it actually didn’t. That got into lots of articles/broadcasts etc., and some still point to it today. Which reminds me, whatever happened to Allan Colmes? He used to bring that up all the time, as though it had never been disproved, even by the congressman himself. Or how about just ALL the, “Tea Party is racist” articles. And that also brings us to the stupid coffee party, and all the coverage over this non-existent group that never was, LOL. And how OWS is just sooooo peaceful, hyuck hyuck. Wow, lots to choose from indeed!
And the Tea Party was only the latest grassroots conservative movement to be excoriated in the MSM. Who can forget the knife sharpening and salivating that went on over the Minutemen at the Mexican border several years back? The absence of any evidence to back up any of its claims about rednecks, racism, weapons, etc., never troubled the MSM at all.
Which brings us to a related issue. What do the lies of Leftist journalists matter anyway? Even when the miscreants are trapped in their own falsehoods and distortions, they extricate themselves with the seeming mother of all get-out-of-jail-free cards, the APOLOGY. Oh, pain. The apology. Sorrow for someone else’s “misunderstanding” or their having taken something “out of context”. Never a mea culpa retraction. Only maybe, grudgingly, something “misspoken”, or a “poor choice of words”. Meanwhile, the bell has already been rung.
Lastly, let’s also consider a “Stand Your Delusional Ground Award” for those who are genetically incapable of even the apology and who stubbornly continue to insist, long after their fraud and ineptitude has been exposed, that their cause is nevertheless righteous. Dan Rather persisting in the claim that there was an underlying, although otherwise unsubstantiated, truth to a demonstrably counterfeit document makes one’s head explode. And Al Sharpton’s refusal to accept that Tawana Brawley played him like a cheap fiddle remains a classic.
Even though that probably is incorrect, it’s not the sort of nonsense that should make your head explode because that actually is a standard disinformation trick: forge evidence of something true, release it, and then discredit it.
We need more awards such as this to counter the marxist influenced media. I would only add there should be a Duranty class award for the most ignored important story to not be covered. Fast and Furious comes to mind. After all, Duranty was awarded the Nobel for ignoring a very important news story.
Well, I must confess that I never ever read a Lib columnist all the way from top to bottom. Can’t do it, and it’s almost always unnecessary since I already know what the content will be. Kaus is an exception. I’ll read him.
I am whole-hearted in offering my support for a print media and A-V media version of the Raspberry Awards.
I too think you should have more than just one award.
For just this year both the “Zimmerman edit” and the failure to cover Fast & Furious are certainly award worthy examples of media mendacity.
But clearly they are different, one is a direct action (I honestly don’t see how it can’t win!) and one is inaction.
I suppose it might be hard to give an award for inaction. But wasn’t that a big part of Duranty’s sin? That he didn’t report the truth?
There should also be an award for failure to report a pol’s party in news coverage. I bet you could find a few good nominees amoung those who have reported on the Corzine fraud/crime/snafu.
Today, there is no such thing as left wing or right wing media. All media is owned by the same big corporation who own the government. They put in propaganda that suits the purpose of their long term agenda. Sort of like guiding the herd in and keeping them in control and in their corral. The 1% own the corral and the CEO are the cowboys who oversee the herd, and make sure they don’t stampede by keeping them dumb and stupid. That is why CEOs are paid millions.
The New York Times (left wing)and other media, planted a slew of false stories for their (left wing) audience (to justify the war on Iraq) thus enabling George Bush (right wing) to invade Iraq without resistance from either left or right. Since there are two schools of taught, actually there are many more but it’s easier for the 1% to control the herd by herding everyone into two large corrals, either left or right and for the purpose, they created the suitable media that feeds either the left or right corrals, depending on what kind of propaganda is on your appetite, with stories designed to keep both left and right at each others throats, while the 1% takes all the money.