Our weekly recognition of less-than-meritorious excellence in journalism worthy of a skewed version 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 for the Pulitzer Prize board in numerous categories. To properly recognize the low watermark in the press, let us get right to the latest exemplars of journalistic mis-excellence.

Distinguished Explanatory Reporting 

• Tom Foreman — CNN

Consider for a moment the work of the fact-checker. They are tasked with doing extra amounts of research in order to glean the definitive details of a news item, and then deliver the final say in regards to the story. It has been fact-checked, and everything should be finalized from that point forward, goes the process.

CNN’s head fact-checker Tom Foreman was brought on to help Jim Sciutto and Poppy Harlow, as they were covering the new aspects of the Texas abortion law, to clarify its specifics. Foreman should be precluded from ever again presenting fact checks based on how incorrect he got this. In his segment, Foreman stated that doctors performing an abortion on a woman whose life may be imperiled by the pregnancy would be charged and could face life in prison.

This is considerably false, as the law does, in fact, state that women in this position can have the procedure performed. This is a detail of the law that was corrected on CNN. In fact, Foreman got this so incorrect that Sciutto and Harlow had to come back to the topic on the very same show to state the accurate details.

CNN’s Tom Foreman is an award winning fact checker, but on Thursday’s CNN Newsroom he spread some fake news about T… https://t.co/OnAc9wIgYm

— Sophie Nouveau (@sophienouveau_) August 25, 2022

Distinguished Investigative Reporting

• Ben Collins — NBC News

To begin to show how this one went off the rails, let’s just note that Ben Collins boldly states that he is the Senior Reporter – Dystopia Beat. Next, taking his cue clearly from the White House communications staff, Collins attempts to show how he has done the research into how Trumpism is a movement targeting its political enemies. Yes, Ben is parroting Joe Biden’s current push to have MAGA Republicans cast as fascists who want to destroy democracy–and he claims to have found evidence of this. That he does so in an oblivious fashion is precious.

On one hand, he declares that following extensive research into social media channels, he finds “Pro-Trump forums now exist to disseminate weaponizable data on new perceived villains to harass and threaten.” It needs to be noted for Mr. Collins that he makes this claim after he has collected data in order to weaponize it against the perceived villains in Trump World.

Another detail of note: Collins charges that citizens who dare question this administration, or agencies like the FBI and/or the IRS, are the real danger. As he does so, he is ignoring that his shielding of the authorities from the citizenry is far closer to fascist behavior, but that is a detail beyond his grasp.

I think it's time we start covering Trumpism for what it is now.

It's no longer a political movement. It's a violent fairytale of revenge on political enemies.

Feds could've found a body in those Mar a Lago boxes and followers wouldn't care. It's about retribution, not facts. pic.twitter.com/cF7OCnt261

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 29, 2022

Distinguished Feature Writing

• Harmeet Kaur — CNN

CNN is on the case of DC Comics making an insensitive attempt to honor Hispanic Heritage Month. The company released a number of variant book covers that had a number of superheroes portrayed carrying or serving notable Hispanic food, such as tacos and tamales. Yes, once again, we have the press trying to insist that food can be racist.

For this exposé of offensiveness, CNN managed to find all of three individuals willing to carp about seeing carne con queso portrayed in ink. Of course, all three happened to come from media outlets. What is remarkable is that while the complaint now is that this is seen as a sign of offensive stereotypes, it flies against the other food outrage we normally hear about: If people from other groups are seen eating these foods, they are charged with appropriating culture, so nobody is unscathed.

DC Comics' attempt to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month — featuring stereotypical Latino foods on its covers — has backfired. https://t.co/JbGgTnPMVd

— CNN (@CNN) August 31, 2022

Distinguished National Reporting

• Uri Berliner — National Public Radio

It is not really clear why NPR would want to attempt selling the concept that environmentalists are at the forefront of the pro-nuclear energy movement, but here we are. Not only does NPR say environmentalists are changing their position, they “lead the push” for this change, according to NPR. Uh-huh.

Resistance to nuclear power is on the decline worldwide — and environmentalists helped lead the push. Here's why it's gaining support.https://t.co/1b10jTd1d3

— NPR (@NPR) August 31, 2022

We’ll just chalk it up to An Inconvenient Timing that–only days prior to this report–Greenpeace had come out with its opinion on nuclear. Spoiler Alert: They were not raving about it.

“Nuclear isn’t just slow and expensive – it’s far too inflexible to ramp up and down with the swings of demand.

(…)

Nuclear’s contribution has, can and will only ever be very marginal. The reality is, it’s already well past its sell-by date.” https://t.co/IjAletlqtH

— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) August 27, 2022

Distinguished International Reporting

• Bartley Kives — Canadian Broadcasting Company

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Rick Shone had his bicycle stolen. The bike had been placed in the back of his truck, and he drove to the store he owns in order to step inside and have a word with some employees. The bike was taken from the bed of his vehicle, as the theft took place at about 12:00 noon. “I feel so stupid,” Shone said Wednesday afternoon. “I was inside for two minutes. I got distracted by a question.”

OR – is this possibly an elaborate ruse to underscore his platform?!?! It was that very morning at 10:30 when Shone announced his bicycle infrastructure proposal, when “he promised to spend $250,000 on 500 new bike racks in Winnipeg and pledged to replace the city’s bike-registration system with a national theft-deterrent program.” Either this is a stunt to highlight his plan, or the wheels have literally come off of his campaign.

If anyone sees my orange Rossin riding around – I would really like it back from the person who just STOLE IT FROM ME…529 alert has been activated…(stolen in West End) pic.twitter.com/OyCl7h4XRX

— Rick Shone for Mayor (@RickShone) August 31, 2022

Distinguished Cultural Commentary

• Madeleine Carlisle — Time Magazine

Possibly the biggest tell that the whole trans social movement is about control and imbalanced attention is that there is never a set standard that can be agreed upon. It seems that every time a demand surfaces regarding the proper address of individuals then once that is accepted or at least tolerated, suddenly, a new command comes out. Naming, gender assignation, language terms, and biological definitions have all been brought out as items that need to be adjusted to suit the latest declaration.

Now, it seems that pronouns, which had been settled upon once before, are again getting their adjustment. In an interview with a gender-queer author, we have to assume the letters “th” are somehow offensive or possibly discriminatory. Time resorted to a new set of standards regarding pronouns for this author, and the result makes the article and interview appear rife with typos.

– “In the 2019 illustrated graphic memoir, Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, explores eir process of coming out as nonbinary and asexual.”

TIME spoke to "Gender Queer" author and illustrator Maia Kobabe on about eir work, the efforts to restrict access to eir writing, and what ey make of the current cultural moment https://t.co/JLdmgu5lCL

— TIME (@TIME) September 1, 2022

Distinguished Local Reporting

• Anita Chabria — Los Angeles Times

For too long now, LA and Southern California have been dealing with the fallout of progressive DAs and their instituting of prosecution reform, releasing dangerous criminals, and creating a rise in crime. As a way of deflecting from these policies Chabria decided to rely on statistical chicanery to shift the blame to a reliable target — she attributes the rise in crime to “Trump’s California.” Her rationale is to look at voting rolls, and declares that municipalities where Republicans have a majority are the places with the higher crime rates.

It is not a consideration that the areas where the progressive policies lead to fewer prosecutions and fewer arrests are then seen as having “lower” crime rates than those regions where they actually enforce the law.

Chabria: Why is violent crime spiking in Trump’s California? https://t.co/thoez14QaC

— Anita Chabria (@anitachabria) August 26, 2022

Distinguished Investigative Reporting

• David Gilbert — Vice News

The desperation in the press to go after the Libs Of Tik Tok (LOTT) account continues, with competition heating up to become the outlet that truly brings them down! The latest push involves the attention that has been brought onto the Boston Children’s Hospital and its gender reassessment procedures. Gilbert delivers this not-at-all unhinged conspiracy that LOTT is actually feeding Russian disinformation through its social media platform Vkontakte (VK) in regard to this topic, with a pamphlet being shown in Russia that was found in Great Britain. Then he works on disproving his own contention.

“There isn’t any branding from a government or educational body on the visible pages and there are obvious grammatical errors. There is no evidence that such a leaflet was ever mass-produced and Piper, the researcher, was unable to find a single reference to this leaflet online prior to the VK posts. The fake leaflet may not have spread beyond these VK posts. The origin of the images posted to VK is unclear. The fake leaflet may not have spread beyond these VK posts.

There is no proof this pamphlet is real, no proof it originated in England, no proof of who created it, no proof that it spread beyond Russian social media, and no proof Libs Of Tik Tok has even seen the pamphlet. CLEARLY, THiS PROVES LOTT AND RUSSIA ARE IN COLLUSION!

Here's how LibsofTikTok is helping to supercharge Kremlin anti-LGBTQ disinformation https://t.co/ZcSNQGKsxZ

— David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) August 30, 2022