OPINION

Celebrating Media Mayhem With the Heckler Awards - Part 1: The Industry Trends Trophies

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Dec 23, 2024
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

As we flip the calendar, it is customary to look back at the prior year before wadding it up and properly tossing it into the non-recyclables bin (because there is so much we do not want circulating once again). Here at "Riffed From The Headlines," it has been another year of compiling the worst and misbegotten in the media landscape – and while we expected a truckload of distemper and malpractice from the news environment, 2024 proved to be a watershed year for the press rendering its already dwindling reputations.

To recognize the breadth of this journalism implosion we are awarding a column-specific honorarium dubbed "The Heckler Awards." The flood of media malpractice was so extensive we can deliver the (dis)honors seen in the press in four stages: Industry-wide issues, independent examples of notoriety, and then the final two parts covering the categories seen in the column. In this first installation, we will recognize the trends seen across the media spectrum, the ill-thought narratives, the stories avoided out of convenience, and other ethics-challenged actions shared by numerous news outlets. So, let us get into it! Here are the trophies for the disturbing trends seen from the press industry last year.

THE INDUSTRY PREVARICATION OF THE YEAR

There was a lengthy list to choose from in 2024, but one stood above the others in the size, impact, and scope of the media lies. For roughly the first six months of the year we were told that the obvious and blatant sliding condition of President Joe Biden was a manufactured hit job by political opponents. Despite the very evident and mounting examples of his mental faculties the press not only refused to explore this reality, but they also lashed out at anyone displaying or commenting on his condition.

This was such a glaring example of media malpractice that just as their defense of the man was conducted at full volume Biden had his clear meltdown exposed during the debate with Donald Trump. Every excuse previously made was blasted into confetti as there was no explaining away what the world witnessed on a live broadcast in a press-controlled environment. 

Recommended

Here's What Kamala Harris Had to Say to the Teamsters. It's Pretty Funny. Matt Vespa
Ex-CNN Reporter's Take About the GOP and the Media Gets Shredded With One Tweet Matt Vespa

Biden’s condition was laid out so obviously Democrats and journalists were suggesting he step down from the election ticket – during the debate.  The press complicity in covering up Biden’s mental degradation was about the biggest self-created damage to the credibility in the industry as we have seen. 

THE MEDIA MYNA BIRDS AWARD

Just ahead of that debate debacle we saw the press complex coordinate in a fashion that was remarkable in its brazenness. Seemingly overnight the news outlets declared that unedited videos of Joe Biden displaying his diminished mental faculties were “cheap fake videos”, a pathetic way to spin the truth.

 Not only was it clear that a new defensive talking point was found but the sweeping manner it had been employed at once exposed the collusion in the industry. They did not seem to care that this deception was so obvious. 

Instead of exploring the story the press demonized the evidence. At Grabien they measured how much that term exploded in the press in a matter of a couple of days. Brian Stelter did not criticize the industry tactic, he criticized those sharing the videos. Karine Jean-Pierre stated these were obviously “cheap fakes” because the press was calling them “cheap fakes”...at the orders of the White House. The best (worst) was when CBS News did a report to show one of these alleged “cheap fakes” and managed to run an accurate clip of Biden wandering off from a group of world leaders. They fixed this error on the sly, replacing the video clip they showed with another, without notification – they “proved” the use of “cheap fakes” by creating one of their own. They had to admit what had been done after being called out for the deception.

 An earlier post was removed as it included the wrong version of a video. This version has been updated to include the correct clip and label on the edited video.

THROWING THE PENALTY FLAG AWARD 

In one of the more desperate attempts on a Supreme Court Justice, this Spring the press became intimately concerned with the types of flags one Justice, Sam Alito, had been flying outside his residences. For too long we were delivered the ongoing melodrama of a neighbor dispute leading to the American flag being raised upside down at the Alito home. This story was covered so broadly most of America had the same reaction: Why do we care?!

Then The New York Times stoked this barely flickering controversy by finding out there was a photo from some time back where another “provocative” flag was flying outside the Alito vacation home. These Discrediting outrages generated enough apathy that Alito remains on the SCOTUS bench to this day.

BORDERLINE PSYCHOSIS AWARD

CBS News launched this hysteria from the Rio Grande as the press became upset when Texas Governor Gregg Abbott employed The Texas National Guard to take control of border areas, replacing Joe Biden’s hand-cuffed Border Patrol. A report came out that some immigrants crossing into Texas had drowned at a public park in Eagle Pass because BP agents were barred from entering a park to aid in their rescue efforts. A mother and her two children had drowned, and the press ran the story with blaring headlines.

Then the facts came in. It was learned the drownings occurred on the Mexican side of the river, and the Border Patrol had not been notified of the event by Mexican authorities until at least one hour after the deaths took place. The following reports were not given near the same amount of energy.

RAGING ABOUT GOOD NEWS AWARD

The long-awaited Special Counsel Report on Biden’s classified documents scandal was released, and Robert Hur determined that Joe was too mentally infirm to be regarded as a valid source for testimony. The press collectively became enraged that Hur dared to suggest Biden was addle-brained, and they lashed out for days. Hur was impugned as invalid in assessing mental fitness, and he was branded as a partisan operative.

Understand – this was over Hur declaring he would NOT be bringing legal action against Biden.

ABANDONING PRESS PROTECTIONS AWARD

Think back over the past year to how often we have heard how Donald Trump would be posing an inherent threat to journalists. Not just by silencing them or seeing that they get fired; the likes of the hysterics at MSNBC, and others, have promised Trump will be jailing reporters, and/or placing them in camps. It has been hilarious hysteria to behold. Now with this in mind look over this fact: Joe Biden literally has arrested a journalist, Steve Baker from The Blaze. Years after the January 6 riot the DOJ brought charges against Baker, because he had been on site that day and was filming events as they transpired. It is believed that BAker spending the ensuing years reporting on government corruption and other negative items inspired these charges being brought against him.

And we heard no protest at all concerning this threat against press freedoms and First Amendment violations from the expected voices in the media universe.

THE DICTIONARY OUTRAGE AWARD

Our press industry tends to truly expose themselves when they commit the very type of acts we usually hear them decry. They rail about deceptively-edited videos but then promote their own, and they love to run fact checks on people by claiming the full quotes of a message were omitted, or that “more context is needed”. Then, they go ahead and perform that very editing trick.

Donald Trump gave a speech regarding Chinese automakers looking to flood our country with cheap electric vehicles, and Biden is doing little to halt this. He stated he wanted tariffs on these cars or it would become a bloodbath for the American auto industry if he is not elected. The entirety of the media complex (dare we say it) seized on the word “bloodbath”, pretending he meant there would be widespread violence across the country if he lost in November.

THE 'DON'T SAY LIE' AGAIN AWARD

It was almost as if this was a last gasp effort to retain the narrative of lies the press had been pushing for some time. As we all know, the longstanding narrative that Florida passed a “Don’t Say Gay” law was a complete fabrication. Well in March a new law was passed that clarified what some school districts had been wrongfully applying regarding the law, but otherwise the Parental Rights in Education LAw (the actual title of the legislation) remained entirely intact.

This did not stop the press from claiming it had been changed, or even was gutted. The biggest exposure of the press was in the outlets claiming what new items were now permitted to be presented in classrooms; those were all items the press previously lied about being banned in the law but had always been allowed.

THE RESUMÉ REVISIONISM AWARD

Following Biden’s selfless act of being forced off of the Democratic Party ticket, the press got their wish and had Kamala Harris declared the new candidate. Then they got hit with reality. Kamala’s track record was not exactly presidential material; it was not even President of the Home Owners Association material. So the press went to work repackaging Kamala for the campaign. “She LOVES fracking!” “She never wanted gun control!” “She has been completely plugged in with the Biden administration decisions!”

But once most of those decisions were seen as having negative results more reinterpretations had to take place, with the biggest involving the chaos at the border. Harris had been celebrated years earlier when Joe Biden placed her in charge of that issue, but in the intervening years she basically did nothing. At all. So this summer the new narrative cropped up: “Kamala Harris was never the Border Czar!” 

This attempt was unraveled in numerous fashions, beginning with how many in the press had referred to her previously with that title. Then there were her own words declaring she would be taking MORE duties than that office. And the kicker is that just after she was given that role the acting Border Czar stepped down, asserting Kamala was taking on the job, and that role was never filled for the balance of Joe’s term.

THE STAR CHAMBER AWARD

The desperation and knee jerk opposition to anything Donald Trump does was on full display regarding his meeting with the Gold Star families of the fallen service members from the Afghanistan withdrawal. The press recoiled and brayed, loudly and often, that somehow his honoring the fallen was a complete insult to the same. This thrust of outrage fell apart for numerous reasons.

It was clear it reflected poorly on Biden and his dismissive approach to these families. The claim Trump was politicizing these deaths was dispelled by the families saying they had been the ones to invite Trump to Arlington. Even the claims that Trump violated Arlington rules by using images at the cemetery for political gain was laughed off when it was shown how Biden had previously done exactly that. It was clearly an effort to beat back a positive story for Trump that Kristen Welker even claimed Kamala Harris attended the return of the fallen soldiers. She most certainly was not in attendance that day.

SHOOTING OFF THEIR MOUTHS AWARD

In another dose of the media committing the very sin they despise by misquoting Trump in order to level a serious charge, we had the bold and entirely false claim that he wanted to place Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad. Of course it was something else entirely. Trump was being critical of her willingness to send others into wartime efforts, and he had said that if she was such a pro-war voice then she needed to put herself in the heat of battle. Notably, when Politifact ran a fact-check on the comments, it showed he did not say that, but they also avoided placing a FALSE label on the claims made.

Not only is it another case of the press altering content for a narrative, but this fits squarely into the definition of their preferred complaint of delivering misinformation that would qualify as election interference.

DON'T YOU DARE CALL IT A LIE AWARD

When you consider that any time Trump edges anywhere away from 100% complete accuracy the press leaps up with accusations that he LIED! But we noticed a distinct lack of similar outrage when Joe Biden was shown to have lied – for more than a year.

It was not a surprise to any of us when Biden declared he was pardoning his son Hunter, but the press was facing a challenge after backing Biden’s promises, going all the way back to last Fall. So the best course of action to avoid looking complicit in his lie was to avoid as many of the particulars as possible. Instead, deflecting onto Republicans who dared notice what he did was the standard means of reporting.