OPINION

Celebrating Media Mayhem With the Heckler Awards — Part 2: The Individual Special (Dis)Honors

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Dec 24, 2024
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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. 

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

In this, the second installation, we will recognize some of the individual (dis)honors from either specific outlets or named journalists. So, let’s dig in and continue the scrounging through 2024’s dustbin of the media landscape witnessed this year! Here are the trophies for the disturbing acts from news sources or news makers last year. 

“60 MINUTES” - For its contrived edit of the Kamala Harris Presidential Interview

Every election, the vaunted news program hosts the two presidential candidates in primetime interviews. Donald Trump passed on appearing, still upset with the way hostess Leslie Stahl discarded the reality that the Hunter Biden laptop was a legitimate piece of news and basically insulted Trump for pushing the story.

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The program teased a portion of the Harris interview during the Sunday broadcast of “Face The Nation,” with the vice president delivering a nonsensical answer that became mocked on social media. Then, during the official broadcast, that response had been excised and they were next showing her giving a different response. That passage was also removed from the official transcript. The lengthy interview was pared down, and a number of telling jump cuts are seen within answers. 

The network tried to explain the edits were due to time constraints, but this did not explain how they removed entirely a clip that was used for a brief 90-second promotion, but it could not be squeezed into a full broadcast episode. The production barely answered criticisms and it took nearly two weeks to issue a tepid response that generated more mockery.

ABC NEWS - For its performance at the Biden-Harris Presidential Debate

It was long expected that after Donald Trump consigned to the debate with Kamala Harris it would be a contentious affair – not between the candidates, but between Trump, David Muir and Linsey Davis. The anchor duo repeatedly fact-checked Trump while letting numerous Harris falsehoods go unchallenged, demanded Yes/No answers of only Trump, switched topics abruptly when Kamala was struggling, and injected commentary on Trump answers before immediately moving to a new question without allowing him to respond.

Many people stated after the event ended that the true debate had been between Trump and the moderators.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG – For his disturbing attempt at delivering an October Surprise

Goldberg, the source of the lightly sourced and roundly debunked hit piece in 2020 claiming Trump called dead soldiers “suckers and losers,” was back with a more disturbing and ethically challenged piece weeks before the election. In this hit job, he claimed that Trump, after promising the family of a fallen soldier that he would cover the funeral expenses, was in a meeting where he was informed of the costs, and he exploded. Goldberg claimed he turned vulgar and racist as he refused to honor the pledge.

This tale was based on anonymous sources, yet some of those named in attendance came public on the record to completely refute the charges. 

Also, the soldier’s family disputed this as well, saying they have a great relationship with Trump. The family lawyer also said that Goldberg twisted quotes to alter comments. 

The press ran with the unattributed commentary and ignored those going on the record, then Goldberg answered criticisms by saying those people at the meeting were lying, and the family did not know what they were saying since they were not in attendance. (For the record, Jeffrey Goldberg also was not in attendance.)

CBS NEWS - For delivering an edited broadcast to prove cheap-fake videos

Just before the debate debacle that completely derailed Joe Biden’s election run, the current narrative in the press had been that any clips showing Biden’s clear cognitive decline were “cheap fake videos.” In one segment explaining this claim they displayed one such video clip, showing Joe Biden wandering off from world leaders at the G7 Summit. It was a lengthy, unedited segment showing Biden drifting away like a Roomba vacuum.

It was also entirely spot-on. Once CBS realized that they were claiming a completely accurate clip was fake, the network went back and switched out the clip for another it found, with no notice of the play-and-switch. Once they had been called-out for this editing fakery it was only then that a weak explanation was made.

ESME MURPHY / WCCO CBS 4 NEWS MINNESOTA - For misrepresenting Kamala Harris support to bail out rioters

While the press was busy rebuilding Kamala Harris’ entire history, this nugget from Tim Walz country was especially bad. CBS News national repeated a report from Murphy to be used as a fact-check against Trump saying Harris supported bailing out arrested George Floyd protestors. Not only did Harris notably promote this bail fund, she still had requests to donate on her social media. More than that, Esme Murphy knew this was the case because she had reported on this very issue in 2022 during the midterm elections, and even worse – she interviewed Kamala Harris and discussed the policy with her. Her report was a brazen lie.

CLARISSA WARD / CNN - For the heavily touted prisoner release that went sideways

For days, the network crowed about the report from its international correspondent where she was shown to be directly involved in the release of a prisoner held captive under the leadership of Bashar al-Assad, following the fall of that government. After a couple of days, however, more details from Syria began to emerge. 

It turned out that they had not freed a political prisoner but instead freed a member of the Assad regime, known locally as a man who oppressed the locals, extorting money and possibly committing war crimes. The network was forced to issue retractions and corrections before dropping the story that had been running in full rotation across numerous programs.

       

CHUCK TODD - For his unintentional admission that he hid details of Biden’s condition for years

Following Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, the press was left fully exposed, as so many had participated in covering up his failing mental condition. A few journalists desperately tried to come out with their “new” coverage, as if they had just discovered this detail about the president that the vast majority of the viewing public knew for themselves. Chuckles went a step further than that, perhaps unintentionally.

On his program “The Todd-cast” (also known as “Mr. Todd’s Mild Ride”), Chuck was speaking with Jonathan Martin about Joe Biden’s condition, and Chuck let it slip that he was discussing the problems about Joe Biden with an administration official.

  • “I’m not gonna out the cabinet secretary. But I had a cabinet secretary two years ago, okay- two years ago, out of the blue asked me, ‘You really think he’s gonna-- he can’t run again like this?’ And I said ‘Well, you have more interaction with him than I do,’ and they said, ‘I don’t have a lot of interaction with him.’ This is a pretty senior cabinet secretary. So, and this was two years ago. This is one of those, you know, it’s the classic open secret, nonversation, right? It’s the story everybody knows and everybody was afraid to talk about.”

And now they are wondering why people are walking away from the press today…

CBS NEWS - For an aggressive act of censoring its own journalist

There was some mild surprise when the CBS Network announced some layoffs and among those departing was investigative journalist Catherine Herridge. It was believed this decision was based on her willingness to investigate the current administration and look into uncomfortable story lines.

But more than simply letting her go, in an unprecedented move by the network, Herridge found it also locked her out of all of her work computers and confiscated her personal files.

TIME MAGAZINE - For its obtuse woke report on Florida’s abortion law

The reactionary need to lunge at anything involving Ron DeSantis is a weakness in the press, and Time managed to take this to a ridiculous level. In looking over the newly installed abortion laws in the state, the magazine came up with a tragic story: They found a man who was possibly going to be denied his right to an abortion. 

  • If Jasper wanted an abortion, he had three weeks to make up his mind, raise the money, and schedule not one but two appointments. He had no idea how long he might have to wait to be seen by a doctor. All he knew was he had to move quickly.

This was a serious article, written unironically.

NEW YORK TIMES - For taking a ridiculous narrative to new depths

Do you recall this summer when we were supposed to be upset about the flags that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was flying outside his home? First the news of him and/or his wife displaying the Stars & Stripes inverted was said to be controversial, for some reason. Then The New York Times rode in with a scathing report: They found that at his vacation home, Alito flew another “provocative” flag - the Appeal To Heaven banner.

It took three reporters to deliver the news that pictures from a year earlier showed the flag outside the residence in New Jersey. The thinking is this is supposedly a flag that had been seen during the January 6 riot, and that meant…ummm…

Making this all the more desperate, the same outlet had previously done an extensive study on all of the imagery and iconography seen on location on January 6, and at no time had The New York Times declared this flag a part of the melee and never designated the historical flag as a symbol of any movement.

POLITIFACT - For lying during its presentation of The Lie of the Year

With all of the various falsehoods seen in the press and from the Biden administration, there were ample examples for the fact-check experts to choose from. So OF COURSE their “winner” was Donald Trump. The viscounts of verite tabbed the claim that residents in Springfield, Ohio, were seeing immigrants eating pets and other animals in town. While it may have been tamped down as inaccurate now, at the time there were some valid questions, with residents speaking of it in commission meetings and Vance hearing some of it from his constituents. Politifact points to police stating they received no reports on this, but this came following Trump’s comments based on anecdotal tales from the citizens.

Politifact not only ignored other monumental lies, such as Biden is “sharp,” videos of his condition are “fake,” Kamala Harris was never the Border Czar, or Biden will never pardon his son Hunter – it also lied in its LOY piece.

The outlet declared that Trump speaking of these pets being consumed led to bomb threats and school closures, despite the reports from the governor that these had been proven to be hoaxes, most of which came from overseas sources.