If you’ve been following this year’s Fake News Final Four at 21WIRE, you will have also heard about the prestigious award for the best individual fake news journalist or media personality, because to call some of these people journalists would be inappropriate.
Here are the Top 10 finalist nominees for the first annual Horace Greeley Award for Outstanding Work in Fake News Journalism…
Brian Williams (NBC/MSNBC) – Since he lied about his chopper being shot at in Iraq, as well as other fabrications, Williams’ name has become almost synonymous with the term fake news. In any normal industry, you’d expect the sack after mucking it up that bad, but not on the US corporate mainstream media. The kept him on and apparently gave him a raise.
Jon Snow (Channel 4 UK) – After mounting a horrendous year pumping out continuous fake news and lies about Syria, Channel 4 thought it prudent to run their own ‘Fake News Week’ supposedly to lecture everyone else about how things are in media, and they even dressed-up news anchor Jon Show and ran a horrible comedy skit designed to lambast other news sources, only it back fired, and C4 looked stupid in the process. As it turns out, it was Snow who conducted one of the worst interviews in broadcast TV history, as he tried to railroad Syrian MP from Aleppo with a series of standard failed talking points likely issued by the Foreign Office.
Chris Cuomo (CNN) – This has been a banner year for the privileged Cuomo. In 2015, citing an ISIS propaganda magazine as his primary source, Cuomo claimed that a “Schweppes Bomb” brought down the airliner in Egypt. In 2016, he out did himself (not an easy feat) by announcing that the public should NOT look at Wikileaks’ Podesta emails online, declaring, “it’s illegal to possess, ah, the stolen documents — it’s different for the media. So everything you’re learning about this, you’re learning from us.” In other words, ‘let CNN look at them and CNN will tell you what’s worth commenting on. On this point alone, Cuomo, who missed his natural calling a sports broadcaster, has reserved his place in the Fake News Hall of Fame.
Craig Timberg (Washington Post) – He’s not a household name (yet), but this WashPo operative can punch well above his weight in terms of fake news. Back in November, Timberg ran one of the worst stories in the history of the Washington Post – claiming a cut-out online group called PropOrNot had evidence of a Russian Conspiracy to takeover the alternative media. More than likely, this was a CIA put-up.
Michael Weiss (The Daily Beast) – When it comes to generating fake news and disseminating it via the mainstream media, few fake news journalists are in the elite class of Michael Weiss. Formerly in charge a propaganda for the pro-Israeli and anti-Russian UK think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, Weiss has been responsible for a large portion of disinformation about the Syria war, going so far as to publish a fictional story – one which never happened – claiming that women residents in East Aleppo were committing mass suicide in order to avoid being raped en mass by Assad’s troops who were liberating East Aleppo from a 4 and a half-year terrorist occupation in that city.
Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) – She is one of TV’s most annoying and unhinged presenters, who sees herself as more of an activist than a journalist. For the last 5 months, Maddow has been running point for MSNBC on the ‘Russian Hack’ conspiracy theory. Her shrill antics crashed and burned recently after she claimed to have the scoop of the century – Donald Trump’s tax returns, hyped beforehand, but ended up being a flop reminiscent of Al Capone’s Vaults – instead they revealed Trump had made more than $150 million in income in 2005 and paid $38 million in income taxes that year, a higher rate than even leftist Bernie Sanders had paid. Even worse, the Trump White House had already scooped her scoop by the time she got to air.
Brian Stelter (CNN) – As CNN’s self-styled “Media expert,” he hosts their program ironically titled, Reliable Sources, on a network that relies completely on anonymous ‘official’ sources to prop-up its own propaganda mill. His show has been a Democrat Party talking shop from its onset. After shamelessly covering for Clinton during her campaign, the openly partisan Stelter has ben decrying ‘fake news’ as the reason his candidate lost the election. Stelter hit rock bottom recently when Hollywood Reporter columnist Michael Wolff ripped Stelter’s sophomoric ‘fact check’ patrolling, and called him a, “… quite a ridiculous figure,” to his face on-air.
Nicholas Kristof (New York Times) – He is a regular talking head for the NYT on Sunday morning TV, and used his position as a journalist to openly campaign for Clinton. More than this, however, it was Kristof who was tasked with writing a fluff piece which helped to launch one of the greatest fake news propaganda projects of all time – the White Helmets (al Qaeda’s ‘first responders’) introducing them to an American audience. Despite their terrorist pedigree, the White Helmets went on the win an Oscar Award – a true Hollywood ending. Turns out, this may not have been the only such incident by Kristof. A seasoned pro.
Ian Pannell (BBC) – Panel ran point on the BBC’s now legendary Panorama program, ‘Saving Syria’s Children‘ which ran on the day of the Syrian War vote in August 2013. This ‘documentary’ has been exposed as one of the most egregious examples of manipulated pro-intervention propaganda ever. Looking back at it, it borders on the absurd. Amazing to think anyone thought it was real to begin with.
Jake Tapper (CNN) – Mounting a serious challenge to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as the ultimate establishment gatekeeper, Tapper is one of the most slippery operators on TV, and is responsible for injecting the ‘David Duke’ and ‘KKK’ talking points into his infamous Trump interview in late 2016. CNN hoped that by inserting this fake news into the ether, that it would derail Trump campaign, and like everything else about the election – they were wrong. Tapper is also running point on the fabricated ‘Russian conspiracy’ dept.
Please cast your vote…
(Can’t see this poll? You can also vote here)
The following persons received Honorable mentioned status:
Louise Mensch (Heat Street), Clarissa Ward (CNN), Barbara Starr (CNN), Ben Smith (BuzzFeed), Josh Rogin (Washington Post), Cathy Newman (Channel 4), Krishnan Guru-Murthy (Channel 4), Erin Burnett (CNN), Anderson Cooper (CNN), Jim Sciutto (CNN), Gloria Borger (CNN), Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Kate Bouldan (CNN), Anne Applebaum (Washington Post), Maggie Haberman (NYT), Glenn Thrush (Politico), Lyse Doucet (BBC), Owen Jones (Guardian), Juliet Eilperin and Adam Entous (Washington Post), Don Lemon (CNN), Thomas Freidman (NYT), Judith Miller (FOX News), David Swerdlick (Washington Post), Laura Kuensberg (BBC).
*The Greeley Trophy winner will be announced next week. Stay tuned.
Learn more about who Horace Greeley is here.
READ MORE ABOUT FAKE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Fake News Files
SUPPORT 21WIRE – SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @ 21WIRE.TV