The Most Dishonest & Corrupt Media Awards of the Year

Submission 16,020

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Overview

The Most Dishonest & Corrupt Media Awards of the Year is a mock award devised by President Donald Trump to honor the media sources he considered to be fake news. In response, numerous late-night comedy shows campaigned to win, treating it like an actual award ceremony.

Background

On January 2nd, 2018, tweeted ^[1] "I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!" The post (shown below) 51,000 retweets and 191,000 likes in three days.

Development

The following night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert announced that he had a "For Your Consideration" billboard hung up in Times Square, campaigning for the awards. When posted to Twitter,^[2] the clip (shown below) received more than 1,800 retweets and 9,600 likes in two days.

Shortly after the tweet was posted, Colbert shared the billboards. In addition to the picture,^[3] he included the caption "So excited for Monday’s 'MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR!' See you on the red carpet, @AndersonCooper! #TheFakies." Within two days, the post (shown below) received more than 15,000 retweets and 68,000 likes.

The following day, the Twitter^[4] account for Full Frontal With Samantha Bee tweeted a "For Your Consideration" ad. They included the caption, "Nice try @colbertlateshow and @TheDailyShow, but we’re sweeping the #Dishonesties this year. (P.S. @realdonaldtrump, how about a female host next time?)" The post (shown below, left) received more than 2,200 retweets and 13,000 likes.

On January 5th, the Twitter^[5] account for The Daily Show tweeted, "Hey @realDonaldTrump, show them you’re not semiliterate! Read page A7!" The post referred to A7 of the The New York Times, where The Daily Show had taken out a full-page "For Your Consideration ad." CNBC Washington Correspondent Eamon Javers posted the ad and tweeted, "The Daily Show is running a full page Oscar-style “For Your Consideration” ad in the New York Times today, aimed at winning President Trump’s upcoming dishonest media awards…" The post (shown below, right) received more than 5,700 retweets and 17,000 likes in less than 12 hours.

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the Trump tweet as well as the response to it, including CNBC,^[7] Deadline,^[8] Variety,^[9] The Hill^[10] and more.

Online Reaction

The news of the Dishonest Media awards appeared on several subreddits, including /r/The_Donald, ^[11] /r/AntiTrumpAlliance,^[12] /r/LateShow^[13] and more.

On January 5th, Twitter^[14] published a Moments page about The Daily Show and various late-night show's "For Your Consideration" campaigns.

The Highly-Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards

On January 17th, 2018, President Trump tweeted^[15] a link to "The Highly-Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards." He added the comment "And the FAKE NEWS winners are…" The post (shown below) received more than 37,000 retweets and 95,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

However, the link originally linked to a dead website, redirecting users to a message that read^[16] "The site is temporarily offline, we are working to bring it back up. Please try back later." Online, people made jokes about the website crashing, some posting images of the crashed site and referencing how ironic it is that the site could not handle the traffic.

While the site was down, journalist Anup Kaphle tweeted^[17] the complete list of "winners." The list (shown below), which ranked The New York Times, ABC News and CNN as the top three, respectively, received more than 370 retweets and 1,100 likes in 24 hours.

That night, the official GOP Twitter^[21] account tweeted, "Tonight, http://gop.com saw more traffic than ever before. Even though the servers were scaled up, the interest was even greater than anticipated. Traffic is off the charts. Come back soon." The tweet (shown below) received more than 2,400 retweets and 7,000 likes in 24 hours.

That night, Twitter^[22] published a Moments page regarding the announcement of, issues with and response to the awards.

The awards and website crashing reached the front-page of several subreddits. At least two threads on the /r/politics subreddit received more than 3,000 points in 24 hours.^[18]^[19] On /r/The_Donald, Redditor^[20] reluctantmessiah23 posted "In a shocking upset, Paul Krugman claims the number 1 spot for Fake News Awards!" Within 24 hours, the post received more than 5,700 points (95% upvoted) and 200 comments.

That night, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel delivered a Fake News Award to an actor portraying Wolf Blitzer, who was played by Kimmel's father. The award featured a small hand giving a middle finger. When uploaded to YouTube, the video (shown below, left) received more than 75,000 views in less than 24 hours.