It's time once again for what Media Rants' readers spend months anticipating: the annual Tony Awards for Excellence in Media. From the first awards column in 2002 to last year's 20th anniversary edition, I've always been drawn to:
- Insightful works that shed light on some important public issue.
- Creative works that deserve a wider audience.
- Informative works that provide eye-opening education on a difficult topic.
- Courageous works that speak truth to power OR that speak truth to the powerless.
- Humorous works that skillfully provoke laughter and thought at the same time.
- Local works that promote community and civic engagement.
In any given year, literally thousands of media texts meet one or more of these criteria. Being a Committee-Of-One, I recognize only those I have actually engaged repeatedly and/or received some inspiration from. If you do not like my list, create your own! I always enjoy hearing about what other media ranters think is worth recognizing.
One final preliminary proclamation before we get to the Awards: I'm dedicating this year's post to all the courageous journalists and other media workers in Gaza who have been murdered for the "crime" of doing their jobs. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of December 23, 2023 the war in Gaza has claimed the lives of 69 journalists and media workers (62 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, 3 Lebanese). I join the CPJ in calling on the international community to do more to protect the lives of journalists, provide access and the ability to report, and investigate attacks against all media workers while demanding that belligerents end the impunity against them.
*Best Coverage of the Gutting of UW Oshkosh: The Staff of the Advance-Titan. I have taught at UW Oshkosh for parts of five decades, and dedicated more than half of my chronological life to the institution. Many love the place as much as I do, but no one loves it MORE. Over many generations UW Oshkosh provided the children of working class families--people just like me--the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the complexities of life and become productive members of communities. The gerrymandered Republican legislature's devaluing of the entire UW has been short sighted and distressing for more than a decade, but not until relatively recently have campus administrators across the system stopped resisting the GOP's wanton demands for austerity budgets. In 2023 UW Oshkosh lost scores of outstanding employees in what appeared to be an outside-consultant driven process that gutted entire programs without sufficient regard to the impact on the campus' mission.
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| The UW Oshkosh Advance-Titan has produced compelling and humane journalism throughout the crisis at UW Oshkosh. In the photo is the great Debbie Gray Patton, an amazing contributor to the campus for 27 years. If a campus is serious about thriving in the 21st century, it does not let someone like Debbie Gray Patton go. |
If an honest history of this most shameful year in the campus' history is ever written, the student-led Advance Titan newspaper should be praised for its outstanding coverage of the gutting. Rather than follow the lead of the establishment press and waste space on dubious administrative talking points, the AT focused consistently on the impacts of the downsizing on REAL HUMAN BEINGS. The AT editors and reporters refused to be spun by press releases and other forms of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. Instead, the paper actually did journalism as evidenced by stories like "Staff Layoffs Stun Campus" and "What Will Those Leaving Do Next?" Special shout outs to Editor-In-Chief Katie Pulvermacher, Managing Editor Kelly Hueckman, News Editor Anya Kelley, and Opinion Editor Aubrie Selsmeyer for recognizing the gravity of the moment and not shying away from their responsibility to tell the truth about the magnitude of the travesty visited upon UW Oshkosh.
*Podcasters of the Year: Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times' "The Daily." I've long been a fan of this magnificent podcast; five days a week, Barbaro and Tavernise take twenty minutes to shed light on issues in a way that is free of mindless partisan talking points and other standard digital world nonsense. They are at their best when they take a serious issue and elucidate it by focusing on a representative narrative. My favorite episode of the year was posted recently (December 19) and was called "Football's Young Victims." The episode focuses on the tragic case of Hunter Foraker, a high school and college football player who committed suicide at age 25 and was then found to have been suffering from the degenerative brain disease CTE. It is almost impossible to listen to this episode without coming to the conclusion that--at the very least--a national conversation about the wisdom of allowing youth to participate in contact sports where the risk of getting hundreds or even thousands of "subconcussive hits" is very high.
*The "This Ain't No Papal Bull Award": Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation "Laudate Deum" (Praise God). This exhortation is Francis' latest attempt to sound a clarion call on the issue of climate change. So-called "conservative" Catholics long for a return to the "good old days" when Popes spent most of their time condemning LGBTQ people, abortion rights, and Communism. Francis actually seems to think that God commands us to protect Mother Earth and take climate science seriously. He does not hold back in blaming powerful nations for the lack of sufficient progress: "Regrettably, the climate crisis is not exactly a matter that interests the great economic powers, whose concern is with the greatest profit possible at minimal cost and in the shortest amount of time." Amen Brother.
I also appreciate Francis' media ranting:
The ethical decadence of real power is disguised thanks to marketing and false information, useful tools in the hands of those with greater resources to employ them to shape public opinion. With the help of these means, whenever plans are made to undertake a project involving significant changes in the environment or high levels of contamination, one raises the hopes of the people of that area by speaking of the local progress that it will be able to generate or of the potential for economic growth, employment and human promotion that it would mean for their children. Yet in reality there does not seem to be any true interest in the future of these people, since they are not clearly told that the project will result in the clearing of their lands, a decline in the quality of their lives, a desolate and less habitable landscape lacking in life, the joy of community and hope for the future; in addition to the global damage that eventually compromises many other people as well . . .
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| Pope Francis met climate activist Greta Thunberg in 2019. "Laudate Deum" is the most explicit call for climate justice ever issued from the Vatican. |
This situation has to do not only with physics or biology, but also with the economy and the way we conceive it. The mentality of maximum gain at minimal cost, disguised in terms of reasonableness, progress and illusory promises, makes impossible any sincere concern for our common home and any real preoccupation about assisting the poor and the needy discarded by our society. In recent years, we can note that, astounded and excited by the promises of any number of false prophets, the poor themselves at times fall prey to the illusion of a world that is not being built for them.
*Best Gen Z TikTok Pundit: Kat Abu. Born into an upper-middle-class, conservative family in Dallas, Katherine Abughazaleh (AKA "Kat Abu") produces some of the most hysterical political humor on the web. Her mix of Gen Z irreverence and biting satire is as if George Carlin got reincarnated as a 24-year-old female. My favorite segment is her weekly take-down of Fox News, featuring "totally real and definitely not made up stories you might have missed."
*Wisconsin-Based Investigative Reporting of the Year: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Behind the Gun" Series. Driven by suicide, the Wisconsin's rate of gun deaths has doubled since 2004. The Journal Sentinel's Behind the Gun (behind a paywall unfortunately) series is a remarkable piece of reporting that mixes data from every county, testimony from officials whose jobs require them to deal with gun issues, and narratives from gun owners to create a picture that upsets the preconceptions of "pro" and "anti" gun lobbies in the state. Kudos to lead reporter John Diedrich and contributors Natalie Eilbert, Alex Rivera Grant, and Ben Schultz for producing a series that should provoke us us to start thinking about guns in a way that allows all sides to come together to support practical reforms that might reduce the carnage.
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| In 2023 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel released an eye opening series on guns in Wisconsin. |
*The Liberal Icon-Buster Award: "The Secret History of Gun Rights--How Lawmakers Armed the N.R.A" by Mike McIntire in the New York Times. Speaking of guns, I'll bet you thought that the biggest N.R.A enablers over the years were Republicans, right? That's certainly what I thought--until I read McIntire's well researched article. Turns out that liberal icon John Dingell (D-Michigan), the longest serving member of Congress in history, was also the most pro-N.R.A. Mr. Dingell's files were donated to the University of Michigan but kept under wraps for eight years. It took the New York Times fives months to get access to them. McIntire's thorough review of the files reveals a lawmaker who over many decades did everything possible to frustrate the passage of gun safety legislation. Even after supporting the assault weapons ban in the 1990s, Dingell behind the scenes was working to get it repealed.
More than any other public official, Rep. Dingell was responsible for transforming the N.R.A. into a partisan lobbying organization. He literally wrote up a manual for the organization on how to effectively lobby Congress. For my liberal Democratic friends who might read McIntire's article and be tempted to rationalize or explain away Dingell's behavior, just ask yourselves how you would feel if it had been ANY Republican who did what Dingell did to the extent that he did it. Pardon the pun, but when it comes to exposing the officials who make even mild gun reforms impossible (as Dingell did), we need to be "straight shooters" and call out all sides.
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| The late Michigan Congressman John Dingell, a liberal icon with a soft spot for guns, used the power of his office to "arm the NRA." |
*Most Impactful Scholarship of the Year: William Baude's and Michael Stokes Paulsen's "The Sweep and Force of Section Three." Baude and Paulsen are conservative law professors and active members of the Federalist Society. Their preferred method of legal analysis is "originalism," the theory that Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch use as a justification to overturn laws they do not like. "The Sweep and Force of Section Three," which is written in a legalistic style but is fully accessible for anyone willing to put in the effort to read it with an open mind, makes what to me is an extremely convincing argument as to why Donald Trump should be disqualified from ballots in 2024.
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| Conservative law professors Baude and Paulsen make a compelling case for excluding Donald Trump from election ballots based on the clear language of the 1th amendment. |
After a lengthy explanation of the history of and rationale for Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which was designed to ban former confederate officials from holding office after the Civil War, the authors apply the section to Donald Trump's actions before and on January 6, 2021 to overturn the election of 2020. They argue that Trump did in fact engage in insurrection:
The bottom line is that Donald Trump “engaged in” “insurrection or rebellion” and gave “aid or comfort” to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close.[emphasis added]. He is no longer eligible to the office of Presidency, or any other state or federal office covered by the Constitution. All who are committed to the Constitution should take note and say so.
They also have little sympathy for the argument, which is gaining currency in the establishment media, that keeping Trump and other insurrectionists off of ballots is somehow anti-democracy:
Importantly, it is also wrong to shrink from applying Section Three on grounds of “democracy,” whether on the premise that Section Three should be ignored or narrowly construed because it limits who voters may choose, or on the premise that only the voters should enforce Section Three. It is true, as we have said, that limiting democratic choice is not something to be done lightly, but it is something the Constitution does, and for serious reasons. The Constitution cannot be overruled or disregarded by ordinary election results. (And we note that there is particular irony in invoking democracy to shrink from applying Section Three to the insurrectionists of 2020-2021, who refused to abide by election results and instead sought to overthrow them.)
As of this writing, the Colorado Supreme Court and the Secretary of State of Maine have used Baude/Paulsen-like arguments to keep Trump off the primary ballot in their states. Undoubtedly the matter will end up in the United States Supreme Court. Given that it is clear the framers of Section Three clearly meant it to apply not just to Civil War insurrectionists, will the so-called "originalists" on the Court be guided by that philosophy as they decide on how to rule? Don't count on it.
*Most Powerful Iraq War Retrospective: "Iraq War Veterans, 20 Years Later--'I don't Know How To Explain the War to Myself." (New York Times Op-Doc Video). A description of the video from creator Michael Tucker:
Months after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, I began filming the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (known as the Gunners) in Baghdad. The unit was housed in a bombed-out palace on the banks of the Tigris that they named Gunner Palace.
Rather than just making a movie about the men, I suggested that we make a film together -- an offer that the soldiers quickly embraced. They told the story of the war as only they could: They played guitar, spat out rhymes and played to the camera. But behind all their bravado and posturing, they were just kids who desperately wanted the world the understand the war through their eyes.
In the last two months of 2003, the Gunners lost three men to I.E.D attacks. They scrambled to create makeshift armor for their soft-skinned vehicles using scrap metal. When asked by a soldier about the lack of armor in 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said, "You got to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."
They were the army we had. They fought an enemy they couldn't always see in a land they didn't understand for reasons that were never entirely clear. In the midst of the pandemic, I visited the men an spoke with them about how they make sense of their role in a war that has yet to be fully reckoned with. In "The Army We Had," the veterans grapple with a past that still reverberates powerfully through their lives.
As you watch this video, keep in mind that the Iraq War was brought to us by the same people who are now advocating for an expanded US military presence in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and other places.
*Wisconsin Journalist of the Year: Dan Shafer of the Recombobulation Area. This is Dan's second Tony Award. I continue to be in awe at how ONE PERSON can produce as much well researched, insightful, pointed political content as Mr. Shafer does across a number of platforms. He is especially good at untangling the key features of legislation coming out of Madison and calling out those engaged in obstructing bills that have majority public support. I also greatly admire and appreciate how he refuses to engage in the lazy bothsidesing that is now a standard, unfortunate feature of the mainstream press. Check out Dan's summary of 2023 and then consider becoming a paid subscriber.
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| Dan Shafer produces consistently high quality journalism for the Recombobulation Area. |
*National Investigative Journalism of The Year: ProPublica's "Friends of the Court" Series. ProPublica's scathing expose' of Supreme Court Justices' cozy relationships with billionaires was so rigorously researched and sourced that--before the first installment even appeared online--the Wall Street Journal published a "pre-rebuttal" from Justice Samuel Alito. Probably the most explosive finding was Justice Thomas receiving more than 20-years of luxury vacations paid for by Texas billionaire and GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow. Only a partisan hack could possibly read the entire series and conclude that major ethical reforms are not necessary. Kudos to ProPublica reporters Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski, Sergio Hernandez, Al Shaw, Mollie Simon, Brett Murphy, Kirsten Berg, Andrea Bernstein, Andy Kroll, Illya Maritz, Paul Kiel, Jesse Eisinger, and ProPublica Editor-In-Chief Stephen Engelberg for brilliantly upholding their mission "To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust."
Many thanks to everyone who reads Media Rants. Happy New Year!
