President Donald Trump first announced a new set of awards that he would be granting to certain members of the media, using his Twitter platform to whet the appetites of his followers. As seen in the below tweet from Tuesday, January 2, Trump wrote that he would be dolling out “THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR” the following Monday, January 8, at 5 p.m. Trump stated that the awards to “the Fake News Media” would include subjects as far ranging as dishonesty, bad reporting in more than one category, and more.
Instructing his readers to “stay tuned” for more information about the awards, Trump received plenty of flak in the comments section of the tweet, with followers accusing Trump of not spending his time on more important presidential matters.
In a follow-up tweet – also seen below – posted to Trump’s verified Twitter account on Sunday, January 7, Trump announced that he would reschedule his so-called “Fake News Awards” to “the losers on Wednesday, January 17,” instead of on January 8. Trump claimed that the public interest in his Twitter awards was greater than originally thought. Indeed, interest in the Fake News Awards swelled, but perhaps not in the manner that President Trump anticipated.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018
As seen in the below photo, certain journalists and comedians began taking out “For Your Consideration” ads in hopes that Trump would include them in his Fake News Awards. Instead of a badge of shame, Trump’s awards became a badge of honor for those that the president deemed “Fake News” purveyors.
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… pic.twitter.com/iVO8avtPlE
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) January 5, 2018
Trevor Noah ran a full-page ad, hoping that Trump would list Noah as one of his bad media award winners.
As reported by CBS News , Stephen Colbert also asked to be considered for Trump’s awards to the journalists and media personnel he considered to fall into the “fake news” category.
Stephen Colbert posts “for your consideration” ad for Pres. Trump’s fake news awards https://t.co/e1QAivpDmB pic.twitter.com/y9GqEImv1G
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 5, 2018
Even smaller media outlets, such as World of Wonder , begged to win Trump’s awards to the media members he derides. Not only would Trump’s tweet provide the media organizations with even more attention and web traffic as folks turned to Google to look up the people on his list and check for their reactions to such an honor, it would also bode well for the recipients to be placed on Trump’s list of enemies, in the eyes of the anti-Trump crowds.
Do you think we’ll win tonight? https://t.co/l8dKyYMfao
— World of Wonder (@WorldOfWonder) January 8, 2018