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Fake News Awards 404

The Republican National Committee's website, which featured President Donald Trump's Fake News Awards, experienced an issue on Wednesday night as the results were set to be revealed. (Photo: Luisa Haynes/@wokeluisa/Twitter)

Trump's #FakeNewsAwards Underscore His Hostility Toward Free Speech and Press

"This is what happens in dictatorships and fascist regimes. Facts, language, truth, and ultimately the press become hijacked to serve power, not question it or hold it accountable."

Jessica Corbett

Highlighting President Donald Trump's general lack of support for the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and the press, the president's ever-evolving animosity toward the news media culminated in his #FakeNewsAwards, which he doled out on Wednesday night via the internet—as soon as the Republican National Committee's website issue was resolved.

The stunt—the subject of endless jokes—underscored Trump's apparent inability and unwillingness to calmly respond to any and all criticism. Alongside the mockery, journalists and political commenters used the event to remind the public of the growing threats to free speech and press in the age of Trump.

"The purpose of any award is to create an institutionalized way of promoting a certain cause through drawing public attention," observes Ohio State University professor Gleb Tsipursky, warning: "These awards create an institution for Trump's relentless attacks on mainstream media and position Trump as the only voice who gets to determine truthful media."

Other advocates for freedom shared similar observations on Twitter:

After Trump announced his plan to issue Fake News Awards, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)—which tracks threats to press freedom, including cases of journalists being killed, injured, or imprisoned while on the job—trolled Trump while also highlighting the seriousness of his hostility toward journalists and media organizations by giving out awards to the world's anti-press leaders, and honoring the president with an award for "Overall Achievement in Undermining Global Press Freedom."

Trump's Fake News Awards also provided an opportunity to make note the president's mounting list of misleading or blatantly dishonest statements. "President Trump almost never admits error, even as he has made more than 2,000 false or misleading statements," wrote Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post's "Fact Checker" blog.

However, that's not the case for most recipients of Trump's awards, as Kessler noted: "At least eight of the 'Fake News' winners resulted in corrections, with two reports prompting suspensions or resignations. Two of the winners were simply tweets that were quickly corrected and never resulted in news articles. One was an opinion article in which the author later retracted his prediction."

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Roe protest

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Demonstrators took to the streets Friday to defiantly denounce the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority after it rescinded a constitutional right for the first time in U.S. history.

Brett Wilkins ·

Abortion rights activists hoist their signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2022.

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"Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice," says a joint statement signed by 84 elected attorneys. "Prosecutors should not be part of that."

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House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, speaks during a hearing on September 23, 2020 in Washington, DC. Powell yesterday said the U.S. economy has a long way to go before fully recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and will need further support. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

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John Fetterman

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While Republicans unanimously welcomed the Supreme Court's rollback of half a century of reproductive rights, one Democrat said "it's just wrong that my granddaughter will have fewer freedoms than my grandmother did."

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Bernie Sanders

Sanders Says End Filibuster to Combat 'Outrageous' Supreme Court Assault on Abortion Rights

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