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With the dawning of a new calendar, it is time for us to look back at the worst offerings from the press industry over the last year: It is that special time for The Townhall 50, our measurement of the worst journalists seen in 2024. This was no breezy task.
While our media industrial complex has been in a state of meltdown for years, in various facets, the past year was shown to be a watershed time. The news outlets of this country were brazen in the fashion they departed from standard journalism ethics, unbiased presentation of the facts, and willingly behaved in a truly activist fashion. They shielded President Joe Biden from criticism of his mental decline for six months, were uncritical in the fashion he was dispatched from the Democratic presidential ticket, boosted his replacement through the rewriting of Vice President Kamala Harriss' history and propping up her campaign, and were entirely incapable of looking at the Trump-Vance ticket in an objective fashion.
So, we had to be more discerning this year in applying our deeply stringent arbitrary measurement. To measure the degraded quality, we looked at elements such as the bulk of work, the level of influence an individual has, and the impacted practice of journalism tactics. As such, it was possible that the worse one behaved, the lower they became on the list, as their credibility eroded and made their voice less valid.
Now, it is time to descend into the media swamp and roll out the first entry of our list, as we count our way down to the worst in journalism from 2024.
50. Max Boot – Washington Post: The columnist who has written the same anti-Trump screed for years cracked our list by degrading himself in special fashion. Boot placed himself firmly into irrelevance when, after years of carping that Donald Trump operates as an unregistered foreign agent for Russia, it was discovered Boot's wife was indicted for that very crime over her lobbying on behalf of South Korea. She wrote a number of columns in outlets on the subject, including one together with Max. When speaking with Jonathan Capehart about Trump’s chances of victory, it does not dawn on Boot, the ardent Never Trumper, how lacking in influence he has become on the issue. He also released a book explaining how he no longer reveres former President Ronald Reagan as a political titan.
49. Ciara O'Rourke – PolitiFact: The dependably slanted O'Rourke is a regular source of fractured fact-checks on the site. She saw the need to correct a joke post from The Babylon Bee about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. She showed a post about sunflowers avoiding the sun because it is not real to be (get this) false. She disproved another Babylon Bee gag about dying of the Chicago River red to honor abortion for the Democratic National Convention. That was apparently needed to counter the social media account with under 100 followers.
48. Steve Peoples – Associated Press: The AP campaign correspondent lets his hack flag fly on the regular. He said Speaker Mike Johnson commenting on the Trump trial was going to “tear down the judicial system.” Biden lobbying the courts at the same time was no such threat. He called the comedian at the MSG rally telling off-color jokes an “ally on stage.” Best of all, at a Harris campaign event, Steve appeared to be okay with the Harris camp holding reporters in a pen, until he was “allowed” out to speak with voters.
47. Matt Viser – Washington Post: Following the disastrous debate performance, the WaPo cheerleader for the White House gave out Joe’s excuse for his meltdown being a result of extensive travel ahead of the debate. Matt ignored Biden had returned 10 days prior and took naps during his week of debate prep. The longtime Biden sympathizer was, while most in the press denied Joe would pardon his son, paving the way to make excuses for him doing so. When James Biden testified on behalf of his brother, there was Viser detailing his claims without challenging them.
46. Bill Weir – CNN: A day before the election, CNN’s in-house climate guru compared Kamala to Presidents Abe Lincoln and Reagan in regards to saving the planet, and days later, declared Trump will let the earth go to hell. While introducing his new documentary about whale crap, Weir explained that he traveled about 6,000 miles to Antarctica, then up to the Columbian coast, and even stopped in Greenland. When asked about his sojourn, Weir – who LOVES lecturing against travel and burning fossil fuel – explained, “I cashed in a lot of frequent flyer miles. We go all over the world.”
Watch: CNN reporter explains why 'whale poo has massive value' | CNN https://t.co/OWW0Qv6VEP
— Grant W. Graves (@GrantWGraves) February 3, 2024
45. Heidi Przybyla – Politico: On PBS, she decried Republican comments about immigrants leading to “a climate now of unprecedented political violence.” That was after two attempts made on Trump’s life. On a visit to MSNBC, she declared acidly that Christian nationalists believe our rights come from God. (You know, like the Constitution stipulates.) After days of trying to defend her comments, she apologized and said she used poor language; never a good sign from someone in the communications business.
44. Abby D. Phillip – CNN: The primetime hostess with such a low energy level some have dubbed her “Ambien Phillip” has become so overmatched at her task that her regular features seen nowadays involve panel discussions with others making the salient points. She applauded the National Association of Black Journalists for grilling Trump, saying journalists need to ask candidates questions – all while Kamala ducked the event and was not speaking to the press. She tried blaming the false rumor of Beyoncé showing up at the Democratic convention on TMZ when previously she and her panel speculated on that very topic.
43. Chris Cillizza – (Independent): The former CNN fixture is no less off-kilter these days, but being a Substack free agent limits his influence. In January, he tried to get into a snark fest with a Governor Ron DeSantis spokesperson, claiming he was not actually fired by CNN – in defiance of himself weeks earlier attesting he had been fired. While the media were at the heart of their "Trump is Hitler" campaign, Chris tried to claim the press was ignoring the threat Trump posed. Recently, he tried to serve up a mea culpa for not looking into the issue of Biden’s mental breakdown; Cillizza was one of those attacking people for noting the presidential decrepitude.
“I should have pushed harder”
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) December 20, 2024
Utter garbage, Chris. Journalists did push, including yourself — AGAINST those pointing out the facts about Biden.
Those mentioning it were castigated, and evidence being shown was lied about and described as “fake”.
You get no pass on this matter. https://t.co/IycsLk4KPF pic.twitter.com/1gfTgp85ov
42. Jacob Soboroff – MSNBC: The crack reporter has a special documentary covering how Donald Trump treated immigrants, all while four years of Biden mistreatment somehow provided no material. The struggling network is facing a defamation suit based on one report from Jake. At the GOP convention, he suggested the state of South Carolina had a bad position on the floor due to Nikki Haley's comments on the campaign trail. At that convention, Soboroff confronted Donald Trump Jr. about the treatment of immigrants; meanwhile, at the Democratic convention, a clearly giddy Soboroff approached Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz and asked inane softball questions before excitedly shaking his hand.
41. Taylor Lorenz – (Independent): A former Townhall 50 #1 choice, Ms. Lorenz has worked very hard at making herself an easily dismissed factor in the press. In May, she told Don Lemon that Florida and Texas treat gays worse than they are treated in Gaza. Lorenz defended the story of Israel training dogs to rape prisoners. In a photo from a White House event, Lorenz appeared with a caption referring to Biden as a “war criminal,” leading to her dismissal from the Washington Post. On Bluesky, Taylor was actively backing the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. The highlight of her year was a sit-down interview with her nemesis, Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik.
40. Bill Kristol – The Bulwark: The ridiculed Never Trumper mainstay faded further into irrelevance this year as Biden, the man he sternly backed for the past five years, became an anchor on Bill’s credibility. In the summer, he predicted inflation would drop, and in less than an hour, the new inflation rate was posted, and it spiked. He called the ABC News defamation settlement “the Orbanization of our politics.” He claimed Trump has contempt for democratic institutions while supporting Harris who was installed and not voted onto the Democratic ticket. Bill tried to claim Trump was waffling on abortion, yet weeks later, there was Bill, waffling on his long-held positions on abortion.
39. Jennifer Rubin – Washington Post: As someone who has become more and more inconsequential, Ms. Rubin runs the risk of dropping off the list entirely due to not having anything of import worthy of consideration. Take for instance the way she raged about what Trump might do if elected, all things she formerly endorsed when she feigned being a conservative. In order to condemn Trump as a Nazi, she proposed we vote like the Germans had done, paving the way for Hitler. In October, she complained the press was not pushing the garbage Jeffrey Goldberg story about Trump (they were), and she was entirely unbothered that the story was completely debunked (it was).
38. Ari Melber – MSNBC: The network’s legal affairs pundit loves to paint himself as a serious thinker, yet his words and behavior often defy this image. He lost his composure when he brought on former Trump officials to trash the candidate only to hear words of support. In covering Trump’s court appearance in New York, Melber degraded himself and interviewed lawyer Michael Avenatti…from prison. In a bizarre exchange with Corey Lewandowski, the host threatened to sue over defamatory comments when Lewandowski accurately quoted Melber verbatim.
37. Weijia Jiang – CBS News: The White House correspondent and frequent panel guest was in full-throat Democrat mode this year. After the Robert Hur report, she disputed the claim from Hur that Biden could not recall when his son died; she was later debunked by her own network. In August, she let slip that the press was pushing the “J.D. Vance is weird” narrative to hurt Trump. At the Democratic convention, she raved about how Tim Walz was “joyful and jolly” as he attacked his opponents.
36. Kaitlan Collins – CNN: Initially, one would expect Collins should garner a higher ranking, but the issue for the primetime hostess is that fewer people treat her as a serious source for…most anything. Her lack of news gravitas was completely exposed by Senator Ted Cruz in a calm and direct manner. She was unraveled in similar fashion on the air by JD Vance. After the election, the Trump transition team hinted they may open up the Briefing Room to more non-traditional outlets, a decision made more valid when CNN announced the lightweight Collins would become their White House correspondent. Her lack of stature was on display when she visited Stephen Colbert, and after the host made a serious comment about CNN’s objectivity, his audience burst out with laughter.
NEW: Audience starts cracking up after a serious Stephen Colbert tells CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that CNN “just reports the news as it is.”
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 13, 2024
Remarkable.
Colbert: “I know you guys are objective over [at CNN], you just report the news as it is.”
Audience: *Laughs hysterically*… pic.twitter.com/9R8iv2UXeN
33-35. David Frum, David Frech, Jonathan Chait (Three-way tie): This triumvirate of Never Trumpers has become, individually, indistinguishable from each other, making assessment near impossible. These libs-in-cons-clothing basically write in the same pattern regardless of the topic – revile Trump, condemn his acolytes in Congress, demean all Republicans, and dismiss the conservatives as they claim to be true voices of conservatism. Oh, and one other trait these "conservative" journos share: Never will they be critical of Joe Biden or Democrats in general.
32. Jonathan Martin - Politico: The seemingly affable and sharp Martin is an issue because this facade cloaks the bias. He described the Democrats who had months of political upheaval arriving at their convention as “a party lacking in drama.” (Seriously, J-Mart?!) He tried selling the concept that Trump was campaigning with no message, WHILE Kamala had been avoiding the press for weeks and still had not posted her political agenda on campaign websites. After the election, he still suggested the GOP bans books – so the Dems should ban words.
31. Eddie Glaude – MSNBC: He is MSNBC’s dependable emotion-based pundit, delivering imbalanced screeds. With Ana Cabrera, he said police being called to illegal and antisemitic protests on college campuses was heartbreaking. In one rambling speech, he said Trump won because the right is bothered by “racially ambiguous kids in Cheerios commercials,” In discussing the likelihood of a Trump presidency, he nearly had a breakdown on camera, talking about babies being threatened and bombs in schools.
NEW: MSNBC panelist Eddie Glaude nearly starts crying on live air, says Kamala Harris needs to win to protect babies and so children don't get bombed.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 1, 2024
Glaude was so emotional that Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill had to tell him to take deep breaths.
“[Harris] needs to bust him… pic.twitter.com/dbUzBIrIC7
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