Throughout the year, we’ve been spotlighting the national press in a unique way. Unlike the prestigious Pulitzers, our focus is on highlighting media missteps, lethargy in journalism, and deserving targets of press satire. After months of nominating examples of questionable journalism practices, it’s time to unveil: The Golden Remington Awards.

Revisit Rounds 1 & 2: The Golden Remington Awards — (Dis)Honoring the Year in Fractured Journalism: Part 1

The 2025 Golden Remington Awards — (Dis)Honoring the Year in Fractured Journalism: Part 2

Our unique trophy pays homage to the bygone era when dedicated reporters crafted their stories on robust typewriters, honoring a time of investigative diligence and thorough reporting. Today, we spotlight those journalists or media outlets that fall short of achieving the high standards set by their predecessors.

In this final round of awards, we present the more significant categories, culminating with the top (dis)honor, the prestigious Public Service award. We’ll list the nominees and announce a winner in each category. Let’s straighten our tuxedos and step into the spotlight to acknowledge some of the most startling journalism examples of 2025. Here are the winners as we continue celebrating The Remmys.

In this final round of prizes, we have the heftier awards categories, culminating with the highest (dis)honor, the big Public Service award. The nominees will be listed, with the winner declared in each. Let us now adjust our tuxedos and take the stage, as we recognize some of the most galling examples in journalism in 2025. Here are the winners as we continue our celebration of The Remmys.

Distinguished Explanatory Reporting

• Donie O’Sullivan – CNN: The network’s designated extremism correspondent considered it extreme when social media platforms stopped using fact-checkers. He literally went to the extent of comparing the decision to the tragedy in California, daring to liken it to the first-responder firefighters in the Los Angeles area, and that lies were spreading like wildfire as a result. This takes tone-deaf obliviousness to a new low.

• Chris Matthews – MSNBC: While guesting on his former network, he lamented that tariffs would affect our ability to import wood supplies from Canada. He basically stated that we would suffer because lumber doesn’t just grow on trees.

• Mary Beth Sheridan – Washington Post: She looked into the “mysterious” drop in fentanyl seizures coming into the country in May, and speculated on several reasons. The 90 percent drop in border crossings was not considered a major factor.

• Erin Burnett – CNN: The hostess, while commenting on the Iran bombing mission, detailed her past experiences reporting in that country. She stated that when citizens were chanting “Death To America,” there was a “friendliness” to their threats. 

     WINNER

Lawrence O’Donnell – MSNBC

After President Trump brought troops into D.C. to tamp down on crime in the nation’s capital, Larry provided definitive proof for why they were not needed: He played a clip from the 1939 film, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington; the fact that no National Guard troops were in that fictional scene meant Trump was out of line.

Behold, as @Lawrence O’Donnell proves there is no crime in D.C. as he offers up for evidence…how no National Guard troops appear in the scene at Union Station in a Jimmy Stewart movie from 1939.

And with that, Donald Trump is therefore DEBUNKED, we assume… pic.twitter.com/ntDUbvudak

— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) August 22, 2025

DISTINGUISHED LOCAL REPORTING

• David K. Li and Janhvi Bhojwani – NBC News: A Seattle resident claimed that the Blue Angels flying over her area was causing distress to her cat. She ended up suing the squadron, not for their oppressive flyovers, but because after hitting their social media accounts with profane, crazy cat lady posts, they blocked her account.

• Jessica Hill, Ricardo Torres-Cortez – Las Vegas Review-Journal: The Vegas paper was upset about the recent decision to rescind protected status for hundreds in the area. Citing that Honduran and Nicaraguan residents were now at risk of being sent back because of a threat to their temporary protected immgration status – after being here for 25 years. 

• Nick Viviani – WPEC Channel 12 News: Governor Ron DeSantis announced he was creating a Florida version of DOGE, and dubbed it the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, or FAFO. The local station declared this was a racist acronym because, in the past, it had been used by the group The Proud Boys, and therefore anyone now using it can be accused of white supremacy, or something like that.

• CBS News – Tallahassee: Authorities converged on a business where credit card fraud had been tracked down. The perpetrator was brought into custody, and it was somewhat disturbing for patrons, as the police body cams show them arresting Chuck E. Cheese.

     WINNER

Marc Brown – ABC 7 LosAngeles

With the anti-deportation riots breaking out this summer, the press was somewhat eager to recalibrate the violence in support of the opposition. Marc was trying to suggest that law enforcement quelling the violence would actually provoke more, and he was straining to do so while live images of a car fire played on their feed. He described a genteel scene of neighbors commiserating, and there was no need for police. “It’s just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn.”

WATCH: ABC News wants you to know what is happening in California isn’t a violent riot.

It’s “just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn.” — ABC 7’s Marc Brown. pic.twitter.com/xjiQZJyuDq

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 9, 2025

DISTINGUISHED INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

• Babar Dogar – Associated Press: As the drama swirled around DOGE cuts, the AP came up with an argument that showed how those cuts were needed. The funding being pulled might affect members of the Pakistani transgender community who attend cooking schools.

• Associated Press: A Swiss politician came under fire or “negligent unlawful import of weapons into Swiss territory without a permit”. He purchased a pair of pink water pistols for his grandchildren from Temu.

• Radio New Zealand: A crowd gathered for an event in the city of Wellington staged by entertainer Dan Boerman. He was performing a public display of his ability to fold a fitted bedsheet.

• Justin Dealey – BBC: The British broadcaster felt it was newsworthy that a man in Essex has a wife who wants him to divest from his collection. You probably will take her side once you learn he has gathered two dozen, fully-operational metropolitan buses.

     WINNER

Countries have gone full throttle on wind turbine energy production in the North Sea, with hundreds of these aeronautic eyesores littering the coastal waters. The Netherlands has a legitimate gripe with Belgium, according to one Dutch meteorologist, because its wind farms are popping up in areas ahead of Holland’s windmills. This is leading to him lodging a complaint: Belgium is guilty of stealing wind from the Netherlands. 

A Dutch weather forecaster has accused Belgium of stealing wind from the Dutch

😂😂https://t.co/wJiqtme1Eq

— Jitendra Jain (@JitendraJain_) May 30, 2025

DISTINGUISHED BREAKING NEWS

• Tom Costello – CNN: The year began with the press intent on blaming any and all airline calamities on President Trump and Transportation Secretary (DOT) Sean Duffy. So Tom Costello was there to say a Delta flight crashing upon landing was another one to blame on the administration, despite the event taking place in Toronto, CANADA.

• ABC News: When President Trump was making waves by portraying a speech by Hakeem Jeffries, with the House Minority Leader portrayed with a sombrero, ABC was on the case, informing us with a graphic that the animated headwear was AI-generated.

• Juliette Kayyem – CNN: Ms. Kayyem was very outraged to learn ICE agents were at Dodger Stadium, getting ready to detain workers and fans. It was then shown that they were Border Patrol agents, and they were only staging in the parking lot before leaving together to operate elsewhere. Ms. Kayyem became upset that DHS had not provided those details early enough to prevent her from looking so ridiculous.

• Kaitlan Collins – CNN: The White House correspondent claimed President Trump was avoiding the press because of poor economic numbers. Not only had he been readily available to the media all week but, minutes after Collins made that report, Trump then held a presser.

     WINNER

Jacob Soboroff – MSNBC

When the second No Kings protest was held, there was a common thread seen from the variety of locations across the country. People, for no discernible reason, were out in costumes of various creatures, from frogs to dinosaurs. Despite the perplexing idiocy of this display, Soboroff rushed up to one to conduct his interview, mashing his microphone into a plastic muzzle to conduct a live interview with an inflatable pink unicorn.

“We’re here peacefully protesting, looking as ridiculous as we can, just so maybe we appeal to the president because he’s a ridiculous leader that is normalizing abuse of power. And we cannot stand and act like nothing is happening.” 🦄 pic.twitter.com/NB2yM6cbRN

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) October 19, 2025

DISTINGUISHED INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

• Drew Harwell – Washington Post: In a scalding expose, Harwell suggested Elon Musk uses an alternate account to cheat at video games.

• Sara Peach – Yale Climate Connections: Ms. Peach found some information that could toss Jeffrey Epstein in a negative light: He was possibly a climate denier.

• Ian Lee – CBS News: Ian drew up a dire effect emerging from the DOGE cuts to the Park Service – an uptick of bear attacks on visitors!

• Chiara Eisner – National Public Radio: Ms. Eisner excitedly reported on “government papers” she came across during the Alaskan Summit between President Trump and Pres. Vladimir Putin. We see her exposing sensitive information, such as the seating arrangement at the dinner and the menu items. What she detailed was an action report that is given to the press and accidentally left behind on the printer in the common business area of the hotel lobby. 

     WINNER

Daniel Boguslaw – Rolling Stone

Dan was excited about one of the Epstein emails selectively leaked by Congressional Democrats. He proclaimed culpability with one message where a female was set to meet Jeffrey Epstein at a residence, but said she would come in if Trump was there. This proof was blown into confetti because the self-proclaimed investigative journalist was unable to glean that at the time Trump was president, his whereabouts were detailed in the media, and Epstein was on another continent, while the president was in the panhandle of Florida.

🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: In a 2017 Email from what appears to be an Epstein victim the woman writes “I m at the door but I will wait for my time..I don’t want to come early to find Trump in your house”. Significant given that Trump has long claimed he cut off Epstein years before 2017. pic.twitter.com/9K7Z9qHqB4

— Daniel Boguslaw (@DRBoguslaw) November 12, 2025

DISTINGUISHED NATIONAL REPORTING

• Elizabeth Weise – USA Today: With the L.A. Riots in full swing there was this helpful lecture: It is not environmentally positive to set Waymo self-driving cars on fire.

• Nikki McCann Ramirez – Rolling Stone: The reporter committed conspiracy inception when the release of the Russian Collusion documents came from Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard. Ramirez says this does not disprove Russian involvement because Russia planted these documents in 2016 to disprove they were complicit…somehow.

• David Schechter – CBS News: We learn a dire effect taking place because of the government shutdown: It will affect ferret populations.

• Matt Guttman – ABC News: In reporting from Utah after the Charlie Kirk assassination, Matt delivered a sniper’s love story, detailing the affection the killer had for his lover.

     WINNER

Scott MacFarlane – CBS News

In an extreme example of Main Character Syndrome, MacFarlane explained he had PTSD from the Donald Trump assassination attempt because he came close to dying that day. He was not imperiled by the sniper, however. No, he nearly died at the hands of the Trump supporters in attendance. Yes, he seriously said this: “You could see it in their eyes – they were coming for us! And if he didn’t jump up with his fist, they were coming to kill us!” What – the – heck?!

Todd also claims “We’ve been fearing this for about a decade. That all of this heightened rhetoric, that what all this crap online, what happened on January 6, those of us that experienced that as well, you’re like, we’re a tinderbox, right?”MacFarlane adds, “When he jumped up… pic.twitter.com/6YHj9Q19iP

— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 17, 2025