Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media's annual "Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Awards" have gone in recent years to people not exactly known for accuracy in media, such as Andrew Breitbart and Marc Morano, Tucker Carlson and Ken Timmerman, and Dana Loesch and Sharyl Attkisson. So without further ado, AIM, tell us the names of this year's recipients:
Accuracy in Media will honor Catherine Herridge of the Fox News Channel for her outstanding achievements in investigative journalism, and Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit for his groundbreaking contributions to New Media in a ceremony taking place at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 14th.
Herridge is the closest thing to an actual reporter AIM has honored. But remember that the main purpose of the Reed Irvine Award is not to honor fair and balanced reporting but to reward work that promotes conservatives and bashes liberals, especially that one in the White House. As Fox News' point person on turning the terrorist attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi into a cudgel her employer uses to bash the Obama White House, Herridge has certainly fulfilled that latter standard.
But Jim Hoft? Really?
Hoft is known as the Dumbest Man on the Internet, and for good reason. As Media Matters summed it up: "Hoft runs with (or spawns) almost every inane story that bubbles up in the conservative blogosphere, has proven that he has absolutely no vetting process for the sources he cites, and apparently has a hard time with basic reading comprehension."
Just this week, in fact, Hoft uncritically repeated a claim from a survivalist blog under the headline "Obama DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks to Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile." As Little Green Football's Charles Johnson points out, they aren’t tanks and they aren’t being bought by the DHS (they're for the Marine Corps).
This is the guy that AIM is giving an "Accuracy in Media Award" to.
Media Matters also stated: "Hoft's ongoing position of influence in the conservative media is evidence that the entire movement is intellectually bankrupt." That AIM is giving Hoft its most prestigious award demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of AIM.
