It was a rather tough week with many outlets vying for bottom honors, so it required some objective judging to determine the “winner.” It was the kind of week where numerous stories swirled in the news cycle and everyone strove to be noticed amid the onslaught.
From defending Hamas sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil to explaining away violent attacks on car dealerships, there was a contest to see who could deliver the most unhinged, divorced from reality hot takes. Amid that, there were plenty of other issues of note, so let’s get into the judgment portion of the week.
THE CONTENDERS
Washington Post – The paper went through major revisions internally and longtime editor Ruth Marcus tendered her resignation to Jeff Bezos. Reporter Pranshu Verma looked at the wave of attacks on Tesla dealerships and declared this was all Elon’s fault. Reporter Michelle Boorstein praised a D.C. church for humanizing immigrants…because apparently most people forget they…are humans?
CNN – Senator John Kennedy schooled Jake Tapper on the legality of deporting Mahmoud Khalil over terror support to the extent Tapper had to agree. Kaitlan Collins not only made the daft claim that Donald Trump was avoiding the press, but he gave a lengthy presser within an hour of her making that statement. Laura Barron-Lopez made the tired argument that ending the Department of Education would affect the poor and minorities worse. Bill Weir failed massively in fact-checking Lee Zeldin on EPA rollbacks on regulations.
CBS News – Trump’s tariff stances have a grave effect – on brides buying dresses. With St. Patrick’s Day nearly here the outlet strained to make a connection to deportations and Irish residents. Scott MacFarlane took exception with the DHS trying to root out who is leaking information about ICE raids of illegals. David Schecter came out with the tired environmental warning that we have only ten years to fix…something.
MSNBC – A sense of the new lineup in primetime was seen as Symone Sanders announced that the Trump administration is just like Russia in 2000. Alicia Menendez heard Trump pledge to go after those firebombing Tesla dealerships and stated this was an attack on protesters. Molly Jong-Fast was on “Morning Joe” to say Trump had failed on numerous promises about the economy, only to have reports follow on the drop in gas prices, inflation dropping faster than expected, and eggs now cheaper than when he took office. Lawrence O’Donnell announced he was taking a week off because he was stressed out by all of the Trump news.
WINNER
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Edging out the competition on sheer volume of ludicrous coverage was NPR.
The outlet conducted a serious interview with the distinctly un-serious Dylan Mulvaney.
The source of many truth-averse reports brought on author David Enrich to push his book about Trump murdering the truth.
Steve Oney released his NPR-snuggling book where he surmised that Republican efforts to defund public broadcasting goes through a cycle like the 17-year appearances of cicadas.
Comedian Bill Burr was interviewed and called Elon Musk a Nazi.
We were given this insightful headline that while it is acceptable for government agencies to have our personal information, it is unacceptable for another agency to access that very same information.
We received a new masterwork for the #Newseum.
At NPR they are fine with government agencies having our personal information, just concerned when a government agency accesses…what another agency has…we think…???@NPRmageddon pic.twitter.com/ZVhhopDe4v
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) March 11, 2025
