Approximately 16 minutes after threatening to engulf an entire nation in atomic hellfire in order to compensate for his aching fragility, President Donald Trump figured he'd pull himself a funny and picked up his previously threatened notion of a fake-news awards show.
This time, the man who has a very, very big button on his desk went beyond simply proposing a series of honors given to the news outlets who publish facts that don't align with his particular view of reality, and announced that, indeed, the awards show is happening.
"I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock," he wrote, giving the public a time, date and new all-caps name that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. "Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!" Indeed, the world will stay tuned. It has little choice at this point.
The promise to broadcast the new awards — "The Trumpies"? "The Dishonesties"? "The Fakies"? "The Corrupties"? — follows the president's Thanksgiving day tweet in which he said, "We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!"
Should one accept that this awards show will actually come to fruition — and that is, admittedly, quite the article of faith — it is still unclear what format it would take and where it would be broadcast from. An address from behind the Resolute Desk? A press gaggle near the Rose Garden? A three-hour spectacular at Radio City Music Hall? There are options.
Naturally, members of the press, being the targets here, responded to the news with a mix of frustration and jaundiced mirth. Perhaps one can fault these figures for not treating seriously one of the most fully unhinged of this unpresidential president's Twitter ravings, but there's not much beyond laughter available to them at this time. They've already tried screaming into the void for the last 12 months, and that hasn't really worked out for anyone.
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