{"id":280,"date":"2008-01-01T01:24:44","date_gmt":"2008-01-01T06:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2007\/12\/31\/the-2007-shootie-awards\/"},"modified":"2013-01-25T12:25:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T18:25:31","slug":"the-2007-shootie-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=280","title":{"rendered":"The 2007 Shootie Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year!\u00a0<\/p>\n

And you know what that <\/em>means, right?\u00a0 Yepper, it’s\u00a0time for the Shooties!<\/p>\n

The Shooties have been an annual tradition here at Shot In The Dark for…well, a year, now<\/a>. The Shooties stand watch over the regional media, alternative media, and political scene, ready to skewer the obnoxious, pretentious, and dumb (and, occasionally, reward the meritorious).<\/p>\n

Technical awards were given out at a ceremony at Keegans’ last October.<\/p>\n

So, with no further ado, let’s get on with the show!<\/p>\n

The Baghdad Bob Award for Holding On To An Absurd Fiction Long Past The Point Of Pathetic: <\/strong>This award goes to the Minnesota Monitor. For the entire year of their existence, they denied – or, more accurately, refused to comment on, and declared all speculation “paranoid” – their relationship with George Soros’ attack-PR firm “Media Matters for America”, saying that there was no reason whatsoever<\/em> to assume that just because the Monitor’s parent group, the ironically-named “Center for Independent Media”, shared offices with MM4A early in its organizational life, that there was any relationship between the CIM and the left-supporting billionaire.<\/p>\n

Until former Strib reporter Erik Black put the qibosh on the “silly” “nonsense”-ical “attack” meme by…confirming it<\/a>, as he was departing CIM employ and decamping to the MinnPost.<\/p>\n

The Daniel Pearl Profiles in Journalistic Courage Award<\/strong>: This year, we award this award to none other than ace “journalist” Jeff Fecke, of the Soros joint Minnesota Monitor, <\/em>in what will be the first of several awards this year.<\/p>\n

While trying to “cover” a John Kline town hall meeting<\/font><\/a> he claimed that that Congressman Kline\u2019s staff had barred him from liveblogging – but then turned around and allowed a group of conservative bloggers to blog away unhindered. He wrote<\/p>\n

\u201cMinnesota Monitor had intended to liveblog the event. Unfortunately, while some conservative bloggers were allowed internet access, Kline staffers informed this reporter that I would not be able to take advantage of internet access that had been offered me after inquiry with the Lakeville school district.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like a lawnmower going over a gopher, Michael Brodkorb<\/font><\/a> and Joe “Learned Foot” Tucci<\/font><\/a> ripped Fecke’s claim of discrimination to shreds; Brodkorb even scanned and posted the forum\u2019s rules<\/font><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perception remained reality at the MinMoney<\/strike>itor.<\/em><\/p>\n

The “Let’s Go Find All The Narrow-Minded Bigots – and Lynch<\/em> Them” Award for Even-Handed, Detached “Journalism”<\/strong> – Phil Krinkie was a famous tax hawk in the State House for many years. He’s also a great guy – funny, jovial, reasonable, a great ambassador for fiscal conservatism. Lori Sturdevant is a DFL hack whose every column is a bit of “unpaid” flakkery for the left in this state; not only does she never deviate from the party line, she usually is right in line with whatever transient strategy is in current effect. So when she wrote about a conversation with Krinkie<\/a>, after reciting the entire catalog of DFL talking points about Krinkie, she added “Notice how much more reasonable a zealot can sound when chatting with an old classmate than when performing on the stump?”<\/p>\n

There’s reason to believe she wasn’t even trying to be ironic.<\/p>\n

The “This Is London” Plaque for Creative “Journalistic” Cribbing – <\/strong>Over the summer, the Minnesota Monitor’s Jeff Fecke got busted for low-grade plagiarism<\/a>, shoddy attribution<\/a>, and trying to bluster his way out of being busted<\/a> for these mistakes with a creative edit or two. His only response? “On the advice of my editor, I have no comment”. Which was pretty much Fecke’s response to every <\/em>question about his work with the Monitor last year.<\/p>\n

The Richard M. Nixon Award for Ethics<\/strong> – Busted for numerous ethical lapses, the Minnesota Monitor – which came into existence trumpeting its “Code of Ethics<\/a>“, which tells its practicioners to “Admit mistakes and correct them promptly” – didn’t really admit or correct much of anything<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Joe Isuzu Trophy – <\/strong>This award is given to those who talk a huuuuuge game, and delivery a tiiiiiiiny one.<\/p>\n

And the “winner” this year is Minnesota “MNob” Observer, a lawyer apparently licensed to practice law in Minnesota and who writes for about sixty regional leftyblogs, whose analysis of the Olson v. Brodkorb <\/em>summary judgement, er, flunked with dishonors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Monitor “Do As We Say, Not As We Do” Award For Grating Hypocrisy<\/strong> – Karl Bremer – dyspeptic anti-Michele Bachmann obsessive from Stillwater – made huge waves when, mirabile dictu<\/em>, nearly every <\/em>left-leaning regional website simultaneously tripped onto a month-old, native-American-bashing post<\/a> at “Anti-Strib”. And while Anti-Strib got ripped pretty soundly by the local Sorosphere (and, let’s not forget, a fair chunk of the regional dextrosphere), there was deafening silence about a comment Bremer himself<\/a> left on a post at “Dump Bachmann<\/a>“:<\/p>\n

I thought I saw the name Drew Emmer among those arrested with Larry Craig for cruising MSP airport bathrooms for anonymous sex. I could be wrong, but Emmer\u2019s behavior and comments seem oddly similar in both form and content to Craig\u2019s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There was never a comment from anyone involved in The [decreasingly relevant] Dump, or any other leftyblog outlet, about Bremer’s slander.<\/p>\n

Being the darling of the local Sorosphere means not needing <\/em>basic ethics.<\/p>\n

The “Howard Dean” Trophy For Leaving Liberals Screaming and <\/em>Sputtering: <\/strong>Every year for the last, oh, two years or so, the City Pages<\/em> – the occasionally brilliant but always reliably hip-“counterculture”-lefty local “alternative” freebie ‘zine – gives two <\/em>“Best Blog” awards. The “Best Liberal Blog” is generally stridently, constantly political (“MNVolved”, I think, in ’06, although it didn’t survive much beyond the award, and “Clucking Stool” in ’07); the “Best Conservative Blog” has been the one that talks the least about politics. In ’06 it was Nihilist in Golf Pants, and the award seems to have gutted the spirit of the once-prolific stalwarts. But in ’07, the “award” went to Dan Lacey of “Faithmouse”. Perhaps trying to avoid the City Pages “Best New Band” jinx (the “winners” inevitably break up) Lacey turned around and sold the “award” on EBay<\/a>. It drew sputtering from the usual assortment of left-leaning waxy yellow blogbuildup, but who cared? The quietest blog smackdown of the year, it was also by far the best.<\/p>\n

And finally, the big kahuna, the award that started it all:<\/p>\n

The Charles Townsend Award<\/strong> – In 1765, British parliamentarian Charles Townsend, in noting the Colonies\u2019 protests against the Stamp Act, said:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now will these Americans, Children planted by our Care, nourished up by our Indulgence until they are grown to a Degree of Strength & Opulence, and protected by our Arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this year\u2019s winner is: a triple play!<\/p>\n