The web site for President Trump’s “fake news awards” crashed around 8 p.m. Wednesday as the president announced the much-anticipated event on Twitter.
To nobody’s surprise, CNN made the dubious awards list four times, and the New York Times twice.
Mr. Trump provided a link to the web site GOP.com with a showman’s flourish by commenting on Twitter, “And the FAKE NEWS winners are…”
It linked to a web site with a list of 11 news reports, but many users couldn’t access the site, apparently due to heavy demand.
Fox News posted the list of “winners”:
1st — The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claiming markets would “never” recover from a Trump presidency.
2nd — ABC News’ Brian Ross’ bungled report on former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
3rd — CNN’s report that the Trump campaign had early access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.
4th — TIME’s report that Mr. Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.
5th — The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel tweeting that Mr. Trump’s December rally in Pensacola, Florida, wasn’t packed with supporters.
6th — CNN’s video suggesting that Mr. Trump overfed fish during a visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
7th—CNN’s retracted report claiming Anthony Scaramucci-Russia ties.
8th — Newsweek’s report that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake Mr. Trump’s hand.
9th — CNN’s report that former FBI Director James B. Comey would dispute Mr. Trump’s claim he was told he was not under investigation.
10th — The New York Times’ report that the Trump administration had hidden a climate-change report.
11th— In Mr. Trump’s words, “RUSSIA COLLUSION!’ Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!”
The web site asserted that “studies have shown that over 90 percent of the media’s coverage of President Trump is negative.”
It called 2017 “a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage and even downright fake news.”
The president had promised supporters that he’d honor “the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media,” after having pushed back the original date from Jan. 8.
On Twitter, Mr. Trump followed up the announcement by saying, “Despite some very corrupt and dishonest media coverage, there are many great reporters I respect and lots of GOOD NEWS for the American people to be proud of!”
“ISIS is in retreat, our economy is booming, investments and jobs are pouring back into the country, and so much more! Together there is nothing we can’t overcome—even a very biased media. We ARE Making America Great Again!” the president tweeted.
Ahead of the announcement, Arizona’s Republican senators, Jeff Flake and John McCain, criticized the president for feuding with the media.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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