The 2019 T Dog Media Turkey Awards
Welcome to the 14th annual T Dog Media Turkey Awards – celebrating the worst in media, sports, and life in general. We have 17 recipients to announce, so let’s get gobblin’:
Survivor. The way CBS handled – or mishandled the latest Survivor controversy leaves a lot of be desired. An extra side turkey is given to Jeff Probst for what a pompous ass he is.
President Trump. And speaking of pompous asses, the 45th President swooped into town in October, bashed the city (which he does all the time), attends a fundraiser and skips town. Fifth straight award for this jive turkey.
Mitch Trubisky. Turning to local sports (and there are a lot of awards to give out here), let’s start with a once-promising QB who turned out to be just as bad as the QB they replaced.
Ryan Pace. Instead of drafting DeShawn Watson, Patrick Mahomes, or Lamar Jackson, thie Bears’ GM is the one responsible for drafting the fraud above. Typical mismanagement by Chicago’s Lakefront NFL Team.
Cody Parkey. You miss a field goal, costing the Bears a chance to advance to the divisional playoffs, and then go on the Today Show and make an ass out of yourself.
The Ricketts Family. Can’t think of a group of douchebags more deserving on an honor, from taking Cubs games off broadcast TV to start their own network funded by a right-wing media conglomerate to turning Wrigleyville into “Disneyland by the L”, not to mention fundraising for an avowed racist . This family is even worse than the Jacksons at the height of their tabloid-frenzy.
Chicago Bulls. Much like Chicago’s NFL Lakefront Team, Chicago’s NBA Team is no better in the management department, with two morons running the front office and a loathsome head coach more suited running Joe Namath’s hapless basketball team on NBC’s 1978 bomb The Waverly Wonders. Come to think of it, Bulls management (and those of the Bears) are worse than those running NBC 40 years ago.
Chicago Blackhawks. The last time this team was in this column was in 2015 (for the way they handled a Patrick Kane press conference), but missing the playoffs for two straight seasons with one of the worst records in the NHL can land you here.
Kristen McQueary. Chicago Tribune columnist slams Chicago radio in an embarrassing piece in which she lacked total knowledge of the subject.
Jussie Smollett. Thank for embarrassing our city on the world stage with your hate crime hoax. We can do that ourselves!
Dish. Arrogant satellite provider gets into retrasmission fights with channels, forcing them to be removed (Fox, the Fox RSNs owned by Sinclair, NBC Sports Chicago, etc.), sending thousands of customers headed for the exits.
DirecTV and AT&T. And the same goes with DirecTV, who got into a retransmission fight with CBS, knocking its owned Chicago outlet and other stations off the air for three weeks in July, proving satellite TV is nothing but a scam. A side Turkey Award goes to phone company CEO Randall Stephenson whose answer to DirecTV’s subscription woes is to throw more money at it. AT&T: Reach out and ripoff someone.
The Red Line (CBS). After surviving through the Jason Van Dyke trial and the Jussie Smollett saga, what makes any Chicagoan think they want to sit through eight hours of this dreck?
Charter Communications, a.k.a. “Spectrum”. Great Business Plan, Part 1: Cable company available in only 40 percent of the country decides to launch original programming such as L.A.’s Finest and a Mad About You revival and makes it exclusively to customers, shutting out viewers in the Chicago area and elsewhere.
The Chicago Fire Soccer Team. Great Business Plan, Part 2: Speaking of making programming exclusive to subscribers, as they return to Soldier Field after 13 years in a taxpayer-funded stadium surrounded by packing firms and trucking companies, the Fire decided to keep its games on a streaming service instead of linear outlets.
Young Sheldon. Yes, this blog listed this sitcom the second best program of 2017 for some dumb reason, but a lead character who is the second coming of Scrappy-Doo does not great make great TV.
Jimmy Fallon. Per the item above, this is what happens when Young Sheldon grows up and gets a late-night talk show. With a program matching the disastrous Chevy Chase, Pat Sajak, and Alan Thicke talkers in the content department, Jimmy Fallon is not worthy of the legacy of this historic program. Then again, neither was Jay Leno.
Happy Thanksgiving!