The 2023 T Dog Media Turkey Awards
Your winners/losers in the 18th annual roundup of the worst in everything:
Donald Trump. He’s back.
Elon Musk. I’ll tell you what. You can click on this link, which leads to every story this space has featured on the arrogant billionaire, none of it positive.
Jerry Reinsdorf. Speaking of arrogant billionaires, the 87-year-old is currently one of the worst owners in sports with the ownership of TWO franchises, single-handedly killing sports in Chicago.
Jim Irsay. A late entry, the Indianapolis Colts owner on Wednesday channeled Elon Musk and Donald Trump on Twitter/X by threatening to sue ESPN and First Take after the show blasted him over his HBO Real Sports interview about a drunk-driving arrest in 2014, where he said he was arrested “because he was a rich, white, billionaire”. Reinsdorf, the Rickettses, and the McCaskeys may be civic embarrassments to us in Chicago, but at least they stay off ElonWorld with their nonsense.
Kevin Adell. After being dropped by Detroit’s WKBD, The CW signed with Kevin Adell’s WADL for affiliation in the same market after he agreed to sell his station to Mission, a “shell” company run by Nexstar to get around the ownership rules. But with the deal held up by the FCC, Adell dropped the network after seven weeks and wound up on rival WMYD, who he’s now suing.
ALL Chicago sports teams. Due to cost-cutting, T Dog Media decided all five “pro” teams should share a turkey award this year. Why not? They’re masters at pinching pennies – especially the White Sox, who earn an extra award for letting announcer Jason Benetti take his talents to the Detroit Tigers (and they’ll get another one – keep reading.)
Brandon Johnson. After a stunning upset in April’s mayoral election, the Johnson administration stumbles into office by mishandling a migrant crisis and a persistent crime problem. Let’s Go Brandon, indeed.
Matt Eberflus. With a 6-22 record at the time of typing this, the Chicago Bears head coach is the losingest head coach in franchise history (percentage-wise.) What an accomplishment.
Everyone involved in the shooting at Guaranteed Rate Field. From the team who plays there to the Mayor and city officials to Chicago Police to even the media, we still don’t know how two people were shot in the ballpark last August. Can anyone say two shots and a cover up?
WTTW. After shifting its news flagship program to 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., the public TV station decided to cut the show to twice a week filling the rest of the week with Black Voices and Latino Voices shows.
Audacy. Owner of several Chicago radio stations including 670 The Score and WBBM Newsradio, the company was delisted from the NYSE as its stock price was too low.
Bally Sports. Perhaps the worst-run regional sports networks in history, the chain delivered a subpar viewing experience and its parent company (Diamond Sports Group) filed for bankruptcy and is closing up shop next year.
The AMPTP. The Hollywood strikes are over, but threatening writers with losing their homes unless they came to a deal is quite the negotiating tactic.
Bob Iger. The Disney CEO entertained the idea of selling off “non-core” assets, including several cable networks and ABC and its owned stations, including ABC 7 in a CNBC interview which did not put him in the best light.
David Zaslav. The head of Warner Bros. Discovery recently decided to shelve nearly-completed movies to take a massive tax write-off – not to mention making life quite miserable for those on the picket line during the strike.
Velma. The worst show of 2023 debuted in January and it was no contest.
Scott Adams and “Dilbert”: Scott Adams’ racist rant against Black people sunk his longtime comic strip about the workplace, which wasn’t really funny to begin with.
Happy Thanksgiving!