The Jessie Awards for Uncompromising Journalism
- allegras7
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
By Jessie Seigel / December 3, 2025
Journalists come in many varieties: beat reporters, investigative journalists, anchors, pundits, commentators, op-ed columnists, and the like. Many are more than competent in the category where their career trajectory has landed them.
But these times that try our souls call for advocate journalists. They deal in facts, but based on those facts, they take a side. Such newspeople are the needed antidotes to the propaganda machines represented by Fox News, Breitbart, Newsmax, and sadly now, the Jeff Bezos version of the Washington Post. (The WashPost’s former owner, Katherine Graham, must be rolling over in her grave, if not pounding in frustration on the inner lid of her coffin.)
The Myth of Objectivity
Many in the media regard themselves as objective in covering national and world events. Of course, the press has never been completely objective. Choice of content and presentation has always had to bend, to one degree or another, to the agenda of owners, whether a William Randolph Hearst, a Joseph Pulitzer, or a Rupert Murdoch.
In recent years, deliberately or not, many journalists have come to define objectivity as neutrality. But they are not the same thing. Those purportedly practicing neutrality have tended to report simply on what each side of a dispute says, giving lies and truthful facts equal weight. They may claim that they’re just being objective. But such neutrality often amounts to taking a side—the side of the liars.
Even when lies have been flagged, the timidity of much of the media has been appalling. For most of President Trump’s first term, the word “lie” was studiously avoided. Instead, the majority of journalists used euphemisms like “false” or “incorrect”—suggesting error rather than a deliberate act. Likewise, much of the media used the word “misinformation” when “disinformation” was more accurately the case.
Even now, in the face of illegal ICE raids, military takeovers of cities, and vindictive political indictments, many commentators persist in softening their assessment of the country’s situation. At most, they suggest we are on the verge of a fascist takeover. But, as Marc Elias, the crusading lawyer for election fairness, has said: we’re not “on the verge” of a fascist takeover; we’re “in the middle” of it.
Advocate journalists do not deal in euphemisms or engage in both-side-ism neutrality. They deal in facts. But they take a side based on those facts. Currently, they adamantly, forthrightly and honestly expose the nation’s burgeoning autocracy. In doing so, these brave folks likely receive threats. They must assume that their names are somewhere on Trump’s mile-long enemies list. And that in a disappointingly large number of cases, the corporations they work for will ultimately fail to stand by them. Yet they steadfastly stand up for democratic values every day.
There are undoubtedly additional journalists who deserve an award, but the following are the Jessie Award recipients this year. If a number of those recipients have connections to MSNOW (formerly MSNBC), it is because, over time, that network has fosterd a team of journalistic advocates whose work has countered Fox News’ yellow journalism.
All of these Jessie Award winners—liberal or conservative—agree on one thing: they believe in democracy. By exposing the underhand tactics of the Trump administration and its minions, they teach those who favor democracy what must be fought and how to do so. Their most important lesson: No compromise. No surrender.
The Herblock Integrity Award goes to political cartoonist Ann Telnaes:
Often, the sharpest political and social analysis has been delivered in political cartoons that concisely and sharply make their point.
Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes worked at the Washington Post for 17 years. But last January, an editor there tried to censor her work. Telnaes’ cartoon was rejected because it criticized billionaire tech and media chief executives who were bending the knee to get in good with then-incoming President-elect Donald Trump. One of those executives in her cartoon was Washington Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Rather than bow to this censorship, Telnaes quit. She now continues her work on Substack in her courageous cartoonist column “Open Windows.”
Explaining her resignation in a January 3 post on “Open Windows,” Telnaes wrote: “I have watched my overseas colleagues risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to expose injustices and hold their countries’ leaders accountable…I believe that editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism.”
Telnaes acknowledges the argument of some that when you work for a company, it has a right to expect your work to be good for the company. She maintains, however, that news organizations have an obligation to the public to safeguard a free press, “and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press.”
The Legal Eagle Award goes to attorney and legal analyst Joyce Vance:
As the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Joyce Vance is well versed
in the pursuit of public corruption prosecutions, civil rights enforcement, and the Constitution. As an MSNOW contributor, she provides on-air analyses of legal developments involving the Trump administration. She also co-hosts the #SistersInLaw podcast with fellow lawyers Jill Wine-Banks, Barbara McQuade, and political analyst Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Most important in the battle to save democracy, Vance’s erudite Substack column, “Civil Discourse,” explains to the public in layperson’s language the political stakes and effects of legal actions brought against the Trump government as well as the various court decisions.
The Great Educator Award goes to MSNOW anchor Rachel Maddow.
Rolling Stone has called Maddow, the star of MSNOW’s Rachel Maddow Show, “America's wonkiest anchor" who "cut through the chaos of the Trump administration and became the most trusted name in the news." Maddow has said her rule for covering the Trump administration is: “Don’t pay attention to what they say, focus on what they do”–a motto I have personally lived by for decades.
Maddow, a former Rhodes Scholar, is known for her insightful questions to guests and her brilliant analyses. But her most important recent contribution has been her effort, through podcasts and books, to educate the public on our nation’s history—what nefarious manipulations have occurred in the past and how they are being reenacted now.
Maddow’s hard-hitting podcast Ultra and her 2023 book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, detail the far right’s attempt to turn the country toward fascism in alliance with the Nazis during the late 1930s and 1940s. The New York Times wrote of this work: “The parallels to the present day are strong, even startling.”
Maddow writes that, even before U.S. troops began fighting in World War II, there was a well-funded effort to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism and destroy confidence in elected leaders. The goal? To overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist regime. There was even an ultra-right paramilitary movement training for violent insurrection. The conspiracy involved many of the country’s most influential elected officials and the resulting failure of the legal system to hold those involved accountable. Maddow also writes of the dogged journalists, prosecutors and citizens who worked to expose that cabal. Her connection of the past to the present provides invaluable information for fighting the current putsch.
The Beauteous Metamorphasis Award goes to MSNOW anchor Nicole Wallace.
Nicole Wallace, the anchor of MSNOW ‘s Deadline: White House, has been a staunch, consistent advocate in the nation’s battle to save democracy. I cannot think of even one program in the last two or three years that was not devoted, with humanity and intelligence, to championing democracy and justice on her daily two-hour show.
In her former political career, however, Wallace served as Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s press secretary. She worked on the 2000 Florida election recount—the one in which the Republicans interfered, actively harassing those performing the recount in order to delay completion until the Rehnquist Supreme Court could shut the recount down and hand the election to George W. Bush. Wallace later served as the White House Communications Director during the second term of the George W. Bush presidency.
Wallace also worked for John McCain’s 2008 campaign. Perhaps dealing with pre-MAGA vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin played a role in Wallace’s transformation. In any event, by 2021, she described herself to Stephen Colbert as a “self-loathing former Republican.”
I do not think Nicole Wallace has any reason to be self-loathing concerning her past politics or what the Republican party has become. Her steady, caring work speaks for itself.
The Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows Award goes to Bulwark editor and writer Bill Kristol
Bill Kristol has a long history as a steadfast neoconservative. As far back as 1993, he wrote a strategy memo proposing that Republican policymakers kill then President Clinton’s Health Care Plan. And he was pushing for a war with Iraq while Clinton was still president—long before the 9/11 attack gave the Bush administration the pretense of an excuse.
In 1994, Kristol and John Podhoretz founded the conservative news magazine, The Weekly Standard. Rupert Murdoch, lord of the Fox empire, financed its creation. And for 10 years, Kristol was also a regular talking head on Fox News Sunday.
Nevertheless, Kristol strongly opposed Donald Trump’s presidential nomination in 2016 and has continued to vigorously oppose him since. His articles at the Bulwark on Substack speak very plainly against Trump’s autocratic reign.
Although Kristol now plays for the good guys, so to speak, it is not clear what motivates him beyond his antipathy for Trump. It’s not clear what he would promote if we survive Trump, but for now, he fights an admirable pro-democracy fight.
The Paul on the Road to Damascus Award goes to Tim Miller.
Tim Miller, writer-at-large, host of “The Bulwark Podcast,” and MSNOW contributor, spent much of his life in Republican politics. By his own admission, during most of that period, Miller specialized in opposition research, freely trafficking with such unsavory characters as Andrew Breitbart and Steve Bannon to further the careers of less extreme personalities like Jeb Bush, John Huntsman, and John McCain, among others.
In his book, Why We Did it: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell, Miller writes that the work ethic in his profession amounted to: “Slaying the enemy. Winning the race.” Whatever that took. There was no discussion about whether what was done should be filled with lies or slander. Rather, “all ethical quandaries [were] completely excised from consideration.”
Miller’s book reads as an exposé of the playbook the GOP applied for decades, as well as an attempt to understand what motivates his former Republican colleagues to stick with Trump no matter what.
Most impressive is the fact that Miller does not spare himself in his book. Rather than trying to explain away his own part in that nefarious, unethical world, he takes himself to task for his rationalizations and excuses. So, when Tim Miller now speaks against Trump, one feels his thoughts are both intellectually honest and heartfelt.
It appears that, over time, Miller slowly came to see the disconnect between his personal values and the direction of the Republican party. Donald Trump was Miller’s last straw. Miller seems to have faced and finally embraced the idea that one should do work in accordance with his values rather than be a PR gun for hire. That, along with Miller’s understanding of Republican PR tactics, makes him an effective advocate journalist in the battle against the Trump regime’s fascist autocracy.
Thanks for doing this, Jessie. Especially the last two. It's time to say the Washington Post cannot be trusted. Approaching the same at the NY Times. For more heroes, you and your readers might take a look at The American Prospect, Street Sense, Washington City Paper, The 51st and some others.