A number of people, mainly conservatives, expressed their dismay after CNN was awarded The Walter Cronkite Award on Tuesday for their town hall following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last February.
The town hall, which featured National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch and now-suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, won the award in the “Excellence in Television Political Journalism” category, USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism announced Tuesday.
The jury said that the town hall, which was moderated by Jake Tapper, “advance[d] the national conversation on gun control and violence,” according to a press release.
Loesch took exception with CNN being given the award on Twitter. (RELATED: Parkland Shooting Survivor: CNN Planted ‘Scripted’ Question At Town Hall)
“Curious — where is my share of the award? You needed a villain to abuse and I was the only one on the stage relating the facts later cited as the exact reasons why the sheriff you exalted was removed from his job,” Loesch tweeted in a thread about the award recipient. “Let me know when I can expect an on-air invite for acknowledgment.” (RELATED: Broward County Sheriff Reportedly Tells Colleagues He’s Being Suspended Over Parkland Massacre)
She also accused CNN of exploiting the Parkland shooting, which left 17 dead, for ratings.
Loesch she was not the only one.
Kyle Kashuv, a Parkland student survivor turned conservative activist, accused the network of the same, calling the town hall “a shameful display” of “using our community’s pain for ratings.”
Using our community’s pain for ratings, a week after 17 students and teachers were killed, gets an award?
That town hall was a shameful display. Disgusting. https://t.co/2yj7xiK2XG
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) March 19, 2019
Many others also criticized the decision to award CNN for the Parkland town hall.
Anyone watching the Parkland Town Hall recognized it was an embarrassing spectacle, overseen and orchestrated by CNN. Delusional. https://t.co/Kb1KR1phND
— Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) March 19, 2019
.@CNN and @jaketapper win Cronkite Award for excellence in pushing the liberal agenda disguised as news https://t.co/2JyxQ16zWf
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 19, 2019
What an embarrassment. That “town hall” wasn’t journalism. It was naked left-wing activism that deliberately attacked those who did nothing wrong in service of corrupt FL bureaucrats who did nothing while kids were being murdered. https://t.co/lLNWKkN5bE
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 19, 2019
This is an important thread. I lost a lot of respect for CNN that night and it has not recovered. I’m not an NRA member, but Dana was the only one that night who came off well. https://t.co/RBWpgj2MKk
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 19, 2019
Uh, they allowed Scott Israel to blatantly lie about his own culpability and let misrepresentations about the NRA to go unchallenged while treating @DLoesch like she personally shot the kids.
But it conformed to media narratives, so…. awards. https://t.co/GLomwi5yzt
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) March 19, 2019
It’s like, I hear your complaints about Fox and raise you CNN winning a journalism award for this. https://t.co/8UfTjgVt7t
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) March 19, 2019