With our second annual Bulldog Awards in six categories announced today, the Media Research Center is honoring conservatives in the media who truly deserve accolades yet will never receive them from the news media establishment.
The winners of the MRC’s 2023 Bulldog Awards: Matt Walsh, Chris Plante, Mary Margaret Olohan, Karol Markowicz, Chaya Raichik and Andrew Kerr.
(UPDATE: On Wednesday, May 10, the MRC announced Brit Hume as the winner of the second annual MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement.)
On Monday, the biggest journalism awards, the Pulitzer Prizes, were announced. Inevitably, they honored left-wing journalists who pushed the liberal agenda. The Washington Post won for “unflinching reporting that captured the complex consequences of life after Roe v. Wade, including the story of a Texas teenager who gave birth to twins after new restrictions denied her an abortion.” The Atlantic was honored for a “compelling accounting of the Trump administration policy that forcefully separated migrant children from their parents...”
In announcing the 2023 winners of the Bulldog Awards, Media Research Center founder and President Brent Bozell III said: “The Bulldog Award winners are trusted truth-tellers, unlike left-wing operatives who win Pulitzers. These are courageous individuals dedicated to informing Americans about stories the leftist media ignore. Congratulations to all!”
Details on the six winners of the MRC’s 2023 Bulldog Awards announced May 9 (see May 10 post for Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement presented to Brit Hume):
♦ 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Podcast: Matt Walsh
Matt Walsh is a pioneer in the conservative media, an accomplished author, speaker and host of the daily The Matt Walsh Show for The Daily Wire, which is both one of the most popular and influential podcasts, and a show aired by radio stations nationwide. He is renowned for his unwavering stance against the left’s transgender ideology and their harmful practices, such as the sexual mutilation of children, which he dissects regularly and convincingly on his podcast.
In addition to his political commentary, Walsh has proven to be a talented writer, becoming a best-selling children’s book author in 2022 with his beloved book, Johnny the Walrus. With his unique writing style and thoughtful storytelling, Walsh captivated young readers and parents alike with his tale of innocence and imagination.
Walsh also produced the groundbreaking documentary, What Is A Woman? In this thought-provoking film, Walsh interviewed a diverse range of experts, including doctors, professors, and politicians, who subscribe to the controversial gender ideology. With the seemingly simple question, “What is a woman?” Walsh was able to both confound and bemuse his interviewees while also shedding light on the radical transgender agenda promoted by the woke left. This documentary was a significant milestone in exposing the dangers and inconsistencies of the left’s gender politics.
♦ 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Radio Talk Show Host: Chris Plante
Chris Plante has gained favor with a growing nationwide radio audience for his charismatic and quick-witted takes making fun of the outlandish pretenses of liberal politicians and media figures. He deftly deploys audio soundbites from the news to cue-up his insightful and humorous retorts to the left’s “information dominance.” As he often observes, “the most insidious power of the media is its power to ignore.”
As host of The Chris Plante Show, a nationally-syndicated radio talk show broadcast from WMAL-FM radio in Washington, D.C., Plante makes sure his listeners hear about those media omissions. With his free-wheeling style and razor-sharp wit, Plante fearlessly takes on the left, both in and out of the media, making him a favorite among conservatives everywhere.
But Plante isn’t just a radio personality. Before his successful career in broadcasting, he was a Pentagon correspondent for CNN when it was a real news organization. In fact, he was at the Pentagon on that fateful day in 2001 and was recognized for his outstanding 9/11 reporting with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award.
In a new venture that greatly expands his reach, just last night, May 9, Newsmax launched a new 9 PM ET weeknight TV show: Chris Plante The Right Squad.
♦ 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Blogger: Mary Margaret Olohan
One of the country’s most connected and esteemed pro-life reporters, Mary Margaret Olohan has spent years accruing sources and cultivating relationships with Americans the liberal media ignore.
As the senior writer for the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, Olohan uses her platform to put a spotlight on causes related to the Catholic Church, culture, education, freedom, life, protecting children and defending the simple fact that men are men and women are women.
She chronicled the acts of violence against pro-life crisis pregnancy centers across the country.
Following such attacks, she doggedly kept the public updated on how the federal government and White House appeared to show little to no urgency in identifying alleged perpetrators or communication with the victims.
She gave voice in 2022 to Mark Houck, a pro-life Catholic, who was dragged through the mud by the Biden Justice Department for allegedly assaulting a woman outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic.
♦ 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Columnist: Karol Markowicz
As a columnist for the New York Post and FoxNews.com, a contributor at The Spectator World, and a contributing writer to Washington Examiner magazine, Karol Markowicz has written impressively about the reckoning from COVID lockdowns and mandates, and about “woke indoctrination” in politics, education, medicine, mental health, entertainment and culture.
Amongst her most persuasive 2022 columns: “‘Masks reduce racism’ study proves US medical establishment is perilously woke”; “The CDC will lose even more public trust if it puts COVID jab on the kids’ immunization schedule”; “Test scores show how teacher’s union head Randi Weingarten damaged an entire generation of kids”; “Mask hysteria! Hey NYC parents, it’s time to mouth off about nonsensical toddler mandates” and “Florida folk will flee back to New York? You’re living in Fantasyland!”
Her recent book with Bethany Mandel, Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation, will be shared and remembered by parents and concerned citizens.
She was born in the Soviet Union, grew up in Brooklyn, and recently moved to Florida, explaining “it’s with some sadness and a lot of anger that I feel our family now needs to leave the city we’ve loved for so long. We’re going to Florida, a state we’ve come to regard as the beacon of freedom in this country.”
♦ 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Social Media Personality: Chaya Raichik
Best known for her Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, with more than two million followers, Chaya Raichik has become a hate object for the left simply for exposing the radical and harmful agenda of left-wing educators who peddle leftist ideology, including transgenderism and anti-Americanism. The genius of her Twitter account is how she simply highlights the incriminating videos posted by far-left activists.
And because of the impact of her work in undermining far-left gender activists, last year The Washington Post and reporter Taylor Lorenz put her in harm’s way by revealing her identity and address along with falsely attributing crimes to her influence.
The subsequent outpouring of support helped expand her reach. She overcame this adversity while the old masters of Twitter worked behind the scenes to limit her reach, shadow banning her account, and suspending her several times. And yet she persisted; highlighting teachers and educators mistrusted with the welfare of students and helping to drive the movement for school choice and accountability to parents.
♦ 2023 MRC Bulldog Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism: Andrew Kerr
Through his investigative reporting, Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon has established himself as a must-read journalist for all things Hunter Biden, Black Lives Matter, and COVID. Kerr cut his teeth with the Daily Caller, where his scoops included Tony Fauci’s support for gain-of-function research and the COVID lab leak “theory,” which the leftist media denied and called a conspiracy until finally admitting it was the most likely origin of COVID.
Kerr spent 2022 with both the Washington Free Beacon and the Washington Examiner. At the Examiner, he investigated the fundraising of Black Lives Matter and how millions were used by key leaders to enrich themselves. As a result, the group shut down its fundraising arm until it was taken over by Clinton-linked advisers. On Hunter Biden, Kerr revealed Joe Biden knew about his son’s Chinese business dealings and helped fund his son’s sexual exploits.
With the Free Beacon, he had more on Fauci's National Institutes of Healthsupporting the Wuhan lab where COVID likely originated, had a multi-part investigation into squalor-like conditions inside apartments owned by the church of Senator Raphael Warnock (something ignored by the networks during the campaign) and reported on Stacey Abrams being in legal trouble over her non-profit.
> Also new this year: Brit Hume Earns MRC’s Second Annual Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement
> 2022 MRC Bulldog Award for Lifetime Achievement: Cal Thomas
> Year ago: 2022 Bulldog Award winners
