The Hack Awards

The New York Press is accepting nominations for an answer to this question: "Who is the worst campaign journalist in America?" The results will be announced as part of the "First Quadrennial Election Hack Invitational."

There's obviously no shortage of terrible election journalism, but I don't think picking the worst of the worst is really as difficult as it seems. Two words: Carl Cameron. He's the Fox News reporter assigned to cover the Kerry campaign, and he just makes shit up (read Josh Marshall's first post on Cameron and then scroll upwards...every detail is more cringe-inducing than the last). Via Tapped, here's footage, partly excerpted in Outfoxed, of just how in the tank Cameron is.

Note: I'm not intentionally picking Cameron because he's a pro-Bush hack; I'm picking him because I haven't heard or read about any example of hackery quite so egregious as his throughout this campaign. If anyone knows of Democratic shills that can compete with Cameron, I'd like to hear about them.