Like a Labour government and white race riots, The Trashies are back for 2024 to cast a critical look at the journalism and media class and what they consider legitimate as journalism and comment pieces.

For those who don’t know, The Trashies are awards for bad journalism. Particularly work that’s prejudiced at best and straight up hate speech at its worst. There’s a note of humour to it because it’s run by those of us who often bear the brunt of some of this bile (you have to laugh), but The Trashies also serve as a buffer against the gaslighting of minorities by groups of journalists that refuse to take their concerns seriously as in the case of transgender activists.

The Trashies also seeks to highlight systems and structures in mainstream publications that perpetuate a spectrum of negative tropes towards groups that are underrepresented in our newsrooms, from antipathy to outright hostility.

There is no crisis of speaking about ‘legitimate concerns’ about say there being too much immigration in the UK.The Trashies hope to facilitate discussions on how minority communities are portrayed in the press, and how newspapers from Left to Right can do better.

In previous years scrolling articles nominated for #TheTrashies yields a depressing but unsurprising number of examples where MSM dehumanise, patronise & direct blame towards people of colour:“Muslims must flush out killers in their midst”, blusters Daniel Finkelstein in The Times; over at The New York Times there’s no shortage of stereotypes about ‘Africa’ (cos it’s a country, didn’t you know?); “Islamophobia is a reasonable reaction to jihadi violence and Islam’s aversion to criticism”, pontificates Australian journalist Ted Lapkin on the other side of the globe; while Islamophobic tropes are kitted into Nick Cohen’s piece, “How liberal Britain is betraying ex-Muslims”.These articles are part of a tightly woven tapestry of media coverage that negatively stereotypes people of colour. #TheTrashies help to unpick this depressing, misinformed consensus. reminding everyone that the media is dominated by a white, and usually privileged (class, is, after all a factor at play here), few.

But, this movement isn’t just about disrupting accepted narratives. This hashtag and Media Diversified more broadly, provide an important base of solidarity for people of colour. In moments of self-doubt.. when the mainstream tells a story that’s impossible to identify with, this kind of support is–to borrow from James Baldwin – indispensable.

Here are the details for how you can get involved!

WHEN?

Nominations have officially opened and will close August 18th 2024 at 9pm. The most popular egregious comment pieces, reporting and broadcast journalism will be put again to a public vote start date TBA. So get submitting using #TheTrashies hashtag.

HOW DO I NOMINATE?

We need you to nominate a particularly egregious article that is factually incorrect, or so dog whistling in its text that dogs within its radius howl in pain. Your submission needs to show why the article you have chosen is worthy of a Trashies award. A screenshot or link to the piece, with a short – and we mean short – explanation as to why it’s bad, will suffice.

WHAT DON’T WE WANT?

Articles or broadcast news that perpetuate Anti-Blackness, Misogynoir, Transphobia, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Anti-Grt, Anti-Semitism, Racism of any kind, Classism and any ism or bigotry that you have seen.

We’re not interested in your personal feuds with writers, nor will we tolerate harassment of columnists or journalists on the basis that they have been nominated for The Trashies.

WHAT DON’T WE WANT?

Also – and this can’t be emphasised enough – we will not be accepting anything from people with a gammon hue and three lions on their shirt, submitting articles where they feel the writer is reverse-racist; this is not a GB News or Talk TV segment on a day ending with Y. Because like Yaxley-Lennon being sober and Tony Blair’s soul, reverse racism is a myth and a figment of your racist Grandad’s imagination after one to many cans at Christmas.

So what are you waiting for nominations are now open use the hashtag #TheTrashies to nominate an article or tv segment from this year 2024 and get involved.

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