Moonie Times Wins For Best Government Reporting!
The Virginia Press Association had its big awards ceremony on Friday night, at the world-famous Watergateside Hotel, which is "separated from the waterfront by an Outback Steakhouse and a Hooters" and is also in Norfolk.
It was a magical night: The Washington Post came in third place (or lower) for (nearly) everything, Dana Milbank was burned in effigy and the Washington Times won top honors.
Read the hilarious report from our Anonymous Wonkette Operative, after the jump.
The Virginia Press Association dinner is the annual chance for folks from Roanoke and Newport News to pretend that The Washington Post is just another Virginia daily -- and a crappy one at that, since association members regularly vote The Post the second-, third-, or fourth-best daily in the state.
Saturday night's dinner at the Waterside Marriott in Norfolk, a hotel that despite its name is separated from the waterfront by an Outback Steakhouse and a Hooters, didn't disappoint.
Attendees suffer through hours of tedium as awards are dispensed for approximately 500 classes of publications - ensuring that every paper, right down to the Bland County Messenger, gets its moment in
the spotlight. It is only at the end when The Richmond Times-Dispatch (best editorial cartoons), The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk (best feature story writing) and The Washington Times (best government writing) (!) get to take their tuns on the dais and moon Ben Bradlee, sitting stoically in the front row.
That's not true. The Post sent a couple suits to collect their third place certificates in general news writing, government writing, sports feature writing, etc. They played along and didn't mention the newspaper's 14 Pulitzer Prizes since 1997.
Some papers sent in gag mugs of winning staffers.
This is the Virginia Press Association, people! Get serious!
The evening ended with Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot winning Best Big Daily. Suck it, WaPo! They burned Dana Milbank in effigy and drunk-dialed Laura Sessions Stepp at home at 3 a.m. The end.
Virginian-Pilot named state's best large daily newspaper [Virginia Pilot]