DETROIT, Saturday, June 25, 2011 – “The Body Politic” is the winner of the 2011 Sitting Duck Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
“Our public servants have been abusing their franking privilege,” said Ben S. Pollock, president of the NSNC, which gives this award annually to an easy target for columnists on a slow news day. The NSNC wraps up its annual conference Sunday in Detroit.
“From Anthony Weiner to Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards and lots of local and regional sexters and unfaithful twits, columnists have been pushovers for The Body Politic as a topic for their barbs this year. And it’s not even an election year,” said Pollock.
Sitting Duck coordinator Bill Tammeus said there was no contest this year: “Columnists all wrote about The Body Politic in pursuit of the naked truth.”
“And yet,” said Pollock, “what’s weird is how many more people would rather see still photos of the body of Osama bin Laden than video of a lively John Edwards.”
Notable past honorees have included novelists and cabinet secretaries, sports figures and even animals. The history and a list of past Sitting Duck winners can be found at http://www.columnists.com/?page_id=1110 .
