Glowing Review of Matt Walsh Doc Honored by Oldest Press Club in US

A fawning and misinfo-laden review of the Matt Walsh documentary What is a Woman? is to be honored by the Milwaukee Press Club as part of their annual Excellence in Journalism Awards, according to a recent announcement of winners on the website for the club.

Walsh’s anti-trans polemic for the far-right Daily Wire initially received little attention despite an estimated $500,000 advertising buy. However, its reach increased after a free speech controversy on Twitter, where it was initially removed as hate speech, then reinstated by Twitter owner Elon Musk. In the wake of the controversy, reporting by NBC shed light on unethical practices during the film’s production, in which participants were lied to by producers about the nature of the film.

Jim Piwowarczyk and Jessica McBride’s glowing review of the film for Wisconsin Right Now is listed as one of two Best Critical Reviews in the Online category, alongside Gwendolyn Rice of Isthmus Community Media for her reviews of plays by the American Players Theatre. Gold and silver places are to be announced at the Milwaukee Press Club Gridiron and Awards Dinner on Friday, May 3, 2024.

Much of Piwowarczyk and McBride’s review contains the favorable opinions of the authors, however it departs from recognized journalistic standards by repeating several false or misleading claims which are sourced to the documentary, which itself has been widely criticized for inaccurate and false claims. For example, at one point the reviewers claim that “society lacks research documenting the long-term consequences” of hormone treatments. However, such treatments have their roots in 1800s medical research, have been used as part of gender transitions since the early 1900s, and as part of gender transitions for minors for over 20 years. The first trans person to have begun transition as a minor is currently in his 40s.

This pattern of repeating the documentary’s false or misleading claims without identifying them as such is repeated throughout the Wisconsin Right Now review, interspersed between glowing praise of Walsh’s work and complaints about what the authors view as a mainstream media failure to give the documentary its due.

Perhaps the most egregious of these is Piwowarczyk and McBride’s claim that a Canadian father was “jailed for using the ‘wrong pronoun.’”

This would appear to refer to the story of a Canadian man who repeatedly violated a court order to protect his transgender daughter’s privacy. The man was jailed after a judge ruled that there was a “virtual certainty” that he would continue violating the order if allowed to remain free. “He has ensured some of the most personal and egregiously breaching information about (his child) is out there on the world wide web,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen said at the time, according to the Toronto Star.

The man’s story has been falsely described as a father having been jailed for using the wrong pronouns in fringe publications such as the Christian Broadcasting Network’s website, which was the source linked to by Wisconsin Right now, as well as in the documentary by Walsh.

Piwowarczyk and McBride’s review describes the controversy over the documentary as a desire to censor opposing views, however advocates for the transgender community are more likely to point to misinformation and the deceptive tactics employed by Walsh as the primary source of their complaints. “Matt Walsh used deceptive tactics to trick his interviewees into participating in a film rife with disinformation about trans people. The entire film is a purposeful attempt to dehumanize and demonize trans people while profiting from hate,” explained American civil rights attorney and activist Alejandra Caraballo.

None of this is touched on at any point in the award-winning review on Wisconsin Right Now. The review was written in early June, which may have been before the full extent of the deceptive tactics and misinformation was widely known. However, this context would have been readily available to the judges tapped by the Milwaukee Press Club.

Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Press Club wrote, “Our contest entries are judged by various press clubs and journalists across the country, excluding Wisconsin. This is common practice to avoid any bias in judging. The judges use journalistic standards and their professional experience in the evaluation process. We also ask them to follow our contest rules and guidelines. This particular entry is a film review submitted under the Critical Review category. The entry contains the opinion(s) of the writer(s).”

The spokesperson also shared the full rules and guidelines as they appeared on the website while submissions were active. The guidelines included technical requirements such as word counts, types of publications considered for inclusion, and the medium in which an entry appeared. It did not include any guidelines on journalistic standards or a definition of what constitutes excellence in a critical review for their awards.

Even in the realm of criticism and opinion, journalistic standards typically demand that reviewers hew carefully to the truth in all information presented in a review as fact.

Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media.