The National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) created the Sitting Duck Award, an honor bestowed each year on the crème de la crème of the most ridiculed newsmakers in America. A time-honored tradition within the Society, the award provides columnists with the opportunity to give back to those public figures who have given so much to the newspaper media, and yet asked for so little in return.

The award’s title originates from the fact that these figures are easy targets — sitting ducks — during the most perilous of times a columnist can face: the slow news day. The award may be given to a person, animal, group or thing, but the point is to poke a little fun.

1991 - Roseanne Barr, for her screeching rendition of the National Anthem
1992 – Millie, Barbara Bush’s canine book author “that earned $889,176 in royalties, yet never saw a penny of it.”
1995 – Kato Kaelin, O.J. Simpson’s often clueless houseguest, was named the best subject for a newspaper columnist without a clue on what to write.
1996 – Joe Klein, who confessed to writing “Primary Colors.”
1997 – Joe Camel, who was banished from the advertising world a few days after the conference ended.
2000 – Baseball’s John Rocker
2001 – The FBI

2012 – The U.S. economy – Nobody likes it, and you can find statistics to back up anything you want to say about it
2013 – Privacy — with authorized federal “data mining,” the government already knew that
2014 – Drones — columnists could run or totter but ultimately not hide from such unmanned craft, the Predator to Amazon’s promised delivery vehicle

"someone whose world-class folly, villainy or obnoxiousness is a boon to columnists everywhere…" Samantha Bennett, NSNC President and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist.

National Society of Newspaper Columnists
P.O. Box 411532
San Francisco, CA 94141
executive director: [email protected]
Phone: (415) 488-NSNC (6762)
FAX: (484) 297-0336