The Charlie Kirk martyrdom by the Media Research Center continued in an Oct. 23 article by Luis Cornelio:
The Media Research Center announced Wednesday that it is awarding its annual Free Speech Award exclusively to Charlie Kirk, the late founder of Turning Point USA and a fearless defender of the First Amendment. This approach differs from that taken in 2024, when 35 people were recognized for their strong efforts to defend free speech rights.
Kirk died a martyr on Sept. 10, 2025, while doing what he loved most: standing up for truth and unapologetically speaking his convictions without fear. MRC leadership decided to make this singular award to Kirk because no other free speech advocate sacrificed so much for the First Amendment.
Kirk remained steadfast in his defense of free speech rights for all, including those who disagreed with him. He embodied the very principles of free speech that defined his life’s mission.
Cornelio also made sure to shill for his employer: “Kirk was also a founding member of the MRC Free Speech America Advisory Board, helping guide the organization’s mission to defend the First Amendment and push back against rampant Big Tech censorship.” He also explained that the supposedly “exclusive” award Kirk received wasn’t exclusive at all:
Several other free speech champions will be recognized by MRC this week for their efforts to defend First Amendment rights in 2025. These individuals include executive branch officials, members of Congress, legal officers and advocacy leaders.
Nope, definitely not exclusive. Indeed, the very same day an article by Luis Cornelio promoted more awards being given:
This year’s MRC Free Speech Award was awarded exclusively to Charlie Kirk, the late founder of Turning Point USA. In addition to celebrating Kirk’s legacy, the MRC is also using Free Speech Week to recognize other leaders, including public and foreign advocates, legal officers and members of Congress. Trump is among those celebrated by MRC, who has assembled one of the most unapologetically pro-free speech administrations in modern American history, and this is not hyperbole.
[…]Trump’s appointments of free speech warriors — including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem — signaled a clear shift toward protecting, rather than policing, speech.
The next day an article by Gabriela Pariseau detailed the other recipients of the award — including her former boss:
Global censorship has surged in recent years, but a brave few have steadfastly stood against tyrannical regimes attempting to tighten their grip in America and abroad.
For the second annual MRC Free Speech Award, the Media Research Center chose to singularly honor Charlie Kirk, who devoted his life’s work to protecting free speech and encouraging not merely Americans but citizens around the world to exercise their right to speak without fear. In addition, the MRC has recognized Trump officials and members of Congress, and will recognize legal officers as well. Public and foreign free speech advocates like MRC founder Brent Bozell, tech mogul Elon Musk and best-selling author J.K. Rowling also deserve praise for their dedication to speaking boldly in support of free speech even at personal cost.
Again: If people like Bozell, Musk and Rowling are getting the same award, Kirk is not being “singularly honored.” The writeup of Bozell is particularly groan-inducing:
In 2025, Brent retired from the Media Research Censor, a free speech organization he founded and led for almost four decades. He has been the nation’s leading champion fighting against left-wing bias in news media and popular culture. He was also the first to sound the alarm about Big Tech companies suppressing conservative voices, leading the fight to stop this un-American censorship. No one can deny the incredible, lasting impact he has made on American culture. Big Tech and Big Media were no match for him.
In fact, Bozell not only has misunderstood what it means to censor a point of view, he has actively censored news unfavorable to him and his agenda — most recently, his son’s arrest and conviction on charges related to the Capitol riot.
Pariseau’s writeup for Musk was similarly delusional: “Elon Musk showed incredible courage by dismantling Biden’s censorship agencies, firing hundreds of government censors and cutting off thousands of censorship grants, even as terrorists were attacking his business.” It was not explained how, exactly, any of that required courage and not a failure to care about people’s lives and livelihoods.
Still, the MRC tried to keep up the Kirk ruse, with a Daily Wire op-ed by current boss and nepo baby David Bozell (promoted in an Oct. 24 post) declaring, “To honor his courage and his life’s work, the Media Research Center (MRC) is proud to award the annual MRC Free Speech Award exclusively to Charlie Kirk.” The MRC also touted a Fox News appearance by Bozell in which he claimed the award was “singularly” given to KIrk, who “died a martyr.”
The MRC also pushed out an Oct. 24 op-ed by VP Dan Schneider proclaiming President Trump “The ‘King’ Who Saved Free Speech,” then demonstrated that he too is eager to censor:
Late-night television hosts at ABC and NBC discovered the same. Broadcasters don’t own the airwaves. They use the public spectrum, granted to them for free, on the condition that they serve the entire public, not just a partisan faction. Breaking this legal standard can result in the termination of their broadcast licenses.
[…]This bias reached a grotesque low when Jimmy Kimmel used his platform to sneer at and distort the assassination of Charlie Kirk, to whom the MRC posthumously awarded our Free Speech award earlier this week. ABC’s token disciplinary gesture (Kimmel was handed a six-day suspension) sent the message that it understood that the law is supposed to mean something and that it had to start serving the whole public again.
In fact, the MRC desperately wanted Kimmel’s suspension to be permanent for a relatively minor offense — something Schneider failed to disclose. Still, Schneider concluded: “The First Amendment was not written to shield the powerful. It was written to keep those in power from deciding who may speak.” But Schneider and the rest of the MRC are giving Trump free rein to punish and censor whoever he wants for the mere offense of criticizing him.