Rosebud Winner: Columnist Megan McArdle Examines the Left’s Misreading on Trans Athletes

JULY 2026 - Politically moderate WaPo columnist Megan McArdle took a look at the recent Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed Trump's 2025 executive order barring trans athletes from competing in women's sports. Basically McArdle devoted the column to a single question: What were die-hard supporters of trans athletes thinking? McArdle's column is one of the few in the mainstream media that has actually addressed the matter at all - most columnists have shunned it, for obvious reasons. Among all the micro-rights that the American Left has preoccupied itself with in recent years, nothing has been as alienating to the broader American electorate than "trans rights." Yes, that offends some true believers who say Lia Thomas had every right to smoke all the female opponents in the UPenn swimming pool. Yet, supporters seemed to ignore the issue's impact on Democrats' competitiveness in national elections - and the party paid a huge price. Historians will look back on the 2024 election cycle - and all Trump's TV ads telling voters the left will force children to have sex-change operation - and conclude that no issue was more powerful in...

Rosebud Winner: Rick Reilly Captures the Ranch-Dressing Flavor of the World Cup

JULY 2026 - Veteran sportswriter Rick Reilly, who in recent years gets his witty prose onto Washington Post screens, wrote a cheerful essay on suddenly being proud of America because - you knew it - the six-week World Cup has actually improved our image not just among global soccer fans - but the rest of the world. "Visitors’ awestruck response to America reminds me, despite Trump, that this country rocks," writes Reilly. That we're-not-so-bad sentiment is widely shared, and one Reilly deserves much credit for reminding us - Ranch Dressing, in its own way, is a rich-tasting metaphor for America. Reilly, who of course spent much of his career at Sports Illustrated, won a Rosebud in 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/07/06/world-cup-fans-ranch-dressing-obsession-stirs-patriotic-feelings/

Rosebud Winner: An Example of Excellent Daily Reporting by a Foreign Correspondent

JULY 2026 - Ukraine-born Yaroslav Trofimov is chief foreign affairs correspondent at the WSJ, and his June 3 report on the Russian elite souring on the Ukraine war is an example of excellent news-trend work. Headline: "Russia's Elite is Souring on the War. Putin Doesn't Seem to Care." WSJ readers recognized the work. Among the most popular of more than 500 comments: Thank you Mr. Trofimov. Inspired reporting. Thank you WSJ for your excellent coverage of this stupid war of Putin’s and the EB’s steadfast support of the Ukrainian resistance to unprovoked Russian military aggression: Among the highlights of the June 3 report: "Significant voices within the Russian establishment are publicly calling for an end to the conflict in Ukraine due to the continuing stalemate. Hawks like Oleg Tsaryov and Aleksey Chadaev, along with analyst Vasily Kashin, argue Russia lacks capacity for outright victory. President Vladimir Putin has intensified missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, killing 22 and injuring over 100 civilians on Monday night. " Trofimov has been a journalist for the WSJ for nearly 27 years....

Rosebud Winner: This July 4th, Maureen Dowd, With Help from Chernow, Compares Presidents #1 and #47

JULY 2026 - Two-time Rosebud winner Maureen Dowd is a DC native, and sometimes those roots show up in her copy. Like her piece Saturday - the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence - she reflects on visiting Mount Vernon as a child. Then she employs her column to compare Trump with George Washington - a comparison somewhat predictably absurd, but entertaining nonetheless. George Washington was a founder of our country, based on an idea that's encouraged and realized unprecedented human progress. Trump, on the other hand, has committed more crimes and flouted the nation's laws more times than all the previous presidents combined. Adding a certain authority to her piece is her brief interview with the historian Ron Chernow.. As Chernow put it: “I just can’t imagine two human beings who are more dissimilar than George Washington and Donald Trump,” Ron Chernow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of our first president, told me, on the occasion of the 250th birthday party for America that Trump has hijacked. “Washington was discreet, reserved, courteous — he avoided any kind of show or ostentation or...