[4] Trump's re-election campaign sent emails to supporters with a link to an online poll asking them to rank three nominated stories as "fake", "faker", or "fakest" news in late December.

[8] Several late-night talk show hosts, including Samantha Bee and Jimmy Kimmel, satirically campaigned for an award.

[9] The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon aired a sketch satirizing the Fake News Awards on January 16.

[11] An eleventh bonus award went to reports about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections that was generally called "perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people".

[12] Media pundits described the initial announcement of the winners as a flop since the Republican Party's website experienced technical difficulties and displayed a 404 error, along with a note that stated "we're making it great again".