Can a newspaper publish a more worthless adjectival phrase than “award-winning”?
Oh, it probably can. But not by much.
I was counting it up today. I’m an award-winning writer, editor, poet, cartoonist and thespian. Does it give my work any great merit? Does it give me any great merit? Does it mean diddly?
Nope.
Some of those awards date to high school, for one thing. And I haven’t identified any of them. For all you know, I awarded them to myself.
Know what the award is before honoring someone in text for having one.