Photo via The Sydney Morning Herald

Choice crowns 2026 Shonky Award winners

Read the original at The Sydney Morning Herald ↗
Cite

Choice crowns 2026 Shonky Award winners. (2026, November 4). The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/national/choice-crowns-2026-shonky-award-winners-20261104-p61bht.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Sydney Morning Herald · collected 2026-11-04

Quick Summary

Choice has announced the winners of its 21st annual Shonky Awards, recognizing the most disappointing products and services of the year. The awards ceremony criticizes various items that have performed poorly according to consumer feedback and testing by Choice.
Written by AI on 2026-11-04, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Consumer advocacy group CHOICE announced its 21st annual Shonky Awards on November 3, 2026, recognizing the worst products and services in Australia. Among the winners were Ticketmaster and Ticketek for using dynamic pricing tactics that inflate ticket prices to unprecedented levels; Hisense for a washer-dryer combo unit that takes over 25 hours to complete a full cycle under normal settings; and Virgin Australia for strict deadlines on flight credits issued during the pandemic, resulting in $75 million of unused credits being returned to the airline's profits. CHOICE chief executive Monique Perry criticized these companies for treating consumers poorly at a time when many are struggling financially.

Written for “Choice Shonky Award Winners Announced” on 2026-11-04, grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 128178 · logged 2026-11-04

Story

📰 Choice Shonky Award Winners Announced
Other · 4 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
From fleecing fans to 25-hour washer-dryer cycle: Shonky’s top awards named Same event
The Sydney Morning Herald
Hedges 7 of 33 claims Outlet record 61/100
Ticketek, Virgin and 'protein chips' win big at annual Shonky Awards Same event
ABC News (AU)
Hedges 4 of 32 claims Outlet record 67/100
Ticket sellers, Virgin flight credits and a 25-hour laundry cycle: meet Choice’s 2026 Shonky award winners Same event
The Guardian
⚖️ Leans strongly left Hedges 5 of 37 claims Outlet record 66/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
2
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 2 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
61/100
The Sydney Morning Herald's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
4
Other
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-04 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Sydney Morning Herald · 6070 article(s) · 15 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 15 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

No reporter is named on this article.

Topics

Choice

Subjects

Choice ORG · 1×

Narrative

A number of products have been called out in Choice’s 21st annual Shonky Awards, which name and shame the products and services deemed the worst of the year.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-04
2026-11-04 · The Sydney Morning Herald
Choice crowns 2026 Shonky Award winners · assertive framing

Claims (2 extracted, 0 hedged)

A number of products have been called out in Choice’s 21st annual Shonky Awards, which name and shame the products and services deemed the worst of the year. asserted
which → call → year
You have reached your maximum number of saved items. asserted
You → reach → items
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