Yeah, no. I'm sorry, but if the voting board was indeed stacked like that and carried out in that fashion... The paper is devalued by having the award printed on it.
It seems to me that this could cause more harm than good, even more than just undermining the legitimacy of their "award." It seems it would handicap the shows involved if they aren't getting challenged by newcomers and non "voting academy" nominees... all facets of production could stagnate. It also seems that it could also harm the reputation of the podcasting community as a whole. Nine years in and I still have to explain what a podcast is to people I meet IRL... I hope that this is something that those people don't hear about.

I'm sure they are all fine shows in their own right, but it sounds to me like the "awards" are merely an echo chamber of mutual admiration.
It took a moment to find non vulgar superlatives, I think I'm happy with that.