Top Stories of 2008
Here’s the Associated Press list, from its poll of U.S. news editors: Obama; Economic Meltdown; Oil Prices; Iraq; Beijing Olympics; Chinese Olympics; Sarah Palin; Mumbai Terrorism; Hillary Clinton; Russia-Georgia War.
Sounds more or less OK on its face, but the devil as usual is in the details.
1. Obama tops …
NEW YORK (AP) — The epic election that made Barack Obama the first African-American president was the top news story of 2008 — followed closely by the economic meltdown that will test his leadership, according to U.S. editors and news directors voting in The Associated Press’ annual poll …
U.S. ELECTION: Obama emerged from Election Night as a decisive victor and a symbol for the world of America’s democratic promise. But he reached that point only after a grueling battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination and then an often-nasty showdown with the McCain/Palin ticket in the run-up to the election.
The AP’s excessively superficial lede and blurb neglect to mention that, perhaps blinded by the combination of race and charm, the media left this underqualified candidate largely unexamined. Which brings us to the other most interesting aspect of the nascent Obama admin … that he’s dropped most of his campaign rhetoric and adopted Bush admin and Hillary campaign policies and people wholesale, and alienated the self-described progressives and the Nutroots.
2. Economic meltdown and 3. Oil Prices … pretty much could get rolled into one. But that would elevate the next item to third place:
4. Iraq …
The much-debated “surge” of U.S. troops helped reduce violence after more than five years of war, but Iraq is still buffeted daily by bombings, ambushes, kidnappings and political uncertainty. A newly ratified U.S.-Iraqi security agreement sets a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal by 2012.
Laudable of the AP to recognize the accomplishment. But it’s a grudging “yeah, but” that fails to mention George Bush, the fact that he did this in defiance of the entire Democratic leadership, including the president-elect, the fact that a U.S.-allied democracy is taking root in the middle, and that the doom/gloom-mongering of the AP and others has failed. None of those elements were mentioned in the Iraq entry to the 2007 top stories list, either.
5. Beijing Olympics … Big deal. They happen somewhere once every four years. The blurb’s mention of “heavy-handed security measures” makes no mention of the brutal crackdown Tibet, labor camps and political prisoners whose existence was ignored by the corrupt IOC. Which was the big story of the Beijing Olympics, aside from the games themselves.
6. Chinese Earthquake … devastating earthquakes happen somewhere about once a year, but OK, fine, it was a bad one.
7. Sarah Palin.
Few Americans outside Alaska knew much about its governor when Republican John McCain picked her as his running mate. That changed rapidly. To her conservative admirers, she was a feisty, refreshing change from most politicians; to her critics, she was in over her head, and worthy of all the lampooning she endured.
AP neglects to mention it belongs in the latter camp, poured race-baiting gasoline on the fire, and like much of the national media was more interested in the minutia of her life than in the background of the man who was elected president. (Back to item No 1. for a second, Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright are who? Rexko is what?) Neglects to mention the reason she is even worthy of a “top story” slot is the highly disproprotionate, and disproportionately negative and undeserved bashing she took. Along with No. 9. Hillary Clinton, this could have been rolled into the No. 1 Obama elected story, but as already noted, AP apparently declined to address the actual news in that entry, anyway.
8. Mumbai terrorism.
Ten attackers allegedly sponsored by a Pakistan-based Islamic group terrorized India’s financial capital in November, killing 164 people in coordinated attacks on hotels, markets and a train station. India’s perennially uneasy relations with Pakistan were badly strained.
The big story, once you got past the headlines, was the use of new tactics in terrorism and the apparent strategic effort to undermine the Afghan war and maybe even spark war between India and Pakistan … not that any of those elements are mentioned in the AP blurb that reads like a first-day news lede.
9. Hillary …
She didn’t win, but Clinton came closer than any other woman in U.S. history to becoming a major party’s presidential nominee. Her determined primary campaign, waged vigorously even when it seemed a lost cause, inspired millions of women across the country — and helped persuade Obama to choose her as secretary of state.
Like I said, it could have been rolled in No. 1, and anyway, AP again fails to mention the most interesting parts. The rampant sexism, the bitter and enduring party divide, and the fact that, before you even get to Hill’s State appointment, Obama turns out to be the biggest Clintonista of them all.
10. Russia-Georgia war … AP notes five-day war aggravated already trouble U.S.-Russia relations. Again, misses the boat on deeper implications of Russian aggression, a campaign that includes pressure on other U.S. allies in Estern Europe and military, technical and political support for the terrorist-supporting, nuke-seeking Iranian regime. Putin’s Russia is bad news.
AP of course is supposed to be a superficial, non-analytical, just-the-facts news agency, and slamming it for superficiality may be unfair, except that AP is only superficial, non-analytical and just-the-facts when it chooses to be.
Missing from the list is one of the major campaign issues and problems for the Obama admin going forward … Iran and what to do about the mullahs and their nuke lust, something that did make the 2007 list but hasn’t improved at all. Afghanistan as the next big battlefield also got missed the cut. The AP’s end note says Blago broke too late to make its ballot … talk about a stroke of luck, the AP didn’t have to avoid mentioning the fact that a U.S. presidential administration has found itself dodging a weaving amid scandal before even taking office. Also missing due to late breaks are various develoments in the economic meltdown that AP apparently insists on dealing with in isolation.
The structure of the list and its choices may in fact suggest a big problem with the AP and news editors in general … chronic myopia.
Never mind the bias. A top story that gets no mention but is written all over AP’s list, is 2008 as the year in which the gross distortions, bias and ineptitude of top American news organizations became unavoidable, from the election to Iraq to coverage of the economic crisis. In fairness, 2007 was also a big year for media distortion, though it largely focused on still unfolding surge in Iraq at that point, and 2008 is really the year when all the strings were pulled together. AP missing the point, distorting the news, and sucking in general of course is an old story, nothing new to see here, move along …
For an alternate view of the same list, here’s Richard Reeves via RCP.
Meanwhile, Gateway has your post-Friday prayers Iranian shoe-toss contest. Presumeably al-Shoedi the Brogan chucker also broke too late to make AP’s Top 10.
2008 wasn’t a great Bush-bash year in the end, seeing how Obama after making all the Bush-bash mileage morphed into Clinton-Bush lite. But there are only a few Bush-bashing days left in this administration, so here’s Balloon Juice, indignant that Bush should think better of pardoning a real-estate scammer.
Topics: media
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:14 am Comments (0) on Friday, December 26, 2008
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