Biggest Stories of 2012

[BetteDavisEyes]

AP: Top Stories of the Year

By DAVID CRARY, AP

The horrific massacre of 26 children and staff at a Connecticut elementary school, along with other mass shootings, was the top news story of 2012, narrowly edging out the U.S. election, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

The results followed a rare decision by the AP to re-conduct the voting. The initial round of balloting had ended Dec. 13, a day before the shootings in Newtown, with the election ranked No. 1, followed by Superstorm Sandy. The original entry for mass shootings, focused on the rampage at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, placed sixth in that voting...

http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/news-BiggestStories2012/?cid=hero_media

 

[eileenhawkeye]

Interesting that Aurora was #6 originally and Newtown is #1. I wonder if that's because when the poll was first made, Aurora was a few months-old, and when they re-did the poll, Newtown had just happened?

It will be interesting to see which of the events on the list are remembered in 2022, or even have an impact that can be seen in 10 years.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I'm surprised there is no mention of the Olympics among the biggest stories of the year. :waitasec:

 

[STANDREID]

Anyone who has a logical mind knows that it was the election but like I said...

 

[eileenhawkeye]

I don't think it's by sheer volume of media coverage. It's simply the AP editors vote on what they think were the biggest stories of the year. Aurora + Newtown haven't received anywhere near the media coverage of the election. I think that Aurora sparked a discussion on guns, but I feel like it kind of stopped after a few weeks. Then, it came back in fuller force with Newtown. But I really don't think the entire year was spent talking about gun rights. It's just that the voting for the updated poll happened when Newtown was very hot in the news, and at the moment, everyone is talking about guns. I hope that Newtown (and Aurora) do have an impact but it remains to be seen whether we are still discussing guns and mental health in 6 months, or making any changes.

 

[panthera]

Interesting that Aurora was #6 originally and Newtown is #1. I wonder if that's because when the poll was first made, Aurora was a few months-old, and when they re-did the poll, Newtown had just happened?

It will be interesting to see which of the events on the list are remembered in 2022, or even have an impact that can be seen in 10 years.

The difference also is that the Newtown shootings took place in an elementary school and killed so many innocent children. Timing aside, that in itself could have propelled this to be the #1 news story.

MOO

 

[wfgodot]

Easy - presidential election. If Romney had have actually upset the President, it would have been a bigger story, and thus would be even easier to select. As happened, Obama's large margin of victory both in the popular and electoral votes was the big part of a bigger story, as most of the pundits hadn't predicted it.

 

[eileenhawkeye]

The difference also is that the Newtown shootings took place in an elementary school and killed so many innocent children. Timing aside, that in itself could have propelled this to be the #1 news story.

MOO

In 1999, Columbine was the #2 biggest story selected by the AP, after the Clinton impeachment trial. Just to give some perspective on a very notorious and still very well known school shooting, that happened earlier in the year. I don't know if Newtown would've been #1 if it happened months prior to December. I think it would really depend on whether the shooting stayed in the news as the year came to a close.