Archives » Friday, January 02, 2009
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Kurt Soller
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Jan 2, 2009 02:19 PM
Earlier this week, we posted our take on the ten most overlooked stories of 2008,
a melange of stories about wars abroad, health issues at home and other
underreported events. We're not oracles, here, so we asked what readers
thought their beloved Mainstream Media missed this year; many of you
chimed in about the theory that Obama never had his birth certificate,
or that his election was everything from a hoax, to a mistake, to "a fraud created and supported by the willing media." The whole Obama thing was covered enough, methinks, but maybe I'm part of the "biased media," another top contender for a story (quite reflexively, I might add) that we missed.
Without turning the lens back on the media or president-elect Obama,
there were a bunch of stories out there which were real contenders for
NEWSWEEK's list. In reading forward, you'll have to excuse political
slants (from both sides) that tend to come from asking people what
overlooked news events should have been addressed. "You missed the environmental tragedies that will result from the late year policies of the Bush administration," wrote the aptly named commenter, naturegirl.
"They have passed numerous policies benefiting their buddies in the oil
and gas industry, and even increased exponentially the number of
snowmobiles allowed in Yellowstone" And speaking of George W. Bush, here's this take on America's immigration policy: "According
to most analysis, the Administration's recent enforcement efforts have
discouraging new illegal crossings and causing some undocumented
immigrants already here to return home," writes one commenter. "During
the recent presidential campaign, the question that begged to be asked
was whether the candidates would continue the enforcement policy
irrespective of Congressional action on amnesty legislation. It's a
straightforward, yes-or-no question that would have revealed much about
the direction of immigration policy under the new administration."
More than a few readers also suggested Hurricane Ike as one story that should have been on our list. "I think one of the most underreported stories by the major American media this year was the tragedy of Hurricane Ike," wrote climatehawk. "While
the "official" death toll stands in the low 80s, there are still more
than 200 people missing and likely gone. While many of these deaths may
have been preventable had people heeded evacuation warnings, that does
not diminish the incredible human tragedy of this storm--one of the
deadliest and costliest in American history. Yet due to other events in
the news at the time, the mainstream media did very little follow-up
reporting about the large number of missing people...when did human
lives become less important than the economy or politics?"
One final note: many commenters criticized our inclusion of the
Democratic Republic of Congo without reflecting on the terrible events
that are ongoing in Sudan. "Wow, the crisis in Darfur was even overlooked by the list," wrote one commenter. "How sad."
It's true that Sudanese genocide has been troubling -- and oft
overlooked. But in creating this list, we were looking for stories that
have taken place, for the most part, in 2008.
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