Top nine stories of '09

This is coming straight from memory. I hope I haven't made any horribly embarrassing omissions. What else big has happened in 2009 that I forgot?

1. White House party crashers expose security gap

2. Fort Hood shootings tragedy stuns nation

3. Tiger Woods drives life into the rough

4. Michael Jackson dies

5. Economy suckage continues

6. The Sarah Palin craze

7. Escalation in Afghanistan

8. Teabaggers, birthers, and deathers run amok

9. Balloon boy hoax, (Who the hell is Wolf?)


Honorable mention: Health care debate goes on, and on, and on...; Sotomayor ascends to Supreme Court; Swine flu; Obama's suprise Nobel Prize; Notre Dame burns through another football coach; Obama inauguration marks historic event; Kanye crashes VMAs

 

Browns beating Steelers has to be on the list.

 

I was trying to think of what the biggest sports stories of the year might be and it was pretty damn hard. I can't recall much earth-shattering sports news this year.

 

I am making no political comment when I say: Sarah Palin belongs nowhere near the list of biggest stories, and certainly not before health care.

 

the party crashers certainly don't make any list of top news stories of the year.

 

Right behind Cutler being traded and buying a comb, correct?

 

Yankees win World Series.

 

Real men don't use combs.

 

How do you figure that? Two reality show wannabe clowns breach what should be the tightest security in the world and crash an official state dinner. A Congressional investigation is launched, heads to roll at Secret Service, and White House staffers come under fire. I understand an argument that it might not the biggest story of the year, but it's gotta be on the list.

 

If it had happened in March, nobody would be considering it top-20. It's just fresh in our minds.

 

For top sports stories, you've got to have Meb Keflezighi winning the NY Marathon, Yanks winning the series, Steelers, Kobe, Federer, Tiger....

I'd throw all of the reality show crap in the same category. Is it important? No. Did it receive more coverage from legit news agencies than every other item in the top 10? Yes. So news orgs can't try and say it's a legit story enough to run Monday through Friday and then ignore it at the end of the year.

 

Good call on the American winning the Boston Marathon.

I don't see the party crasher story as a reality show story, I see it as a failure-to-adequately-safeguard-the-life-of-the-President story.