News story of the Year?

[LSN80]

As with sports, wrestling, music and movies, amongst others, there are stories in the news that transcend the rest. Whether they be of the positive or negative variety, the story can be the one that had the largest impact upon the world, or simply upon yourself. Without question for me, the biggest news story of the year was the May 2011 slaying of Osama Bin Laden.

In my eyes, this story is not only very obvious, but incredibly personal. Bin Laden claimed to and is widely believed to be the mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombings on September 11th, 2001, an event almost 10 years before his death. There was great debate on this site alone as to whether or not this should be a joyous day for Americans. One one hand, you had people dancing in the streets at the death of another human being. But conversely, you had people rejoicing over the death of a mass murderer, one whom had been hunted frustratingly for almost ten years, and had promised death to many more Americans as long as he was alive. Those who chastised his killing noted that the taking of one life doesn't justify another, nor did it put an end to Al-Queda. Regardless of which side of the argument you fall on, there's no doubt in my mind that this was easily the top news story of 2011, perhaps the largest news story since September 11th. But that's just my opinion, what's yours?

What was the biggest news story of 2011? Why?

 

[Dagger Dias]

The top news story of the year for me was the earthquake. It happened while I was out of town on a mission trip with my wife and some people from church. My wife told me she had a really bad feeling that something awful was about to happen. Hours later she gets a call from a friend of hers who follows news and government activity a lot. He was freaking out about the earthquake and told us we had to go buy Iodine or else the radiation would kill us. Naturally he went a little crazy but we did pick up some Iodine when we got back home just in case. People around here were going crazy paranoid about it and several of her friends from back in California were worried as well. It was the biggest news event of the year for me because of the aftermath it had of leaving my peers so paranoid for a few months. Honorable mention goes to the Casey Anthony trial as well as Osama's death announcement.

 

[Larry]

I would have to go with the death of Bin Laden personally, but as far as what has polarized and engulfed the news I think the OWS movement has stolen the show for the year. It's been taking place all across the country, gained recognition equal or greater to the Tea Party movement that has quieted down to mere mentions in the news, and it created the #1 quote of the year according to Yahoo News "We are the 99%". I am willing to bet most of you who live in the U.S. have had some kind of "Occupy Movement" in your states and cities, I know mine has. OWS has been like a revolution of sorts, bringing together masses of people all different from each other in so many ways, and rallied them behind a major cause. The News has found few other issues to take center stage like this one, and for Americans few other stories have been so close to home, literally. The controversy that has surrounded the whole thing, putting to the test people's freedom of speech and freedom to assemble has rocked the nation and made a ripple effect all across it. I think it a difficult task to find a bigger on-going story for the year than OWS.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Bin Laden.

Yes, it seems inappropriate to celebrate the death of a human being, but I couldn't help it with this guy. He brought death and suffering to so many people and reveled in it.

He built nothing......he created nothing..... all he did was destroy what others had built and created.

It's completely accurate to say the world is a safer place without him.

I can't think of a bigger story than that.

 

[Loveless]

I've voted other. The civil war in Libya is just one of many uprisings happening under the banner of the "Arab Spring", forcing new governments in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Syria will follow shortly and there have been massive protests in at least 10 other countries to the point where even Russia is now facing huge protests. Such a massive rising up against autocratic governments has to be the biggest story of the year.

 

[Davi323]

I think has to be Bin Laden. From a historical perspective, Bin Laden has defined the United States for a full decade, altered American policy irrevocably. The Occupy folks are going to end up as a forgotten blip, having accomplished nothing at all. The only importance they carry is the self-importance they brought with them. The didn't "do" anything.

 

[Unsold Bacon]

It was very close for me between Casey Anthony and Bin Laden but in the end I think the right choice was Bin Laden. When was the last time we have saw most of the world rejoice after such an event. This news was so signifact everywhere in the world where as to Casey Anthony wasn't. A lot of people cared but nowhere near as much as Osama. Bin Laden altered everyone's way of thinking after what he did back in 2001. Still till this day people are being affected by what happened.

It's completely accurate to say the world is a safer place without him.

I have to 100% agree with this.

 

[Loveless]

When was the last time we have saw most of the world rejoice after such an event. This news was so signifact everywhere in the world.

No-one outside of the US cared. We shrugged our shoulders and got on with life, just as we had done before. His death has changed nothing.

 

[Lee]

The Royal Wedding which is, of course, tradition was definitely a bigger event than Casey Anthony (who?), Amanda Knox (if she wasn't fit you wouldnt give a shit) and occupy wall street.

This is quite a US centred list but world wise it was either Bin Laden (which frankly you guys were ridiculous over) or the various uprisings in the middle east. I voted Japan on the list as everyone cared about that.

 

[Барбоса]

Of the things on the list, only two have had any real global impact - the disasters in Japan and the removal of Gadaffi as a part of the "Arab Spring" affected the global economy while the rest meant very little outside of gossip column inches or tabloid news headlines. I went with the removal of Gadaffi as it highlighted how the Muslim world can work with the western world - a prudent lesson for the future.

As important as finally getting Bin Laden was to Americans, it probably meant absolutely nothing to Al Qaeda. Bin Laden was such a big target that he probably had to remove himself from the actual day to day running so the Al Qaeda hierarchy can cope without him.

 

[LigerBomb]

OTHER - ARAB SPRING

Gadhafi's story was just a part of a much larger movement that happened. As a subscriber to Time Magazine I was sure that the Person of the Year issue would be dedicated to Mohamed Bouazizi; we are, after all, coming up on the 1st anniversary of his death in a few days (Jan 4). Instead they went "meta" and recognized the protester instead. To be honest, I'm still not sure how I feel about that as it mixes in many large movements into a nameless, faceless concept and idea.

Anyway, we're talking about the toppling of multiple countries' governments in one massive domino effect spurred on by ever advancing new media of mobile technology all in one of the most economically critical and historically turbulent areas of the world. That's a pretty big deal and surely news story of the year.

 

[RockFan89]

Unless you're Nancy Grace, Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony can no way be the biggest story of the year. They were just highly publicized cases, stories like these have happened plenty of times before, they just don't get the attention.

Gabrielle Giffords was just a freak incident. It led to a brief moment of civility between Democrats and Republicans, but that's long gone.

The Earthquake and the nuclear power plant issue would be the biggest issue if it had happened in a major city in the U.S., but not Japan for 2 reasons.
1) The people in Japan were very orderly and there wasn't a big spree in crime/looting like with Katrina. You didn't see them wailing in the street, but instead they remained very calm. The media doesn't want to cover that.
2) The Japanese government was very secretive and didn't release a lot of information that the public should have been aware of.

I would hope that the Arab Spring would lead to truly liberated countries in North Africa and the Middle East, but I honestly don't think much will change. Instead of moving towards more freedom, it seems like they are moving from mildly religious dictators to full out theocracies. But I hope I'm wrong.

Occupy Wallstreet is also a movement that had a lot of attention, but it doesn't appear like they're going to have an impact. Unless they get as organized as the Tea Party and work towards congressional victories in 2012, they may fade away soon as well.

The Royal Wedding was just a mere distraction from all of the other problems in the world.

For me, the death of Osama Bin Ladan, Moammar Gadhafi', and Kim Jong Il were the biggest events. Sure Bin Ladan didn't have much operational influence on Al Qaeda, but the U.S. has been hunting him down for over 10 years, you can't deny his death was important not just symbolically but for the overall morale of our troops. Gadhafi and Kim Jong Il were two of the worst dictators in the world today. If someone asked you at the beginning of 2011 to name 3 people you would like to see killed, those guys would be at the top of the list.

I'd also give an honorable mention to the U.S. losing it's AAA debt rating. Sure it didn't have much immediate impact, but it was a major wake up sign to the U.S. that it really needs to get its cards in order.

 

[JWGunslinger]

I had to go with the Earthquake in Japan earlier this year, how do you hold any of these other events to the same level 20,000 people being killed. There were many big events this year and the free world had three major steps forward with the deaths of Bin Laden, Gadaffi and Kim Jong Il, those can't go without recognition but nothing was bigger than Japan. It was a horrible disaster that flooded the news for weeks and the country is still trying to recover from this tragic event.

 

[DJ Kyo]

Libya by far. Anything where people stand up for what they believe in against a dictator, especially the way things went down in the months after, is definitely story of the year.

The Japan earthquake was a big one too for sure though, but natural disasters happen all the time and it's why I couldn't vote this the biggest.

As far as Bin Laden goes, I'm amused at the people that think he was killed this year. So very amusing.