The Most Overreported/Underreported Stories of 2009

[SavageTaker]

Before I begin this thread, I’d like to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year’s. I hope everyone has a great time with whomever you’re spending it with whether it be family, friends, or by your lonely self.

Anyways, with 2009 almost over for some of us and the new decade coming in, I though it would be fun to look back at some of the most Over reported/Underreported stories of 2009

Over reported-

Oh, this one is an easy one for me. The kid in a balloon story. This was getting reported everywhere and it’s still talked about by some today even though it all turned out to be a hoax by the parents. I think it was way over reported. Ok, some kid was thought to be trapped in a balloon, try to get him out without making it into such a huge deal. I think the thing that makes me angry about this whole thing is not the fact that it turned out to be hoax, but the fact that there are much bigger news stories that aren’t, but should be, reported, yet time is wasted on stories like this that most people probably don’t care about. I definitely think this is the most over reported story of the year.

As far as underreported, I’m not sure yet. I was reading an article on the latest issue I received of time magazine and here is what it said word for word:

According to a January report from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, African-American and Latino schoolchildren are more segregated than they have been since the time of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, in 1968. In the 2006-07 school year, nearly 40% attended schools -many of them subpar “dropout factories”-where students of color made up 90% to 100% of the student body.

I’m not sure if this is true or not, it might be, but if it is then I guess it’s one of if not the most underreported story of the year. I didn’t hear anything, or at least I don’t recall hearing anything, about this. This looks like something that should’ve received more attention than it did (if it did receive any at all).

What are your most over reported/underreported stories of the year?

 

[sMoKe]

Happy New Years to you too!

Overreported I was gonna say that balloon story but looks like you got that


Underreported was all the celebrity deaths this year except Michael Jacksons death. These people were probably the biggest thing a couple years back and they only get like a 2 minute story on the news.

 

[hatehabsforever]

Clearly the most over-reported story of 2009 was the whole Tiger Woods situation. Whether you like him or not, or whether you are outraged or not by what he did, it certainly did not warrant the extensive news coverage that it received. It was a personal matter in his personal life and while it should have been reported as he's a big celebrity who screwed up, it should not have been front page news for weeks.

Nothing comes immediately to mind with regards to under-reported.

Happy New Year!

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I'm going with yet another year of the Brett Favre saga.As usual, ESPN went nuts in covering the story on whether Favre would return to the NFL to play with the Vikings. You just couldn't escape from this story if watched ESPN, ESPNEWS, or ESPN 2. It was Favre-Mania 24/7!

Unfortunately I'm going to have to say that the most underrated story of 2009 was the death of Farrah Fawcett. I think she died right around the same time as Michael Jackson did, so the news of her death got lost in the shuffle. She was a sex symbol back in the 70's, and was one of Charlie's Angles.

 

[Billie Jean]

First of all, even through it is late, Happy New Year. I will split my over and under reported stories of 2009 in paragraphs below.

Over reported

The Tiger Woods Scandal-Relay? I love Tiger and I still think he is a great athlete. That is it. So what? He likes getting his genitals sucked, there is nothing wrong with that. His wife is nice on the outside, but she may be a cow in home life, although I don't think so. Now, I understand the guys stature and such, and it was not the over published stories on it. It was the one fact that it had made more front page headlines in a row that the terrorist attacks of September 11th. That is right. The biggest terrorist attack or whatever in history and yet Tiger sleeping around a little bit gets more publicity on it. It just goes to show the worlds obsession with celebrity's is at an all time high.

Under reported

Nick Griffin on Question Time-This was on the news for ages. But compared to the Tiger scandal this is no where to be seen. This man is a blatant raciest and he was willing to go on a show and defend his rights. This was historic. He was actually willing to defend himself with the whole British public wanting his head. But a golfer cheating on his wife is more important?

 

[CardiffCam]

Over-Reported- Michael Jackson

I'm sorry, I'll agree Michael Jackson was a pioneer in the music buisness, I agree he has millions of grieving fans all over the world, and I realize he will be remembered as a legend in the buisness, but the news was just overtaken by reports on every little aspect of his death. When you spend 10 minutes of a news reel on a tribute to michael jackson, and a couple minutes mentioning the death of soldiers in afghanistan, you know something's wrong.
The main thing that annoyed me about it, was that people who never in a million years would have listened to Michael Jackson, and would have made jokes about him touching children, being plastic etc. were listening to him and praising him, and it was bullshit. I straight up said to this kid that wouldn't stop, if Michael Jackson never died, right now you'd be making ajoke comparing him to a playstation. You'd be calling him plastic, calling him a child-toucher, but instead you listen to his music like theres no tommorow. Hes dead, so does that automatically make his music better? No, so stop trying to act like your paying tribute to him, you probably dont give two shits.
I didn't expect a good reaction, but another kid came up to me, and said "Thats the most sense I've heard anyone talk about that since it happened."
So I guess I'm not alone in thinking that, and I'd like to hear other peoples opinions on the matter. Bear in mind, I'm not hating on Michael Jackson- its the posers im hating on.

As for underreported stories... I don't know, this is generally a harder subject, since you don't hear about any of them

 

[Alex]

Over-Reported- Michael Jackson

I'm sorry, I'll agree Michael Jackson was a pioneer in the music buisness, I agree he has millions of grieving fans all over the world, and I realize he will be remembered as a legend in the buisness, but the news was just overtaken by reports on every little aspect of his death. When you spend 10 minutes of a news reel on a tribute to michael jackson, and a couple minutes mentioning the death of soldiers in afghanistan, you know something's wrong.
The main thing that annoyed me about it, was that people who never in a million years would have listened to Michael Jackson, and would have made jokes about him touching children, being plastic etc. were listening to him and praising him, and it was bullshit. I straight up said to this kid that wouldn't stop, if Michael Jackson never died, right now you'd be making ajoke comparing him to a playstation. You'd be calling him plastic, calling him a child-toucher, but instead you listen to his music like theres no tommorow. Hes dead, so does that automatically make his music better? No, so stop trying to act like your paying tribute to him, you probably dont give two shits.
I didn't expect a good reaction, but another kid came up to me, and said "Thats the most sense I've heard anyone talk about that since it happened."
So I guess I'm not alone in thinking that, and I'd like to hear other peoples opinions on the matter. Bear in mind, I'm not hating on Michael Jackson- its the posers im hating on.

As for underreported stories... I don't know, this is generally a harder subject, since you don't hear about any of them

Defintley I hate people who were like 'Michael Jackson was a tortured soul' who a few months earlier were telling jokes about the guy.

Other stories that were overreported in my opinion was Jordan/Peter Andre, yes they broke up she decided to go off with a cross dressing cage fighter get over it, people break up relationships every day.

Jade Goody, oh my god the press this woman got, yes she had cancer and it's sad she left behind two children, but I don't want to know what her day to day activities were. They apparently are calling her a Big Brother LEGEND, what a legend for someone who a year earlier you were calling racist. The only good thing out of this were people deciding to screen themselves for cancer more often

 

[Razor]

Over-reported

1) Michael Jackson. I know, he was a great artist. But his accidental death because of an inept doctor giving him quite illegally procured drugs doesn't require the monopolization of news networks for upwards of what, a month? A month and a half?

He was a tortured soul, and he was quite literally insane. In the eyes of the justice system, (and therefore, in the eyes of our own, technically) he did not molest any children. No matter what certain ******ed state representatives who want to ignore the process of the judiciary system want to say. I feel sad for that man and any who may or may not have been hurt by him. However, that does not mean I want to lose my news because they've been reporting on his death or the latest shit his father tried to pull. I get it, he's dead. Move on.

2) Any celebrity who cheated, ever. I don't give a shit if Tiger Woods fucked another woman. That's between himself, his wife, and whatever God he believes in. I don't care if Charlie Sheen fucked a hooker, or if Rosie O' Donnell has yet another lesbian girlfriend. I don't care. That's their lives. Tell me about the various multitudes of deaths going on in other countries, tell me about the diseases or hardships I can help fix. Not this shit.

Under-reported

How about, oh..I don't know...anything not happening in America? I mean, millions died in Iraq due to the civil war and bombs from America herself that missed. Why haven't we heard of those millions? Why don't we hear about the American deaths anymore than a name on the news, or another number increase from the Pentagon? Why don't we hear more than a new article from the AP that a Catholic Priest was assassinated in another country? Or that the head opposition Ayatollah in Iran turned up dead, most likely because of assassination? Is it because he's not a famous movie star? I mean, fuck me.

I'll give one specific example though. The full body scanners that some EU countries and American airports are considering using. Some scientists say the radiation used in them is a specific type of radiation that can potentially destroy DNA. Not damage it, not cause a mutation or two, destroy DNA. Why isn't there a larger discord about this? It must be because it wasn't the Octomom announcing her love for the scanners. Then everyone would fucking hate them.