The New Year is almost upon us, so tis the season for all of your favorite (and not so favorite) media coteries to sound off their Top Ten Stories of 2007. If you’re a news junkie like me, you’ve probably read thousands of stories over the last year, and having to choose which ones have more value, urgency, and timelessness than any other is certainly no easy task. The Associated Press covered many of the most publicized stories, although as shown by Time Magazine’s Most Underreported List for 2007, quantity doesn’t always trump quality in terms of a newsworthy story. Permit me to take a tiptoe further to the left and note that according to Project Censored, many of the most important stories of the year were barely covered, if at all, in the mainstream media.
I mined through several of these lists and came up with my own Top Ten Stories of 2007, which I hope serves to provide a forum for people with diverse views and ideas about the coverage we should be giving particular attention to, and why.
#1: Shifting Power in Pakistan
The Taliban solidifies control of the northwest territories. A violent Islamic extremist standoff with government officials at the Islambad Red Mosque in July. A rising popular demand for free elections, (unsuccessful) pushes from Western govs for a Musharraf-Bhutto power share, a subsequent assassination attempt on the PM, and marshal law imposed on November 11th. Musharraf has given up his position as head of the military, and allowed for parliamentary elections in January 2008.
#2: Whose Mortgage Crisis?
No one can deny that the subprime mortgage crisis and its after effects is one of the biggest stories of the year. Foreclosures have almost doubled in October 2007 from the same month last year. Since African Americans and Latinos were three times more likely than whites to take out these high risk loans, they are being hit the hardest. Additional collateral damage due to the crisis include reduced property tax revenue for local govs, and even higher divorce rates and reports of abuse due to the stress of foreclosure.
#3: The Protests in Burma
In August, monks took to the streets to protest the junta-led government’s decision to raise the prices of basic food staples and fuel. Burmese troops beat and tear gassed the peacefully protesting monks, while employing a countrywide media blackout. 3000 protestors were jailed, and although the government claimed only 15 men died, other reports claim much higher numbers. The rallies have ended but arrests continue, and many of the monks have had to flee to China and Thailand.
#4: Gore Wins Peace Prize
Former Vice President and environmental crusader Al Gore was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to propagate wide-spread information on man-made climate change through his activism and through the cautionary film, “An Inconvenience Truth,” which won the 2007 Academy Award for best documentary.
#5: Chinese Toy Recall
Dora, Elmo, Big Bird and Barbie - over 20 million Chinese-made toys were recalled and shipped back to China due to lead paint or lose magnets that gave children third-degree burns (remember the Easy Bake Oven?). This exacerbated American fears about outsourcing, and energizing the call to buy domestic. Mattel later made an official apology to China for “overacting” about the recall, and damaging the reputation of Chinese manufacturers. Additional recalls were reported in November when several children became sick after swallowing parts from the Chinese-produced Aqua Dots toy. China produces 80% of toys purchased in the United States.
#6: Structural Adjustment: No Country Left Behind?
You think we would have learned our lesson from the 1990s debt crisis. A 2007 Oxfam report states that the US and EU are pursuing destructive free trade agreements (FTAs) with developing countries outside the auspices of the WTO, which require enormous concessions from more than 100 countries, without any happy returns. Some of the effects of the agreements include the dumping of US and EU subsidized agricultural products into developing markets, putting local farmers out of business, and the US FTA to limit patent protected drugs in countries like Colombia and Peru, leaving 1.6 million people without access to affordable medicines.
#7: Stem Cell Alternative
Scientists found a way to reprogram human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells without needing to create or destroy embryos. Embryonic cells have been seen as a medical cure-all because of their ability to turn into 220 types of cells in the body, and this new research could be a potential bridge between those on opposite sides of the stem cell debate.
#8: Blackwater
The Blackwater hearings shed new light on the use and responsibility of private security companies employed by the US government. Blackwater has received multi-million dollar contracts to provide diplomatic security services for the US government in Iraq, but conduct their missions in secret as a private mercenary army with virtually no accountability.
#9: No Nukes in Iran
This month the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate confirmed that Iran had no active nuclear weapons program, enervating Washington’s consistent efforts to push for harder sanctions on the country, and the urgency for direct military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities should they continue to pursue a uranium enrichment program.
#10: Bye Bye Harry Potter
The 7th and final book of the highly acclaimed Harry Potter series hit bookshelves this summer, selling a record 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours in the US.
Today Al Gore called on young people to practice civil disobedience and demand an end to non-carbon-capturing coal plants. At a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental activist explained:
“We are all Sean Bell - NYPD go to hell”
The cops that shot Sean Bell 50 times were acquitted today in NYC. If you live here you’ve probably have been following the case in at least some way - if you’ve never heard of Sean Bell you should definitely start looking into it.
