The Top Stories and People of 2009
December 30th, 2009
Rick Dove
Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen, The Locust Fork News-Journal Person of the Year
Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson
When a lone writer sits in front of the glow of a computer screen in the early morning hours when most of the world is asleep trying to figure out a way to articulate what matters, that is to say, to paint a picture of the forest while everybody else seems to be counting the trees, the easiest thing to do is Google all the year-end stories written by everybody else.
Every year about this time, the Associated Press has its top stories of the year dispatch, and this year they even included the Facebook vote. According to AP and the members of Facebook, the state of the economy and the inauguration of the first black president in U.S. history shared top honors.
But where would the mainstream media be without Michael Jackson? So his death placed third, followed by the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson,” the Swine flu epidemic and the monumental fight in Congress over trying to reform the American health care system.
Then there was also the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, the woes of the U.S. automobile industry, the upheavel in Iran, and last but not least, Sonya Sotomayor’s nomination and confirmation to join the nation’s highest court.
So who does Time magazine name as its 2009 person of the year? A nerdy guy most Americans have never heard of, Ben Bernanke, the boring head of the Federal Reserve. Why?
“He just happens to be the most powerful nerd on the planet,” Time proclaims. “He is the most important player guiding the world’s most important economy. His creative leadership helped ensure that 2009 was a period of weak recovery rather than catastrophic depression…”
True, sort of, although the president should get some credit for that. All of which just goes to show that nothing matters more in capitalist America than money, and as far as the media goes, it is clearly not about readers anymore. People don’t matter. Advertisers do.
Of course no list of important stories from this year would be complete without mention of the sexual transgressions of golfer Tiger Woods, who draws more people and money than any politician or athlete ever. In spite of virtually dropping out of the game after being chased down and beaten with a golf club in Florida by his scorned wife, he was still named professional golf’s 2009 Player of the Year. Go figure.
On the local scene, and just to prove that some news outlets take seriously this idea that all news is local, when the scaled back staff at the Birmingham News is tasked with coming up with a year-end list, a fire at a Woodlawn church tops the list. Please…
Here at the global and local Locust Fork News-Journal, however, when we think of the most important stories and people of the year, there really is no contest. We have no doubt if given the opportunity to vote on it, the people of Alabama would agree with us on this at a rate of nearly 100 percent.
The University of Alabama’s first Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram is without a doubt the person of the year around here, followed closely by Saint Nick Saban, who we think should easily win Coach of the Year honors.
But of course that’s just football, and football is just a game. So there must be other stories that really matter and other people who deserve some kudos, right?
As our regular readers know, we place a lot of emphasis on the environment on this alternative, independent news site, so it should come as no real surprise that we are always keeping nature at the top of any list around here.
What is the most important story of our time? I find it hard to believe the global warming summit in Copenhagen didn’t make any of the other top ten lists, since none of the other stories are going to matter by the end of this century if we don’t start dealing with climate change now.
There are plenty of things we could criticize our new president about, including not moving fast enough to clean the partisan politics out of the justice system and for not moving swiftly to counter the problems associated with too much power in the hands of a few corporate monopolies, most notably the telecommunication giants such as ATnT, where domestic spying on innocent Americans is still the order of the day. We can’t catch a lone nut carrying explosives onto a plane from Nigeria to Detroit, but we can intimidate grandmothers who have the gall to take part in democracy by joining peace and environmental groups.
Obama’s participation in the climate conference is not one of the areas he should be criticized for, although the mainstream media managed to bash him for not coming away with a sealed deal. The deal may not be done or perfect, but he did play a leading role there. Obama has already rolled back many of the most destructive environmental policies of the anti-science Bush administration, so we think that deserves at least as much of a mention as Michael Jackson.
So President Barack Obama is our national and international person of the year, for beginning the work of righting this ship of state after eight long years of Bush and company trying their damndest to sink us.
As for the local Southern scene, there is really only one story worth mentioning on the environment front, and that is the massive TVA coal ash spill in Tennessee that is now creating havoc in Alabama’s Black Belt. Why this story does not rate more national, regional and local attention is beyond me, although one of the top rated and highest circulation news sites in the country had the foresight to make it the lead story on Christmas day.
Who is the person most responsible for helping to bring this story out of the darkness and into the light? Our local person of the year is Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen of Tuscaloosa, who deserves the credit for being more of a bona fide environmental activist than all the other fine people working for all the other non-profit organizations in the state.
Here’s to you John.
If you like this and have a few bucks to spare, send him a donation to support the work he’s doing.
BTW, if you like this analysis a little better than the New York Times, AP, Time magazine and/or al.com, feel free to send us one too…
Tom Campbell
Alabama’s Nick Saban and Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, sharing the top honors as The Locust Fork News-Journal’s Person of the Year
If you think we missed something and have other suggestions, we welcome them in the comments…
Comments
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December 30th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Conventional wisdom in DC is that, at least in terms of the economy, the Fed Chairman is more powerful than the President. Why? Because, without approval of Congress, and with only the handful of other members of the Fed’s Open Market Committee to convince, the Fed Chairman can take actions that immediately affect the economy for good or ill.
Those actions include deciding the federal funds rate — the rate at which banks lend each other money, thus directly affecting the rates on all other loans; issuing billions in new credit to banks; and, inflating money through issuance of billions in new federal reserve notes. You might have one or two of them in your pocket.
All of this makes Bernanke more powerful in the economy than the president, who can only propose measures to Congress that may or may not get passed, and if passed, may or may not resemble the original proposal.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Who cares? He’s still a lame choice…
December 30th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Woops!
Forgot to mention Tom Campbell — for getting that Saban wink photo!
December 30th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Agreed, a relatively lame choice when there were so many other better choices. Powerful though the position may be, Bernanke didn’t do anything particularly significant in 2009 as I remember.
I agree with your choice of President Obama as “international and national” person of the year, in light of what he has attempted to accomplish in fewer than twelve months in office and in winning the Nobel Prize.
But I always cringe when I hear the US president described as “the most powerful man in the world,” since it is almost never accompanied by an explanation of what that means. Certainly, the US president is the “most powerful head of state in the world” but that does not, in my opinion, make him the most powerful individual ipso facto.
Why? Because this kind of measurement of “power” has to do with external influence, which is built into the office of president, and not with internal strength and character, although an excellent case can be made that in the latter regard, Barack Obama is light years ahead of his predecessor.
But there are many out there — Nelson Mandela comes instantly to mind, along with Lech Walensa and Vaclav Havel — who might qualify, using a holistic standard, as “the most powerful” and it would not necessarily be a man who would get that designation. Helen Keller, when she was alive, by this standard was one of the most powerful people in the world, as was Mother Theresa and Corazon Aquino. None of those named have or had great wealth, and except for brief stints by the men as presidents of small countries, no secular power.
Rather, their power flowed from their internal strength, wisdom and action to alleviate the suffering of others, often over entire lifetimes. That is more important, I believe, than the heroes and celebrities de jour and, ultimately, will be longer remembered and honored.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Where the buck stops, there too the credit drops : )
December 30th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I don’t claim to know too much. But when a grown man wears a pair of panties with an exploding Kotex in the crotch, I’d out that one the list.
December 30th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Guess I missed that one Tom…
December 31st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Of course there were other important stories in 2009, but none that transcended from the local to the regional to the national interest like the coal ash story.
This local story was pretty interesting, however, since it put the final nail in the coffin of the Birmingham Water Works board plan to dam the Locust Fork River.
Water Works Sells Locust Fork Land
It was also a clear demonstration of the power of the Web Press. We asked the tough questions and reported critically. Members of the public responded. Government conceded. That is the stuff Public Service Pulitzers are made of for print. Now we just need an online media category : )
December 31st, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I’m in agreement with Glynn that the silver lining to the cloud of the 2000s is the election of Barack Obama. 2009 began with President Obama admonishing Alabama’s Good Ol’ Boys at the Goodyear Plant in Gadsden by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. By the end of the year, a health care reform bill had passed both houses of Congress and is poised to end the near monopoly of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama. That’s change The Workers of Alabama can believe in.
January 1st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
If they only knew, eh Robby?