Al Jazeera's Top Stories of the Year | Hacker News Reader

Al Jazeera's Top Stories of the Year

english.aljazeera.net

15 pointsSlyShy8 comments

Wow, these are all really surprisingly and disappointingly conventional and mainstream.

If someone had told me these were the BBC's top stories of the year, I would have bought it.

Here are CNN's top stories for comparison: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/12/specials/timeline.yea... (warning: uses a timeline that you have to click through instead of a list, but it's fairly painless for a timeline)

Looks like it has some of the same stories, but it's definitely much more US-focused. But that's definitely the case for virtually all the major US media, which are very much in to US navel-gazing. The BBC is much more international in scope, and is much closer to Al Jezeera in that sense.

Seriously? The Natalee Holloway murderer guy is a "story of the year"?

Great list. It's remarkable how little the US figures in it.

Judging just from the content of the headlines, that's true.

But if you think a bit about it, the US plays prominent roles in almost all of the stories.

- WikiLeaks - The US obviously plays a huge and role in this story.

- Flotilla: Gaza back in spotlight - The US is a huge supporter of Israel and a central participant in mediating the "peace process" in the region.

- Haiti: A series of catastrophes - The US has played a central role in the overall plight of Haiti, and is arguably one of the major reasons the Haitians have been so ill prepared to deal with the catastrophes that struck them.

- Gulf Oil Spill - Obviously, this happened in the US itself.

- Pakistan: A flood of misery - To my knowledge, no US involvement in creating the economic conditions in Pakistan (unlike in Haiti).

- Chile: A miracle rescue - A US-made drill was the one that reached them first, if I remember correctly. And a team from NASA was on hand to help.

- World Cup: The games come to Africa - Don't know anything about sports, so can't really comment. But I'd expect there's not much of a role for the US in this story.

- Europe: Rising to the right - I think Europe's Islamophobia and its rise of right-wing parties is influenced by the same in the US. Though, of course, there are plenty of native influences there too.

- Iceland: Eyjafjallajokull erupts - Ok, this one has nothing to do with the US at all.

- Europe: Facing austere times - The global economy is very interconnected, and much of what happened and continues to happen in Europe on this front is influenced by what happens in the US.

So, out of 10 stories, maybe 3 stories tops didn't have much if anything to do with the US. In the rest the US was either a central player or peripherally involved. Which isn't really surprising, considering it's now the lone superpower and likes to meddle in many other nation's affairs.

As you say it's not surprising that the US is involved in a most of the stories but other than the Gulf Oil Spill and maybe Wikileaks I wouldn't say they're ''about'' the US. Gaza for example is primarily an issue between Israel, Palestinians, Egypt with the US along with Iran, various Arab countries, the EU, Turkey, etc. as one of many important players.

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