A good way to look back on the year that is just about over is to review the year’s headlines. The Associated Press polls editors and news directors on what they think have been the year’s top stories. The list follows, with my comments.
From AP Poll: Sexual misconduct allegations voted top news story:
1. Sexual misconduct. I think the rediscovery that there is such a thing as “sexual misconduct,” along with the fall of Hollywood moguls, journalists, tycoons, entertainers, and politicians due to outrage over their sexual predations, is potentially the most positive cultural news in decades. Yes, there is a mob mentality and the danger of false accusations. Those falsely accused need to file slander and wrongful termination suits. But it’s a good sign that women are rising up against men who treat them as sex objects. Maybe it will occur to people that the moviemakers who sexually abused women continued to sexually abuse them by making them take off their clothes for the camera and perform sex scenes. Maybe the culture will learn what most cultures have always known, that there is no such thing as “casual sex,” that sex should be reserved for marriage, not the workplace, not the entertainment media, not to be talked about in public, not to be watched on a computer screen. Maybe the public’s revulsion will translate into a revival of sexual morality. Some are warning about the rise of a “new Puritanism.” We can only hope. I would settle for a new Victorianism.
2. Trump-First Year. The news media was certainly pre-occupied with the President’s first year, stirring up outrage and criticizing his every move. To the point that journalists sometimes set aside their standards and made embarrassing mistakes. President Trump caused himself problems of his own with his incessant tweeting and his vindictive rants. But journalists did a lot of vindictive rants of their own.
3. Las Vegas mass shooting. The sniper who killed 58 and wounded hundreds at a country music concert in Vegas was certainly a big story. But for all the coverage, we still don’t know why the shooter did it.
4. Hurricane onslaught. In four weeks, we had Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean suffered many casualties, much property damage, and showed quite a bit of heroism.
5. North Korea. The still-communist dictator Kim Jong Un seems to have successfully developed missiles that can carry his successfully-developed nuclear weapons all the way to the United States. President Trump is making not-so-veiled threats to put a stop to North Korea’s threats with military action. This is dangerous.
6. Trump-Russia probe. How could the voters separate this from #2? Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has indicted four associates of the President so far. He is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in the election, but also ancillary matters, such as lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice. So far, nothing that the public knows about implicates the President, but Mueller’s investigation continues to hang over him.
7. Obamacare. Republicans controlled both the House, the Senate, and the Executive Branch. They tried multiple times, but they could not kill Obamacare. Actually, though, in their one big legislative victory, the passage of a comprehensive Tax Reform bill, they may have wounded it fatally. A rider attached to the tax cut law took away the Obamacare penalty for not buying health insurance.
8. Tax overhaul. The Republicans finally won one! Despite overwhelming press criticism, somehow making a trillion dollars in tax relief unpopular among taxpayers, the bill passed. Next year, when new withholding tables let Americans keep more of their paychecks, they will likely come to appreciate it.
9. Worldwide terror attacks. Terror attacks by Islamic radicals have become old news, so that we have been getting used to it. But nearly a thousand people have died this year–in England, Spain, Somalia, Egypt, and the United States, among other countries–at the hands of terrorists.
10. Islamic State. In a major victory for the United States and its allies, ISIS was driven from its two major strongholds, Mosul in Iraq and its capital Raqqa in Syria. The “Islamic State” is no longer a state. Just another terrorist organization. That means it can no longer claim to have re-established the caliphate. But it still has cells and admirers around the world, who occasionally express their faith in acts of terrorism.
Feel free to comment on this list. But are there other stories from the past year that you think deserve to be included as “top stories’?
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