Blogtrek

The AP Top 10 for 2003 contains what?

It is near the new year as I write this, and one of the stories on the Web is on Fox News, showing the AP top 10 stories of the year. This is good to do to review over the old year before embarking on a new. Here are the top 10 according to the Associated Press:

1. War in Iraq
2. Columbia Disaster
3. California Recall
4. SARS
5. Northeast Blackout
6. Improving Economy
7. California Wildfires
8. Bush Tax Cut
9. Elizabeth Smart
10. Democratic Campaign

One way you can tell if this order is correct is to take two events and see if the higher is really more important than the lower. For example, the California Recall is clearly more important than SARS, since SARS affected at most a million people (counting those that were really concerned about it), while the recall concerned a lot more. Basically this is correct (although I think SARS is somewhat high) with one glaring exception. Elizabeth Smart. This was one single missing person, and so does not qualify as a national story; it is strictly local. So what's it doing on this list? Hurricane Isabel is not on this list, but surely it is more important than Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth Smart affected only a few people, while Hurricane Isabel affected tens of millions of people. I think the American editors and publishers who contributed to the poll should reconsider their vote. It is really good news that Elizabeth was found alive, but to put this on a list of nationally important events like those that affect the livelihood of millions or those that could determine our next President is sheer hype.