Time Magazine Names Occupy Wall Street Protests Top U.S. News Story of the Year

If you had to name the top U.S. news story of 2011, what would you say?

For the folks at Time magazine, the answer is the Occupy Wall Street protests:

The Occupy movement has remained leaderless, amorphous and spontaneous — demonstrators carry signs advocating everything from financial reform to healthcare reform to a ban on fracking — it's still unclear what sort of real lasting political effect the movement can have. But the sheer persistence of the occupations, galvanized by incidents of heavy-handed policing in New York and California that shocked the nation, have given the protesters' appeals for economic justice a weight that may play a real role in the upcoming presidential election.

For me, the top story of the year is either America receiving its first credit rating downgrade in history (which came in seventh) or the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her miraculous recovery (which came in fifth).

Hot Air's Tina Korbe puts the economy (which came in third) and the upcoming GOP primaries (which came in second) higher on her list.

Also of note would have to be the child sex abuse allegations at Penn State University (which came in sixth).

Yet the folks at Time put a totally unorganized movement with all kinds of illegal activities occurring at its events that to date has had absolutely no tangible political impact higher than all of these.

Is it possible Time's editors were tipping their hand about their own political leanings and desires for the country?