The Huffington Post attempted to chronicle the top 18 media stories of the year. At number one among liberals, of course, was the phone-hacking scandal in Britain surrounding the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch tabloid News of the World. Coming in third was the rise of al-Jazeera English. But number 4 was this candid theme: "Occupy Wall Street Occupies the Media."
"The people who helped make this the 'Year of the Protester' (for Time, at least) also shook up the media," oozed the Huff-Posters."Press coverage of the Occupy movement drew intense scrutiny, with journalists like CNN's Erin Burnett and the New York Times' Ginia Bellafante being raked over the coals for their dismissive tone at the outset of the protests." They warned against the police for restraining reporters in their enthusiasm to chronicle (and encourage) the OWS crowd.
"Journalists become the targets" was the number-two story, which in a constant meme for liberals, married the military repressing the Arab Spring and cops restraining OWS. But the OWS section continued:
Elsewhere, anchors like Dylan Ratigan voiced full-throated support for the movement, while over at Fox News, things weren't so friendly.
As the months went on, the press became involved in an even more direct way, as journalists were repeatedly beaten, arrested and targeted by police while reporting on Occupy protests. This treatment opened up a discussion about the relationship between journalists and police, as well as the First Amendment itself.
There were many huge media stories this year, but none has been so juicy or complicated or compelling or downright Shakespearean as the scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch and his company.
The jaw-dropping scope of the scandal still has the power to shock, even all these months later. It had been known for years that something fishy was going on at Murdoch's British newspaper empire, but it wasn't until the summer that the colossal level of criminality at the News of the World was exposed and the once-formidable News Corp. empire began to look very troubled indeed.
"NPR In Crisis" was the number-nine media story, but it's a bit comical how the Huffington Post somehow skipped over the entire pseudo-Muslim Brotherhood angle of the Project Veritas video sting:
NPR had a bad 2010 (remember Juan Williams?) but 2011 was even worse for the public radio giant. First, news chief Ellen Weiss was ousted after a damning report into her handling of the Williams scandal. Then, a video sting appeared [appeared?] to catch a top fundraiser trashing the Tea Party movement. Though the tape was later proven to have been deceptively edited, the resulting firestorm led to the resignation of CEO Vivian Schiller. Days later, the Republican House voted to cut off all federal funding for NPR. Clearly, these are not the happiest days at the network, which is now looking to newly installed CEO Gary Knell to calm the waters.
