My friend John Hinderaker has a fascinating post up showing the most tweeted-about news stories of 2014. In second place is the August 9 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. First place is held by the December decision of the grand jury not to indict the shooter, Officer Darren Wilson. It's reasonably clear that the grand jury declined to bring charges because it believed Wilson acted in self-defense, an account supported by both forensic and eye-witness testimony.
What's unusual is that a crime story gets ranked first when crime is relatively low, as it is now. Crime barely got a mention as an issue when pollsters were asking, in the run-up to the midterm elections, what the public was most concerned about. Indeed, crime, violence, drugs, law and the judicial system together barely scratched the surface, as Gallup reports.
So why is a crime story Number One in a year that saw a partisan wave in the elections, the outbreak of Ebola, the (still) mysterious and spooky disappearance of a commercial airliner, the horrifying beheading of a captive journalist, Russian military aggression in Europe, and a cyberattack within the United States sponsored by a foreign country?
I cannot answer that for sure, as no one could. My guess, though, is that the Ferguson story literally got to the top of the charts because liberals jumped on it as the launching point for something they've been itching to do for a long while, to wit, attack the police as the last bastion of "White Privilege" -- a racist, thuggish occupying army.
As often happens with ideologically driven narratives, however, facts got in the way. Early reports that Wilson stood over Brown pumping bullets into him were proved false. Yet more damning was that the central theme of the narrative, "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" also bit the dust.
It turns out from the forensic evidence that Brown did not have his hands up. It also turns out that he had scuffled with Wilson in an attempt to grab the Officer's gun, and had likely punched him in the face.
But the work had been done and the narrative launched. As was once said (by Mark Twain, I think), "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
The chart of the top stories is here (click on the chart for a better view):
I'll take a stab at this - I think the stories related to foreign events are for the most part of little impact to everyday Americans whereas all of us interact with the police on some level and allegations of brutality or corruption can affect each of us. So regarding foreign stories, I say-
1. Ebola - this was really a non-issue as to its potential spread in the United States. A large part of the high mortality rate of Ebola is related to the poor quality of healthcare in Africa.
2. Russia - Russia occupying half of Ukraine has no effect on American security whatsoever. Plus, with the collapse in oil prices it looks like Putin is out of money to rebuild the Russia Empire. It took Ronald Reagan to defeat the Soviet Union, but Putin lost to a bit a fracking and some serious production in Saudi Arabia. Makes him seem a lot less scary.
3. Missing Plane - Quite a mystery, but probably not related to any organized terrorism or malfeasance. Very good for future discovery channel specials on speculation as to what really happened.
4. ISIS killing journalist - horrible act, but again doesn't affect most of our day to day lives.
5. North Korea Cyber Attack - flat out embarrassing to Sony and USA that a country that can't feed its people or keep the lights hacked it. No one to blame but ourselves for that.
And there you have it, Faler's thesis why Ferguson was the story of the year. I'll have my 2015 predictions ready by tomorrow.