Your Media Top 10 for 2008 turned out pretty cool, too

Besides offering critics as easy way to fill columns at the year's end, the Top 10 list fulfills a vital function in pop culture -- giving us know-it-alls another whack at everything we liked and didn't from the year before. Here's my list from Sunday's St. Petersburg Times.

So I was glad to see so many of you take advantage of my invite last week and provide your own thoughts on what worked and didn't in media this year. I'll be opining on what I hated in a future post, but today's entry is all about you -- or, rather my take on your takes.

In case you don't troll the comments section much, here's what The Feed readers dug and didn't in 2008, with a little extra critical spice from yours truly.

YOU LIKED . . . Fringe -- Fox's new-school X-Files got a couple of thumbs up for capturing the cheeky fun of early Mulder and Scully before the conspiracy stuff got too thick. You guys were so convincing, I went back to check out a few TiVo-ed episodes. And even though I stick by my earlier conclusion -- the mysteries just aren't compelling enough to justify all the weirdness or convoluted plot points -- I see why you felt otherwise.

YOU HATED . . . Heroes -- More than a few of you felt betrayed by yet another aimless season from NBC's superhero drama. Unfortunately, the show's producers seem to have truly forgotten what made fanboys (and girls!) love the show, reducing good guy Peter Petrelli into a bystander and audience surrogate Hiro into an ineffectual buffoon.

YOU LIKED . . . My Own Worst Enemy -- Was really surprised to see several of you shout out to Christian Slater's lumbering ripoff of the Bourne Identity for NBC. But I admit I kept watching this ambitious story about a spy with a malfunctioning split personality, hoping for something better than warmed-over Mission: Impossible plot lines. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

YOU HATED . . . Media coverage of the election -- Too partisan, too in the tank for Obama, etc. I hear you, though I'm not sure I agree, totally. As I have written before, I think most media was biased in favor of conflict, stories to increase their own status and stories featuring whoever would sell the most newspapers, or magazines or ratings points.

YOU LIKED . . . The Big Bang Theory, Politifact.com and FactCheck.org -- CBS's comedy about genius-level social misfits got a few thumbs up -- I'll admit, I haven't checked out this show after wading through what felt like a tedious pilot. But you've convinced me to give another look soon. And there were kudos for sites that tried to make conclusions about politicians' promises and attacks -- important tools when wading through all the mixed messages of a modern presidential campaign.

YOU HATED . . . Politifact and FactCheck -- Of course, some of you saw the conclusions drawn by these fact-checking sites as evidence of bias. Me, I preferred seeing some objective proof that certain politicos were lying a lot more often and more egregiously than others.

YOU LIKED . . . True Blood, Saturday Night Live's election skits, and Laura Dern in Recount -- HBO's vampire drama wasn't quite good enought to make my list, and Fred Armisen's interminable Barney Frank imitation is an example of what happened on SNL once Tina Fey's Sarah Palin was gone. But it's hard to argue with Dern's spot-on characterization of the overmatched, underprepared Harris.

YOU HATED . . . The Knight Rider remake, FX's Testees, too-quick cancellation of TV shows, and most reality shows. Once again, the wisdom of the crowd reasserts itself.

*

Comments

[Tina]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Big Bang Theory! Sheldon steals the show!

[Jay]

I have to see recount just to see how hot Laura Dern looks in it.

[Peter S]

The Wire was the most important media project of the ten years. In one television show, it dramatized the marginalization of the working class, the destruction of urban life, the failure of the drug war, the ineffeciency of government, especially the police, the tragedy of public education and, last but not least, the demise of mainstream journalism. This show did all of this while also being highly entertaining. It is a real shame that so few people tuned in for this literal masterpiece. But in twenty years or so, when they are looking for an actual historical document to understand what happened in our cities, they'll just have to watch the five seasons of the wire.

Eric: check out my graphic at
http://saintpetersblog1.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-elections.html

that we designed for my blogs coverage of St. Pete's city elections.

[becca]

Palin pals around with drug traffickers.....and/or family members.

[becca]

Speaking of the Wasilla Snowbillies.....how about the seven-count drug arrest of Bristol Palin's potential, future mother-in-law??? WOW.....small town values???

[becca]

OMG........Hairass is a HOOT.....she should be locked up for her criminal activities,however. Zero morals GOP style.

[Gene]

Doom,
In a free society, most informed citizens are aware that different NEWSpapers will have an editorial opinion as to how they present the news. This is not, nor has it been different since the days of William Randolph Hearst. I read stories in the Times and the Tribune, watch CNN and Fox, with this awareness. If you depend on only one source for all your information, you will always be wrong.

[DoctorDoom]

My memory is not selective. Your drudging up the issues with the general campaign is not germane to this argument. Please read my comments. I never said the general election campaign was not rough. All I am saying is that to not use those terms to describe an equally nasty primary fight is biased.

"A series of comments from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina.

'A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements,' said Obama spokeswoman Candice Tolliver, who said that Clinton would have to decide whether she owed anyone an apology.

'There’s a groundswell of reaction to these comments — and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we’ve heard for several months,' she said. 'Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation, or is there something bigger behind all of this?'"

Maybe the reporter thinks there should be harmony within the new president's administration, but that is not the job of the media, or is it?

[Eric Deggans]

Well ,as you say, there's a difference between the candidates and others acting in their stead.

Obama never accused the Clintons of racism - I think pundits mostly did that.

But Palin did accuse Obama of palling around with terrorists. She also accused him of "experimenting with socialism," when it was the GOP administration advocating the government buy stock in failing banks.

And Palin was also blamed for inciting such hatred of Obama at rallies that death threats against him spiked and the secret service asked her to tone down the rhetoric

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/sarahpalin/3405336/Sarah-Palin-blamed-by-the-US-Secret-Service-for-death-threats-against-Barack-Obama.html

I think you have a selective memory about what certain members of a certain party did during the campaign.

[DoctorDoom]

Really, accusing Bill Clinton of racism was not nasty?

And, I think you are confusing supporters of the campaign with the participants. I don't recall the McCain camp speaking about death threats.

I think that is the problem, you call it hair splitting (and in one instance it is, I agree), but when it happens all the time it is no longer just that. When Republicans get in trouble that is the first thing you read (Republican Senator arrested in bathroom. . .) When a Democratic politician gets in trouble you have to hunt to see whether they are even the member of a political party. It is a mindset within news organizations. Everyone has the same tilt, so it does not look like a bias in any way. It is like the old joke about a group of people in New York talking about their shock after Nixon won in '72. I can't believe he was elected, I don't know a single person who voted for him.

[Eric Deggans]

I guess the writer could have provided a few words that were more critical of obama and clinton in the synopsis of their spots on the list.

But I think that's hair splitting. Obama's fight with the GOP was much nastier than the Democratic primary (I don't recall Clinton supporters sparking Secret Service concern over asurge in death threats toward Obama, for instance). And the two visions of Palin were central in the struggle to define her for voters...

[DoctorDoom]

And I think that is the problem: "you would be hard pressed to find a professional journalist who would quibble with those three entries you cited"

Obama is not merely president, he is "a a symbol for the world of America's democratic promise."

Hillary Clinton "inspired millions of women across the country."

Sarah Palin has "conservative admirers" and was "worthy of all the lampooning she endured. . . ."

There were no criticisms of Obama or Clinton, or were those criticisms (many of whom came from each other) not worthy.

Also, Obama endured "an often-nasty showdown with the McCain/Palin ticket" but the Democratic primary was "grueling" and "determined." No nastiness in the Democratic Primary? Really??

No subtle bias there?

[Eric Deggans]

what i think politifact and factcheck did was present a series of facts and then draw a conclusion.

Readers could peruse the same facts and decide if they agreed, but the folks reporting and writing politifact are some of the best writers, editors and researchers at the paper. Their conclusions about the fact they gathered bore a lot of weight...

[Eric Deggans]

Doom, I think you would be hard pressed to find a professional journalist who would quibble with those three entries you cited.

did you think there was a bias?

[DoctorDoom]

I want to go on the record and say I do not see the Politifact as EVIDENCE of bias. I merely see them as more opinion piece than fact.

Secondly, speaking of top 10 lists, Are the following 3 paragraphs from AP's list of the top news stories of 2008 showing bias in any way?

1. U.S. ELECTION: Obama emerged from Election Night as a decisive victor and a symbol for the world of America's democratic promise. But he reached that point only after a grueling battle with Clinton for the Democratic nomination and then an often-nasty showdown with the McCain/Palin ticket in the run-up to the election. . . .

7. SARAH PALIN: Few Americans outside Alaska knew much about its governor when Republican John McCain picked her as his running mate. That changed rapidly. To her conservative admirers, she was a feisty, refreshing change from most politicians; to her critics, she was in over her head, and worthy of all the lampooning she endured. . . .

9. HILLARY CLINTON: She didn't win, but Clinton came closer than any other woman in U.S. history to becoming a major party's presidential nominee. Her determined primary campaign, waged vigorously even when it seemed a lost cause, inspired millions of women across the country--and helped persuade Obama to choose her as secretary of state.