1. Obama makes history. The historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th -- and first black -- president of the United States on Jan. 20 was the first must-watch-if-not-be-there media event of the year. Millions turned up, and tuned in.
Given Obama’s difficult first year – one that included a stunning Nobel Peace Prize win (“Obama Award Stuns Twitter, Blogosphere, Dude Who Toasts My Bagel”), a state dinner security breakdown ("White House Party Crashers: We Were Invited") and bizarre, protracted, widely-criticized standoff with Fox News ("White House War With Fox News Fuels Ratings Fire") -- it’s almost hard to remember how much gravity the event carried with it across all media, including Fox.
Almost.
2. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett die on the same day. Even by Hollywood standards, June 25 was a crazy day. Farrah Fawcett, the “Charlie Angels” actress, died at 62 after a long battle with cancer. But the coverage of Fawcett’s expected death paled in comparison to what came next: Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, was found unconscious in his Los Angeles home. Two hours later he was pronounced dead at 51. Thus began hours of wall-to-wall coverage, followed by months of media scrutiny – of Jackson, of his doctors, of his family, of the media itself.
It seemed like every media outlet -- especially in death -- wanted in on a piece of Jackson’s action. According to one study, magazine publishers have cashed in to the tune of $55 million on the fall of the King of Pop.
The $55 million is actually pretty small, when you consider that virtually every single magazine publisher – from Entertainment Weekly to People to Time to even Architectural Digest -- rushed to their own Jacko tribute to print in the hopes of capitalizing on collectors. The magazine world’s version of ambulance chasing.
3. Walter Cronkite dies, but where's CBS? The legendary newsman and iconic CBS anchor died on Friday July 17. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News devoted most of their Friday evening coverage to Walter Cronkite.
CBS did not. The network, on which Cronkite became the "most trusted man in America" during his 20-year tenure as evening news anchor, announced his death at 8:13 p.m. ET during a special report by Katie Couric: "It is my sad duty to tell you that our friend and colleague Walter Cronkite has died." Yet CBS -- which called Cronkite “biggest name in television news, the king of the anchormen; in fact, he was the reporter for whom the term ‘anchorman’ was coined” -- followed Couric’s 8-minute report with … its regular Friday programming: reruns of "Ghost Whisperer" (starring the likeable Jennifer Love Hewitt), "Flashpoint" and the eyestrain-inducing "NUMB3RS."
Instead, CBS colleagues were forced to go on CNN to remember their friend and colleague.
4. Letterman shocks audience with sex tale. For a few days in November, it was simply known as The Show.
