Do you remember the good old days, when August was a month for quiet reflection along with a sideshow story or two? Oh, to be August, 2010 again, where the biggest story was what may or not be a mosque somewhere close or not close at all to Ground Zero.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism released a list of the top news stories for the month, and what an eclectic list it was. Trivial stories like the mosque, missing children and high-profile affairs were replaced by a hurricane, earthquake, faltering economy and riots in London.
The Wall Street Journal also dug into the matter, and found that there were far more news articles published in August 2011 than August 2010.
“It turns out that 7.85% more news was published in August than would normally be expected, the largest such jump over the past ten years. The only other August that comes close was in 2004, which saw a 5.37% increase in August news ahead of the presidential election.”
So what were the top 10 stories? Find out after the jump.
1: Economy 28%
2: Middle East unrest 11%
3: 2012 Campaign 9%
4: Hurricane Irene 5%
5: Afghanistan 2%
6: East coast earthquake 2%
7: UK Riots 2%
8: European economy 2%
9: Obama administration 2%
10: FAA shutdown 1%