'Connecticut, Aurora mass shootings' edge U.S. presidential elections to be named AP's 'top 2012 news story'
London, Dec. 22 (ANI)
The horrific massacre of 26 children and staff at a Connecticut elementary school narrowly edged out the 2012 U.S. presidential elections to be named as the 'top news story of 2012' in a new poll.
According to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors, the shooting incident that took place at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, along with other mass shootings, was ranked No. 1 on the list.
The initial round of balloting had ended Dec. 13, a day before the shootings in Newtown, with the US election ranked No. 1, followed by Superstorm Sandy. The original entry for mass shootings, focused on the rampage at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, placed sixth in that voting, CBS News reports.
According to the report, however, in the new poll, updated to account for Newtown, the mass shootings received 68 first-place votes out of 173 ballots cast for the top 10 stories, compared to 65 first-place votes for the election, one of the closest results since the AP launched the poll in 1936.
Superstorm Sandy was third, far ahead of the next group of stories, the report said.
The top 10 stories for 2012 according to the AP poll are:
MASS SHOOTINGS: at Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colarado
U.S. ELECTION
SUPERSTORM SANDY
OBAMACARE
LIBYA
PENN STATE
U.S. ECONOMY
FISCAL CLIFF
GAY MARRIAGE
SYRIA