Sex, Election, Iraq, Tsunami

No, it’s not a new band, but a list of the top 10 most viewed stories in the NY Times this year. Besides content, other variables likely involved include availability (most news stories are only available for free for one week) and date of publication (older stories have more time to accumulate viewership — this appears to apply most to the #1 story about the sex trade).

Kerry lost, by the way (chuckle). My guess is that the Frank Rich discussion of blue and red state values had the most impact in the real world — made a lot of sense to me anyway. I am not sure if this list says more about the Times, its readers, the world at large, or none of the above. I would also state that though the Times has had a difficult year and is far from perfect, it’s still the best newspaper around.

The list:

1. MAGAZINE | January 25, 2004
The Girls Next Door
By PETER LANDESMAN
The sex-trafficking trade may begin in Eastern Europe and wend its way through Mexico, but it lands in the suburbs and cities of America, where perhaps tens of thousands are held captive and pimped out for forced sex.

2. MAGAZINE | October 17, 2004
Without a Doubt
By RON SUSKIND
What makes Bush’s presidency so radical — even to some Republicans — is his preternatural, faith-infused certainty in uncertain times.

3. ELECTION 2004 | August 20, 2004
Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad
By KATE ZERNIKE and JIM RUTENBERG
An ad questioning John Kerry’s war record sprang from an alliance between Texas Republicans and veterans angry about Mr. Kerry’s criticism of the Vietnam War.

4. MOVIES | June 23, 2004
Movie Review | ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’: Unruly Scorn Leaves Room for Restraint, but Not a Lot
By A. O. SCOTT
While Michael Moore’s documentary about the Bush administration has been likened to an op-ed column, it might more accurately be said to resemble an editorial cartoon.

5. ARTS & LEISURE | November 14, 2004
Frank Rich: On ‘Moral Values,’ It’s Blue in a Landslide
There’s only one problem with the storyline proclaiming that the country swung to the right on cultural issues in 2004. It is fiction.

6. INTERNATIONAL | May 12, 2004
Iraq Videotape Shows the Decapitation of an American
By DEXTER FILKINS
The killers called the decapitation revenge for the American mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

7. INTERNATIONAL | October 3, 2004
How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence
By DAVID BARSTOW, WILLIAM J. BROAD and JEFF GERTH
The Bush administration was made aware as early as 2001 that the aluminum tubes used as critical evidence against Iraq were most likely not for nuclear weapons.

8. INTERNATIONAL | October 25, 2004
Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
The Iraqi interim government has warned that nearly 380 tons of the world’s most powerful conventional explosives are missing from a former military installation.

9. EDITORIALS/OP-ED | October 17, 2004
Editorial: John Kerry for President
John Kerry has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive and we enthusiastically endorse him for president.

10. INTERNATIONAL | December 31, 2004
How Scientists and Victims Watched Helplessly
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The magnitude of the tsunami that killed tens of thousands and remade the coasts of the Asian subcontinent was slowly gauged across the world.