As we tend to do during the holiday season, The New York Times‘ City Room blog is in intra-aggregation mode: posting about their own posts over the 2011 year as both a in remembrance” sort of thing, as well as a quick and easy way to make filler content new and exciting.
Though the technique of link-baiting back to the most popular (or the most commented) posts of the 2011 does serve a purpose, as we can quickly identify the major trends that had all the crazy people coming out of the woodwork to speak their mind.
So it should be no surprise that half the entries are about Occupy Wall Street, including the #1 spot, which was just a live-blog of OWS’ Day of Action on November 17th. (Other posts included the massive Brooklyn Bridge arrests and the postponed clean-up of Zuccotti Park.) The entries were then split: two for Anthony Weiner‘s sexting scandal, and two for the red-tailed hawks that built a nest over Washington Square Park this year. (In a grim bit of irony, the winged matriarch of the hawks died today.)
The final “most commented item” was a piece about education in the city, with Cathie Black stepping down as Chancelor of city schools and Dennis Walcott taking her place.
New Yorkers, we can see where your priorities lay.
