as people around the world count down the days to the new year our team is counting down the list of the most influential people of twenty twelve but this won't be your run of the mill memorandum no pop stars or you tube sensations made this list but we will tell you who did just ahead. and looking at the other side of the coin far from the top i'll show you the biggest mainstream media flops of the year and critically analyze the state of american journalism today. looking beyond it twenty fourteen of the u.s. military prepares to pack up and ship out of afghanistan several big franchises are looking at the country as an investment opportunity we'll tell you about the efforts to commercialize kabul.

it's thursday december thirteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for example and you're watching our t.v. while we are winding down two thousand and twelve and you know what that means lots of looks back at the last twelve months the best dogs worst most significant events and people of the year well here it are to you we decided to put together a list of our own of the most influential people of the year our intrepid producers put together a longer list of about twenty three people and every member of our news team chose their top five finalist was compiled from the winners and losers so here is our top five most influential people of the year or five german chancellor angela merkel not only is she the first woman to hold the top german political post she's also consider the de facto leader of the e.u. an organization that holds the economic fate of many countries and its so-called hands. number four is seventeen year old trayvon martin who was shot and killed

back in february of two thousand and twelve in sanford florida and his death sparked a nationwide discussion about guns stereotypes and about a law called stand your ground and number three is private first class bradley manning manning was arrested in may of two thousand and ten believed to be responsible for leaking classified information to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks he has spent much of this year preparing for hearings and and court martial and the nature of both his crime and his punishment has been at the forefront of discussion in this country for most of this year. number two the person who shot the forty seven percent video that showed presidential candidate mitt romney speaking to his donors this video is believed to steer what was a very close race into a new direction and the number one most influential quote unquote person of two thousand and twelve according to r.t. america is the hacktivist group anonymous they've been around for nearly a decade but not really but really became much more well known this year for various things just to name one after the file hosting service mega upload was

taken down anonymous went in and took down the justice department web site the f.b.i. web site and more well i want to talk about much more of this with our producer adrienne it was said oh and i'm going to let's start with this number one pick anonymous is you know a movement that a whole lot of people hadn't heard of until recently what do you think was their sort of biggest move of the year i mean what's interesting if you look at it long term i mean people would point out the you know the stratfor hack which is as we all know when anonymous went in and hacked the intelligence firm known as stratfor however and that happened in december but exactly but there were the releases actually of documents were actually twenty twelve even now when they first came out it wasn't really that you know media organizations didn't find it as important but they are still learning a lot of interesting things through that information however many people here cited other things like. israel which is where anonymous took down many of the servers of

the israeli government many of all the officials what official web sites and also syria where they tried to keep the internet on line for many even though was virtually shut down for a couple of days or gaza as well i think during the crisis and i know a lot of us sort of went on to i think it was the i don't know if it was a prime minister or somebody in israel his facebook page was hacked into by anonymous and there was a free palestine put up and just sort. the wallpaper of his face absolutely was so really people were you know when they were talking about anonymous they would really just put all these all these together and just see this as a sign of the growing influence on the internet so i think that's the big takeaway from this isn't just you know sort of a group of computer savvy people these are people who definitely have strong opinions about certain things and make that known and i think sort of the bigger picture here is that they're able to do this the fact that they're able to hack

into the f.b.i. web site kind of shows you a lot about their influence and their power i want to talk now about the person who shot the forty seven percent video and i was surprised by it by this one at first because it's not like after it aired president obama sailed to victory presidents and there was still sort of a roller coaster for both campaigns in the polls but i think the bigger aspect of this is you know sort of the issues of technology and privacy i mean you just said it yourself perfectly it wasn't like it was just you know smooth sailing after that was released it was talking to a lot of people around here in the office they say the same thing that say that this was an example of politicians realizing that they're always on their own you know no matter what you say when you say when you're speaking at a private event to a group you don't know exactly you who will be held accountable for what you say and you know the politics and technology are you know coming together in very strange ways i mean he obviously wasn't the first wasn't the only person to suffer

some sort of setback due to a mishap or quote i mean we all remember todd akin to be all remember all these other republicans that said some things on camera that i'm sure they wish they hadn't said they were speaking to that meeting with the media exactly but now you can even even before maybe twenty or so years ago you could still get away with that but things nowadays they go viral and this is a great example of that i'm talking about bradley manning the alleged source for really the largest intelligence leak in u.s. history he now faces twenty two counts for his court martial and cool. would land in prison for the rest of his life i know that for the first time just in the last few weeks we actually heard bradley manning speak in his pretrial hearing. it's been going on for a long time and i think you know his lawyer has said this case should be thrown out overall based on you know his lawful pretrial punishment so i think this case is bringing up a whole lot about you know classified information about really trying to report

wrongdoing i mean certainly that video of the apache helicopter pilots kind of treating war as a video game just killing anyone and that got in their past sort of i mean this was a video of bradley manning didn't do that he just released the video yeah absolutely and as you said it certainly made waves however you know that information did come out two years ago so you might be asking so why it's twenty twelve why is he influential now well you you put it yourself you put a beautifully which is right now we heard him speak for the first time and to him describing that punishment in describing punishment for essentially you know disseminating information has brought effects and that's essentially what people picked him i think to just to expand the discussion a slight bit and that is the subject of torture a lot of people say that you know when he was first brought in that he was he was kept in solitary confinement for nine months this is before any charges were filed against him he still has not had an actual court martial but his treatment once he

was arrested. is something that's really raise a lot of red flags and really raise a lot of questions about torture and about the effectiveness of torture both on u.s. citizens like bradley manning and brought on prisoners in guantanamo bay is it so i think sort of as a symbol. with the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks and of this punishment that he received for this alleged crime it's really raised a lot of question absolutely and also it sort of brought back the question of what is news. really and what isn't the new york times as we you know we know got a lot of flack for not sending someone to that pretrial hearing that we're talking about where we first heard him speak and it brought up a lot of a lot of criticisms of what is news what is not news and it's sort of brought that back to say like hey so if things you think are important are being covered speak out because you may you have

a voice in this our number four pick your was trayvon martin this one was pretty understandable to me i think there's a lot to say about this and like most of our picks his the shooting death did not result in the changing of laws it didn't result really in the changing of policy but it did spark a nationwide discussion about race about you know stereotypes that people have about you know a young kid wearing a hoodie and about guns and also about these laws which by the way some version of which you know the stand your ground laws are in more than half of the states in this country and you know what is stand your ground and when can it be used and i think the accused you know killer of trayvon martin george zimmerman is trying to say well it should be able to be used whatever and again i think that you you had a great point at the beginning when you were saying that it opened a conversation and trayvon is sort of like bradley manning is this is a symbol i mean when the president united states comes out and says you know my son could look like trayvon that has repercussions and in in

a country where you know we do have race conversations we you know we some might argue that we don't have them openly we don't have them candidly and you know this was a an opportunity to be able to go and examine real quick because we're almost out of time let's go to. someone self-explanatory sort of wears the pants in the euro family why do you think she made a list of all you said yourself right there i mean she essentially has the fate of the euro zone in her hand so very easy pick of course this was not a. widespread poll but we did want to poll people in our news room we consider to be experienced and intelligent and that's what we came up with appreciate you coming on air to break it down with with me producer adrienne it was that. still ahead here on r t a what comes to mind when you think of afghanistan a war torn country that's oppression violence and terrorists well get ready for this the country is now being seen as an investment opportunity up next as troops

march out i'll tell you about the money flowing it.

i want to take a look now i get another example of the close relationship that can exist between public and private interest it turns out that the u.s. department of commerce the u.s. agency for international development and the international franchise association are in the process of bringing a couple of american franchises to afghanistan so far the main ones are radio shack and hertz in a project statement from the us the us afghanistan franchising trade conference it states quote franchising has proven to be an ideal market vehicle for both employment and economic growth because of this experience coupled with the high demand for u.s. franchise brands in afghanistan the task force is confident that focusing its pilot sector focused trade conference on franchising will prove successful for both us franchise pioneers and successful afghan entrepreneurs' well i want to talk more

about what this means with michael brooks producer with the majority report hey there michael this is interesting approved afghan buyers would be required to attend what's known as radio shack university and corporate headquarters in fort worth texas and they would then be ground support from radio shack employees and additional training what do you make of all this. well first of all it's great to be with you you know i think that there is a certain type of. goal associated with global brands and that's really that there's a certain type of employment there's a certain way of doing things there's a certain kind of almost monoculture that can be replicated and done anywhere and i think you know we think about radio shack university in the suburbs of america or maybe even a more stable developing country and make some sense obviously in the context of afghanistan it seems kind of funny and out of place. you know i don't know what

type of specific modifications those afghans might have in their training program at radio shack university in terms of how to deal with potential bombings or terrorist attacks or things like that so yeah that would be interesting to take a look at i think just bigger picture here that i mean. let's take the international franchise association this is a somewhat powerful wealthy group i'll give you some numbers the i f a's contributions in the twenty twelve election more than four hundred eighty six thousand dollars now this franchising project is being done in the name of economic development and the government is helping to coordinate on behalf of these companies connect some dots for me here michael well you know foreign aid and foreign development is very connected in the united states with campaign contributions with different corporate interests one example that i think is really good for illustrating this is actually in egypt which you know is the second

largest recipient of u.s. aid and most of that is military aid and when we think of that we think ok that money is sent to egypt well known facts the money is allocated for arms pick your moments that go to the egyptian military but they're actually paid to military contractors in the united states who make the arms. matter of fact ships' egypt so in this sense it doesn't surprise me at all i think the link between foreign aid foreign policy development and the interest of the business community in the united states is always very connected i think this story sort of leads to a bigger discussion and a bigger question one that i know i've had a few times here on our team and that is afghanistan post twenty fourteen certainly all these troops are scheduled to leave there have been there's been some really good reporting done not really widespread about the fact that a whole lot of people you know tribes within afghanistan are just sort of you know

hanging out and waiting and once you know the rest of the nato troops leave they're preparing for what could be an all out civil war i know even bloomberg businessweek wrote an article last year and according to them last year two point three billion dollars in cash left via the kabul airport this is a sign economists say points to a fear by afghans that you know once those troops leave that war will escalate the capital will flee and that the future of this country is very unstable. absolutely i mean money is fleeing the country steadily and there is a really significant fear in afghanistan that things could deteriorate even worse when troops leave in two thousand and fourteen when i hear that we're doing this i think two things one i think there's always the possibility of. perhaps some residual forces staying there from the united states or nato allies

and i also think that a story like this might be very. specific so if you could have one radio shack that sort of successfully operates in a very secure and specific neighborhood in kabul that kind of makes a nice p.r. story and a kind of nice gesture about the type of situation that we're leaving on the ground there because obviously as we get ready to leave we're going to be thinking a lot about really the public relations implications of how we leave and what type of shape we leave afghanistan in yeah one of the questions i had you know when i first read about this was you know who is this actually geared to i know according to the cia thirty six percent of the afghan population lives below the poverty line so who would be you know the intended customer base. well i think there's obviously there's a very small and certain you know urban customer base probably mostly centered around kabul wherever you go there are you know some people that have some means

and some money and this is who would speak to i mean ironically you know there's there's reporting back during the you know in the eighty's late seventy's during the soviet occupation of afghanistan that there were shops where you could get much better consumer goods and you know who had who had access to it at the time were a leader afghans and also certain higher level soviet troops so potentially will we will be replicating a situation which is you know somewhat similar to yes certainly just an interesting story one we sort of wanted to bring out to the forefront connects them dots make people aware of it michael brooks producer for the majority report thanks so much thank you well earlier in the show we were discussing our team america's list of the most influential people of two thousand and twelve we want to take a look now at a different kind of list the pointer institute that's called dedicated to teaching media leaders and promoting excellence in journalism every year because together

a list on the biggest media failed last year's list included the numerous flubs by media outlets mistaking the name osama for obama when announcing the death of osama bin laden this year the number one media error had to do with a certain supreme court ruling on the affordable care act otherwise known as obamacare if you've forgotten let me refresh your memory. the individual mandate has been ruled unconstitutional justices have just gutted wolf the centerpiece provisions of the obama health care law said fact that's the final word on the individual mandate that could be a little bit more complicated what is that permission we're going to get afflicting information as you say there's some confusion out there are conflicting reports coming in from inside the supreme court so let's let's hold off i'm drawing any final conclusions are still trying to figure this out be cautious with this we're trying to do the best we can right now as we sort through it and we need it right here in lower third actually may not be correct or a take several minutes as

a reading through this again i we are reading now that the entire law has been upheld. well i want to talk more about this year's that list with christopher chambers journalism professor at georgetown university and i should say press point you know really dished out equal criticism to fox and c.n.n. but you know i think this mistake really illustrates a larger issue and that is so often media outlets that want to get it first more than they want to get it right yeah i mean i i would be there was a little tinge against fox in there and i would probably be a little bit more critical of because both of their mistakes are basically allegory or metaphors for what's wrong with both networks c.n.n. did rush they rushed they had not prepared adequately even their army of pundits had not really laid the ground adequately in terms of legal analysis fox on the other hand they did not miss report the story they misinterpreted the entire

decision and everything that their coverage their evening show punditry all the stuff they put on fox nation the romney usually throw to their fans was all geared towards this this. being overturned so when it wasn't they were kind of caught with their pants down sort of like what happened on election night so i mean you do have a rush to get the news out first to be the new digital media out there and maybe even meet its needs but i think with c.n.n. you know when you saw what they had to do for damage control you really saw that they were saying we are the dinosaur we tried to run with a little mammals and we didn't do it we and we made a mistake with fox it was we did make a mistake you know it's i would be a little more critical of fox but again they were trying to compete with this more nimble digital media yes certainly with twitter out there i remember i was working and i have you know we had all three televisions on m.s.n. b.c. c.n.n. and fox and then i had you know twitter of course and i was literally getting

opposite tweets coming out and it was one of those things you know you know i wasn't in the supreme court so i didn't see it and it wasn't you know a large to. but this is not a time in journalism as we had you know fifteen twenty thirty years ago where the whole report would be read and analyzed before any sort of announcement was made so i think it's every major decision of discourse even going back to the time of pamphlets and printing presses in the ninety three eighteenth century it with marbury vs madison things were read first and then the decisions were announced to the press this was one of those times where you know it really again is allegory for what's wrong well i think it deserves the lord for. media feel that it was interesting point compiled a bunch of different things i want to talk about a couple more on they also sort of chose a correction of the year you know when when newspapers write a story or publications write a story and then they come back and correct it so this year i went to the economist for a legitimate mistake but they actually came back with

a pretty witty response so basically they said an earlier version of this article claimed that journalists at bloomberg businessweek could be disciplined for sipping a spritzer at work this is not true sorry you must have been drunk on the job so this is you know the economists talk a competitor bloomberg business week and they were doing a story about sort of drinking in the workplace and how it's perceived but i thought that was kind of fun we will people people are much more forgiving of that i mean that you also have another aspect to be there's a lot more hacking being done especially you do gentle medium and that could mess the news flow up the decision that was an allegory for really what's wrong with the big media outlets but in general when you have flowed headlines and you know this is thing and then you know the famous book over with the patrol about to show that you do. since you brought it up this thing that really just baffled

newsrooms around the country including ours the denver t.v. station actually aired a graphic with a doctored title of the prop paula broadwell book. about david petraeus the title of course of that book was all and and as you can see here they put something different. not all in so it's baffling to me i've worked both here and in a lot of local news stations usually i'm sure it was somebody in the graphics department just messing around and yes something funny about how that aired is just crazy it is i mean and that's a breakdown in the in the whole production of the tour you know flow right there but i mean again that's really how can i put this is not really bad for the news outlet because it's generating more eyeballs on the show on the show and then there is a company or a website got more clicks that day exactly and people you know the twitter sphere explodes you see it repeated on facebook the picture just goes on instagram and everything you know doubles up on itself you know and it wasn't that serious i mean

you didn't have somebody you know of the hoaxes or somebody was so they were dead and they weren't or miss reporting a breaking news story where a lot of people have been killed or etc etc let me ask you this i mean you just mentioned twitter facebook instagram there's so many more what do you tell your students about this i mean especially in that first example we gave you know sort of the rush to get the information out there what's the lesson here i mean do you think maybe. people will you know mainstream media alice's large media stations will take a step back and say you know what maybe getting it first first ten seconds ahead of everybody else doesn't matter i don't know miller there but taking an exam on that right as we speak. we are not we are sneaking in to a little device to watch my answer but i mean the key is the preparation ahead of time the production research the editorial research all the chess pieces on the ground to be able to interpret the stuff accurately and quickly they have retrenched on that they have cut money from that they've cut you know in terms of

concept and philosophy it's now all let me get it first and let me fit it into. or narrative if you have fox you have that layer to the key is to have the right people on the ground to be able to report that stuff quickly no matter what the supreme court hasn't necessarily changed the way it writes decision because you know most of them are right that hasn't changed but if you have someone with a little more experience that actually knows what to look for knows what page to go to they're going to get scooped. a clerk in there who was tweeting and that's very unlikely so i mean again you have to get out of that mindset and understand you're subject to your subject i mean and that's all preparation which they don't do well it's already making me excited to see what we're going to be talking about next year. christopher chambers journalism professor at georgetown university good luck to your students taking their exam right. well capital account is up next on our team let's check in with lauren lister to see what's on the

agenda today hey there lauren so we did our top five list of the most influential people in angola merkel got one of them were you surprised no angela merkel's everywhere you look i actually used to joke that the financial times and wall street journal was probably getting a little sick of putting her on their front page maybe running out of photos i think you probably takes the cake for the most days of the year that she's been on the front page of the papers we're not talking about her today i'll leave that to you christine we're going to talk about municipal bonds ok this is how cities and states borrow in order to fund things like broke roads bridges schools and we heard in two thousand and ten from prominent analysts like meredith whitney that this was going to be where we saw disaster defaults they didn't exactly play out but we have seen places in california for example christine cities filed for bankruptcy so we're going to catch up with an analyst see where this market's going right sounds interesting as always thanks lauren and that's going to do it for us for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america or check

out our web site r t v dot com slash usa and of course you can follow me on twitter i'm christine. well into the church science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've gone to the future covered. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. wealthy british science. sometimes.

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