We said goodbye to some extraordinary people this year.
- Arthur C. Clarke, si-fi writer, father of the communications satellite, permanent resident of Sri Lanka - 19, March, 2008
- Hal Riney, advertising man extraordinaire - 25 March, 2008
- Charleston Heston, of "Ten Commandments" and NRA fame - 5 April, 2008
- Tim Russert, journalist extraordinaire, of NBC's Meet The Press - 14 June, 2008
- Tony Snow, - former White House press secretary - 12 July, 2008
- Randy Pausch, best known for his Last Lecture - 25 July, 2008
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, former exile, and 1970 Nobel Prize winner - 3 August, 2008
- Harold Pinter, British playwright and 2005 winner of Nobel Prize for literature - 24 Dec, 2008
PR disasters and signs of the times
- Miley Cyrus' photo shoot with Annie Leibowitz, that was apparently misinterpreted!
- Scott McClellan's unconvincing tell-all book on his White House years.
- New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer busted in prostitution scandal
- Alaska Senator Ted Stevens found guilty of ethics violations
- Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich charged with corruption
- The Hollywood Writer's Strike ends
- Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona launches immigration busts.
- Sarah Palin flounders media interviews and blows her debut in serious politics
- Sarah Palin 'pranked' by two Canadian radio DJs, into believing she was speaking to French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
- Motrin ad featuring baby-as-fashion accessory got slammed by mommy bloggers.
- The Big Three car makers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, arrived in DC to ask for a bailout in their corporate jets. They were sent back and returned, driving hybrid vehicles. One even car-pooled. Honest!
- Iraq journalist throws his shoes at president George Bush, at a press conference in Baghdad.
- TechCrunch's Michael Arrington declares the "embargo' dead.
- The Guardian in London, declares Gillette ad featuring (Roger) Federer, (Tiger) Woods and (Thierry) Henry the worst ad in 2008.
Milestones:
- The 15th birthday of Hypertext - Tim Berners-Lee
- Barack Obama elected the 44th president of the U.S.
- The iPhone cuts its price, and adds a new model
- The New Yorker's controversial cover on the Obamas
- The 2008 Olympics in China
- Dipnote celebrates one year as a blog
- Blackberry introduces Storm, the answer to the iPhone
- ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm celebrates 25 years
- Saturday Night Live's YouTube skit on Sarah Palin
- Arizona governor, Janet Napolitano, picked to be new Sec. of Homeland Security
- Christian Science Monitor - shifts from daily to Weekly
- bizAZ Magazine folds due to downturn in economy
- The horrible Mumbai terrorist attacks, which now have a Wikipedia entry
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