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Helen Branswell, medical writer for the Canadian Press, has been providing some of the best and most authoritative reporting on pandemic issues for years. So it is fitting that she brings us this story tonight that news editors in Canada have selected the H1N1 pandemic as the biggest news story of the year.
H1N1 flu virus voted top news story of 2009 in Canadian Press survey
By Helen Branswell (CP) – 3 hours ago
TORONTO — An influenza virus that scientists believe migrated from pigs to people before touching off a global pandemic was the runaway selection for the top Canadian news story of 2009.
The H1N1 virus was chosen by 70 per cent of the newspaper editors and broadcast news directors in the annual year-end survey of newsrooms conducted by The Canadian Press.
"There isn't a Canadian out there who isn't affected by or interested in the virus and how it may affect their families," said Sandy Heimlich-Hall, assistant news director at CFJC-TV in Kamloops, B.C.
"It was a coast-to-coast story that people followed with interest no matter where they lived in Canada," agreed Lesley Sheppard, managing editor of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald, in Moose Jaw, Sask.
H1N1, also known as swine flu, was the runaway pick as the issue that made the most headlines over the last year. The inquiry into the tragic death of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being Tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport, came a distant second with just nine per cent of the vote.
For better or worse, the first flu pandemic of the 21st century was the story on the minds of the nation's editors. A number, though, felt it received more play than it deserved.
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