2012 Newsmakers: Who Will Be in the Headlines, and Who Should Be Out?

COMMENTARY | 2011 was filled with headlines about reality television star Kim Kardashian, the infamous Casey Anthony, the death of Osama bin Laden, the devastating Japan earthquake, and lots of entertaining and embarrassing gaffes by some now well-known politicians. Do you remember when former congressman Anthony Weiner resigned? That's a moment that neither he, nor most of the nation, will likely ever forget.

2012 will likely see Weiner fade off into obscurity, or at least one would hope, and there are several other newsmakers of 2011 that I'd like to see go the same route. The first has got to be Kim Kardashian. The reality television star and socialite is famous for nothing in particular at all. In fact, as far as I can see she has no real talent to speak of. Yet she's was one of the biggest newsmakers of the last year.

Kardashian famously married NBA player Kris Humphries in a lavish wedding said to cost upward of $10 million on August 20, 2011. On October 31, she filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences." Television viewers are so tired of seeing the 31-year-old celebrity that a petition was started collecting thousands of signatures to get her and her family off TV. It doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon, but in a fantasy world she would no longer been seen nor heard from in 2012.

Many of us would like to see fewer celebrities and less bad news in the headlines, but that is probably just another pipe dream.

The 84-year-old Seattle woman, Dorli Rainey who made headlines after she was pepper-sprayed at an Occupy rally is someone I'd like to see more of in 2012. The inspirational protester has a long history of activism and during an interview with Keith Olbermann she remarked, "Whatever you do, take one more step out of your comfort zone ... it's so easy to say, 'Well, I'm going to retire, I'm going to sit around and watch television or eat bon-bons ... but somebody's got to keep them awake."

Can you imagine what the world would be like if more people were like Ms. Rainey?

I would love to see more ordinary, yet extraordinary, people in the headlines in 2012. The 100-year-old marathon runner comes to mind, as well as the "layaway angels," who paid off the layaway accounts at Kmart stores across the nation so that struggling families would have Christmas gifts for their children.

My hope is that by the end of 2012, the positive newsmakers will outweigh whatever negative we have in store over the next 12 months.