tamatoledonews.com – Utica, NY – (SPECIAL) A new Zogby Interactive poll finds that the “balloon boy” hoax and the breakup of reality television stars Jon and Kate Gosselin are practically tied for top honors as the most ridiculous news story of 2009. The “balloon boy” hoax was named as most ridiculous by 23% of Americans and the Jon & Kate break-up by 22%. Rounding out the most ridiculous stories of 2009 is Octomom giving birth to eight babies, rated as most ridiculous by 12% of adults and also the debate over the validity of President Obama’s citizenship and birth certificate, named as the most ridiculous story by 11% of adults.

Republicans were especially incensed by “balloon boy”, with 29% of Republicans naming this story as the most ridiculous. Democrats were more likely to feel the validity of President Obama’s citizenship and birth certificate was absurd, with 23% of Democrats naming this as the most ridiculous news story of 2009.

In legitimate news, politics dominated the most significant stories of 2009. Americans said Barack Obama’s inauguration as the United States’ 44th president was the most significant story of the year, with 44% selecting it as the year’s most newsworthy event. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats rated this the most significant story of ’09 compared to only 23% of Republicans and 35% of independents. The debate over healthcare reform legislation came in second with 27% of adults saying it was most significant. Forty percent of Republicans rated this the top story compared to 17% of Democrats.

This interactive survey of 2,841 adults was conducted December 28-30,2009. A sampling of Zogby International’s online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the US, was invited to participate.   Slight weights were added to region, party, age, race, religion, gender, education to more accurately reflect the population. The margin of error is +/- 1.9 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.