nytimes.com: Most popular news stories of 2004

From "@NYTimes," here are the ten most viewed stories of 2004 at nytimes.com:

1. Magazine: The Girls Next Door
By PETER LANDESMAN, Published January 25, 2004
The sex-trafficking trade may begin in Eastern Europe and wend its way through Mexico, but it lands in the suburbs and cities of America, where perhaps tens of thousands are held captive and pimped out for forced sex.

2. Magazine: Without a Doubt
By RON SUSKIND, Published October 17, 2004
What makes Bush's presidency so radical -- even to some Republicans -- is his preternatural, faith-infused certainty in uncertain times.

3. Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad
By KATE ZERNIKE and JIM RUTENBERG, Published August 20, 2004
An ad questioning John Kerry's war record sprang from an alliance between Texas Republicans and veterans angry about Mr. Kerry's criticism of the Vietnam War.

4. Movie Review: 'Fahrenheit 9/11': Unruly Scorn Leaves Room for Restraint, but Not a Lot
By A. O. SCOTT, Published June 23, 2004
While Michael Moore's documentary about the Bush administration has been likened to an op-ed column, it might more accurately be said to resemble an editorial cartoon.

5. Frank Rich: On 'Moral Values,' It's Blue in a Landslide
Published November 14, 2004
There's only one problem with the storyline proclaiming that the country swung to the right on cultural issues in 2004. It is fiction.

6. Iraq Videotape Shows the Decapitation of an American
By DEXTER FILKINS, Published May 12, 2004
The killers called the decapitation revenge for the American mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

7. How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence
By DAVID BARSTOW, WILLIAM J. BROAD and JEFF GERTH, Published
October 3, 2004
The Bush administration was made aware as early as 2001 that the aluminum tubes used as critical evidence against Iraq were most likely not for nuclear weapons.

8. Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER,
Published October 25, 2004
The Iraqi interim government has warned that nearly 380 tons of the world's most powerful conventional explosives are missing from a former military installation.

9. Editorial: John Kerry for President
Published October 17, 2004
John Kerry has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive and we enthusiastically endorse him for president.

10. How Scientists and Victims Watched Helplessly
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, Published December 31, 2004
The magnitude of the tsunami that killed tens of thousands and remade the coasts of the Asian subcontinent was slowly gauged across the world.

Some hard news in the mix, but for the most part the political stuff is just a festival of spin and self-delusion. No wonder Times readers felt so blindsided and angry when Bush won.