The top 5 feuds of 2010

What's a year without a few good feuds? Here at The Lookout, we try to stay firmly grounded in the substance of debates, but sometimes it's fun to get down in the mud a bit. Here's a look at five important, silly, and/or ugly fights we covered this past year.

1. Angry homeowners vs. Bank of America

Zachary Roth describes the plight of one Arizona family who entered a purgatory of confusion, delays, and stonewalling when they tried to modify their home loan with Countrywide, now Bank of America. The attorneys general for Nevada and Arizona are speaking up on behalf of the states' families, accusing the bank of "widespread fraud" and deliberately misleading borrowers about the terms of their loans. In a new twist, more homeowners are suing Bank of America and JP Morgan for illegal breaking and entering, alleging that the banks wrongly foreclosed on their homes and then entered and had the locks changed and electricity shut off.

2. Tony Hayward vs. Tony Hayward

Yes, we realize it's tough to be the public face of a seemingly unstoppable environmental disaster that is ruining lives and livelihoods, but could BP's Tony Hayward have been much worse last summer? Hayward sparked outrage when he told a CNN reporter "I'd like my life back," at the height of the spill disaster. Another BP representative helpfully chimed in over complaints about ruined seafood with "Louisiana isn't the only place that has shrimp."

[Related: Biggest media scandals of 2010]

BP then ran a series of apology ads on American TV channels, but the damage had been done. Hayward maintained he handled the situation well. "I became a villain for doing the right thing," he told the Wall Street Journal. "But I understand that people find it easier to vilify an individual more than a company."

3. Hooters vs. The National Organization for Women

The National Organization for Women started a media blitz against busty food chain Hooters in December, complaining to authorities that the franchise's restaurants in California are breaking state law by serving minors. Hooters calls itself an adult business that provides "vicarious sexual entertainment" in order to skirt equal opportunity employment laws, NOW's complaint said. Hooter can thus hire attractive and young women without fearing lawsuits, but that means, under law, that the chain should also forgo the right to serve minors. Instead, NOW claims, they lure them in with special kid-themed gear and specials.

A company vice president shot back, saying NOW's complaint was only boosting their business. "Hooters Girls are sexy and vivacious. The element of sex appeal is certainly prevalent in our restaurants, and is the essence of the Hooters experience, but the Hooters brand of sex appeal is wholesome and that of the all-American cheerleader, not a seedy strip club," said Mike McNeil. "It is time for NOW to accept the fact that the public likes Hooters and there is really nothing they can do about it." Harumph.

[Related: Top five political gaffes of the year]

4. Nicky Diaz vs. Meg Whitman

In perhaps the biggest late-breaking surprise of this election season, tearful domestic worker Nicky Diaz accused her former employer and big-spending gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman of treating her like "garbage." Diaz, flanked by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, said at a press conference that Whitman and her husband knew she was in the country illegally but continued to employ her as their housekeeper anyway. When she asked for help gaining legal status, she said Whitman told her: "From now on you don't know me and I don't know you. You never have seen me and I have never seen you. Do you understand me?"

Before the September surprise, the former Ebay CEO was in a dead heat with incoming Gov. Jerry Brown, but soon after the accusations she slid in the polls, especially among Latinos. Diaz was eventually awarded $5500 from Whitman in back wages, and Whitman lost her bid for governor after breaking the personal campaign spending record of any political candidate.

[Related: Minimum wage workers get pay raise in 2011]

5. Fox News vs. The White House

This year, sparks flew between the usually calm president and cable's most popular news network. Pundit Glenn Beck ratcheted up the war when he called Obama a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or white culture." On the official White House blog, an employee shot back that the network "continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration's efforts." Earlier, Obama openly shunned Fox News when he appeared in an interview on every other cable news show in a PR blitz on behalf of health care reform.

And it doesn't look like they'll kiss and make up any time soon. In September, he called the network "destructive" to America. Last month, Fox News chief Roger Ailes said Obama had a different belief system from most Americans and was "too far left" for the French and Germans.

(Nicky Diaz: AP)

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