Can I nominate Consumerist's equine defiling, corpse budgeoning coverage of Walmart's stupid t-shirt story?

It has to be the Vincent Ferrari AOL call. It really got the ball rolling on recording CS mistakes and making them public. The media coverage it got alone is enough to make it #1. It really showed what one man, or one site, can do.

BoA's troubador. I know it's recent, but it was in such bad taste that I don't think many of us will forget it soon.

It's not really a company but the Veterans Administration's compromise of 26 million American Vets' SSNs was a biggie for me at least

On the whole? Or reported here?
OTW: I agree with ECD-- any time almost 9% of the population is effected it's huge.
Reported here: Vinny, hands down. It helped the site get on Nightline and 20/20.

Microsoft for the DRM-heavy Zune - Soon to be the biggest holiday release flop since "E.T. The Video Game". Someone in New Mexico should start digging a very big hole.

My Top Three...
Management at Ford
AOL guy is Huge
The music industry general treatment of customers as villians. etc. etc.

I'd have to nominate Sony and their wacky rootkit scheme. Enrage your customers *and* get sued.

KornKob: You could nominate that one, but it would only point to Wal-Mart's failure in being active in removing the shirts. Consumerist wouldn't report on them as much if they just disappeared.

Pelagius: The iPod lovers would love to see the Zune crash and burn, but Microsoft is software first, hardware second. They already have a firmware update for the Zune. They'll improve the Zune by updating the software.
(But they should've sold a larger capacity unit at the same price to really be competitive. But that kind of outlook is only used in the Gaming Console industry)
The hole that you speak of could very well be filled with iPods that aren't acting pleasant with the new iTunes update.

With their rootkit scheme, the pricing and launch of the PS3, and their participation in the whole Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war, I think Sony deserves at least a few mentions on such a list.

Everything involving the PS3. Add to what MonkeyMonk said the problems with 1080i.

#1 by far:

Walmart getting rid of layaway!!!

HD-DVD and Blu Ray.

I would like to nominate the Zune but we will not be seeing the repercussions until next year, so I go with AOL.

The Bausch and Lomb MoistureLoc boondoggle. They could have done what Tylenol did and earned a ton of goodwill, and they had a PR nightmare over what was bascially a non-issue.

I was inclined to nominate the Sony Rootkit Fiasco as well, except I checked the time-line and it happened in November 2005.

Sony deserves a handful of nominations, but I'd give them first place just for their expoding batteries.

Bausch & Lomb, MouistureLoc -- for physically endangering customers and seeming not to care.

And AOL -- especially for releasing all that user data.

Oh, yeah...
I forgot about the Dell, iMac, Vaio, AND ALMOST EVERY OTHER LAPTOP ON EARTH MADE IN THE PAST 3 YEARS battery being a fire hazard.

Sony should get #1. I'm with Phrygian.

Vincent Ferrari/AOL

Sony: rushing PS3 to market, existing

Wisconsin Wal-Mart deciding on a "promotional" foot-race as the best solution to allocate PS3s, and the dislocated jaw that ensued

I can't believe that nobody has yet mentioned how AOL released hundreds of thousands of people's search terms, including such gems as "How to kill wife," and "Poop."

Hmm, good points are being made about the *impressive* body of work Sony has put together this year...can there be two categories? Kinda like record of the year and song of the year?

I know this is a pretty American Centric website, but the biggest stuff up in Australia has got to be the AWB (Australina Wheat Board) and the Oil for Food f*ck up.

But seriously I would like to nominate Microsoft for the Zune, Internet Exploder 7, and the nightmare known as Vista.

Or maybe just The RIAA & MPAA for just about everything including illegal business tactics.

(Can I nominate Gawker for killing off Sploid? J/K)

Can the Republican Party be nominated?

We have to pick just one?

Well, count me out, there's too damn many.

2006 being the year that HD movies made their debut, it seems appropriate to nominate both HD formats as the screwup(s) of the year. Not only do format wars waste our time and money, but both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are designed with complete subjugation to the content industry in mind. It's a lose-lose situation for consumers.