Select default taxonomy on dropdown

Question

I have the following code for adding a dropdown box with a new taxonomy currently the default when I create a new post is None. Is there a way I can define a default, for example News.

function create_theme_taxonomy() {
    if (!taxonomy_exists('type')) {
        register_taxonomy( 'type', 'post', array( 'hierarchical' => false, 'label' => __('Article Type'), 'query_var' => 'type', 'rewrite' => true ));
    }
}

function add_type_box() {
    add_meta_box('type_box_ID', __('Article Type'), 'article_type', 'post', 'side', 'core');
    remove_meta_box('tagsdiv-type','post','core');
}   
function add_type_menus() {
    if ( ! is_admin() )
        return;
    add_action('admin_menu', 'add_type_box');
}
add_type_menus();

// This function gets called in edit-form-advanced.php
function article_type($post) {

    echo '<input type="hidden" name="taxonomy_noncename" id="taxonomy_noncename" value="' . 
            wp_create_nonce( 'taxonomy_type' ) . '" />';
    // Get all type taxonomy terms
    $types = get_terms('type', 'hide_empty=0'); 
?>
<select name='post_type' id='post_type'>
    <!-- Display types as options -->
    <?php 
        $names = wp_get_object_terms($post->ID, 'type'); 
        ?>
        <option class='type-option' value=''
        <?php if (!count($names)) echo "selected";?>>None</option>
        <?php
    foreach ($types as $type) {
        if (!is_wp_error($names) && !empty($names) && !strcmp($type->slug, $names[0]->slug)) 
            echo "<option class='type-option' value='" . $type->slug . "' selected>" . $type->name . "</option>\n"; 
        else
            echo "<option class='type-option' value='" . $type->slug . "'>" . $type->name . "</option>\n"; 
    }
   ?>
</select>    
<?php
}

Answer 1

This is the following new updated article_type function to make it work:

I have removed selected attribute from none option and added selected attribute to that terms having news slug.

// This function gets called in edit-form-advanced.php
function article_type($post) {

echo '<input type="hidden" name="taxonomy_noncename" id="taxonomy_noncename" value="' . 
        wp_create_nonce( 'taxonomy_type' ) . '" />';
// Get all type taxonomy terms
$types = get_terms('type', 'hide_empty=0'); 
?>
<select name='post_type' id='post_type'>
<!-- Display types as options -->
<?php 
    $names = wp_get_object_terms($post->ID, 'type');         
    ?>
    <option class='type-option' value=''>None</option>
    <?php
foreach ($types as $type) {
    if (!is_wp_error($names) && !empty($names) && !strcmp($type->slug, $names[0]->slug)) 
        echo "<option class='type-option' value='" . $type->slug . "' selected>" . $type->name . "</option>\n"; 
    else if(!strcmp($type->slug, 'news'))
         echo "<option class='type-option' value='" . $type->slug . "' selected>" . $type->name . "</option>\n";
    else
        echo "<option class='type-option' value='" . $type->slug . "'>" . $type->name . "</option>\n"; 
}
?>
</select>    
<?php
}