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Project for Excellence in Journalism
Beltway Realignment -- and a Shocking Interruption
At least until the shocking weekend shooting of an Arizona congresswoman dramatically altered the narrative, the prospects of political conflict from a new Congress and changes in the White House dominated last week's news agenda.
For the week of Jan. 3-9, coverage of the 112th Congress -- now with a GOP-led House -- as well incoming officeholders around the country filled 21% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence.
One related subject (the No. 3 story at 8%) involved changes in the Obama administration, most notably the naming of former Commerce Secretary William Daley as chief of staff. Another (No. 4 at 7%) was the health care debate, with most of the coverage focused on now-postponed Republican plans to introduce a bill to repeal last year's health care reform law.
Taken together, coverage devoted largely to the political realignment in the wake of the Nov. 2 elections accounted for more than one-third (36%) of the overall newshole last week.
But the political world, along with the rest of the country, was rocked by the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson that killed six people, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, and critically wounded Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The first hour of coverage included conflicting reports with a number of news organizations erroneously reporting that Rep. Giffords had died (see "In the Wake of a Shooting, Media Confusion" at journalism.org for more).
The tragedy occurred too late in the week to register as a top story in PEJ's News Coverage Index, accounting for 1% of the coverage examined. But a rapidly developing storyline examined whether it would serve to moderate the angry and polarizing rhetoric surrounding public policy issues. In that respect, the Tucson rampage altered a narrative that, for much of the week, had focused on the prospect of heightened tensions and partisanship between a Democratic president and a Republican House.
Indeed, one of the events expected to trigger such a clash, the scheduling of a Jan. 12 House vote to repeal the health care bill, was delayed in the wake of the Arizona carnage.
The week's No. 2 story, at 10% of the newshole, was coverage of the economy, which ranged in subject from new unemployment numbers and grim state finances to the debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling. Rounding out the top five list, (No. 5 at 4%) was the fallout from the controversial videos made by Navy Capt. Owen Honors, who was relieved of command last week.