Project for Excellence in Journalism

Weiner Scandal Tops the News

by Mark Jurkowitz, Associate Director, Project for Excellence in Journalism
June 14, 2011

The scandal that launched 1,000 puns -- Rep. Anthony Weiner's online exchange of explicit messages and images with a number of women -- topped the news last week, registering as one of the biggest political scandal stories of the past four years.

From June 6-12, the saga accounted for 17% of the newshole measured by the News Coverage Index of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

That makes the Weiner saga the fourth-most covered scandal involving elected officials since PEJ began tracking news in January 2007.

The biggest political scandal of the last four and a half years was former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's corruption case (28%) -- also known as "Blago-gate" -- in which he allegedly tried to sell President Barack Obama's former senate seat. No 2 was former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's admission that he used prostitutes (23%), followed quickly by his resignation from that office. News of former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's arrest for lewd behavior in an airport was the No. 3 scandal, at 18%. Craig ultimately pled guilty to lesser charges.

For the week, Weiner was easily the dominant newsmaker, appearing prominently in 13% of the week's stories studied by PEJ -- nearly tripling the coverage devoted to President Obama (5%).

The week's No. 2 story was the economy (11% of the newshole) although coverage slipped markedly from the previous week (19%) when gloomy reports about the jobs and housing markets fueled the news. Last week, a mix of storylines contributed to the economic narrative.

The economy was followed closely by the continuing upheaval in the Middle East (11%). A big part of the story last week was the chaos in both Syria and Yemen, including reports that U.S. has become increasingly involved, targeting airstrikes at militants in the latter country.

Coverage of the presidential campaign dropped last week, filling 8% of the newshole compared with 12% the previous week. Last week's coverage included former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's entry into the GOP field and the mass defections of staffers from Newt Gingrich's troubled campaign. A related political story -- the release of about 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin emails from her time as Alaska governor -- filled another 3%.

The No. 5 subject, at 4%, was the raging Arizona wildfires that consumed an estimated half million acres in the eastern part of the state. The blazes were the latest in a series of natural and weather disasters that have proved to be major newsmakers in 2011.

Learn more about these stories by reading the full report at journalism.org.