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Project for Excellence in Journalism
Top of the News: Politics, War, and a Crucial Speech
PEJ News Coverage Index: Jan. 21-26, 2007
Three deeply intertwined subjects -- the debate over U.S. strategy in Iraq, the speech defending that strategy, and the emerging campaign to succeed that speech's author -- finished in a virtual tie for the top story in the news last week according to PEJ's News Coverage Index.
Together the three stories made up nearly 40% of the newshole in our Index of the news from January 21 to 26, seeming to reflect the growing convergence between the Iraq war and U.S. politics with a presidential election now visible on the distant horizon.
One other not-so-subliminal message in last week's coverage is that of an increasingly dangerous and destabilizing world. Aside from Iraq, the top-10 stories last week included violent protests in Lebanon, escalating conflict in Afghanistan, and rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran. This marked the first time that four global hotspots made the Index's top-10 list this year.
The Iraq policy debate, a dominant story all year, built momentum throughout the week. The coverage, totaling 13% of the newshole, was driven last week by a series of events -- including a Senate committee resolution rebuking the president, the confirmation of Lt. Gen. David Petraeus as top Iraq commander, and Dick Cheney's CNN comment characterizing the naysaying on Iraq as "hogwash."
Media attention to the January 23 State of the Union address (also 13% of the newshole), by contrast, waned as the week wore on.
So did the coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign (also 13% of the newshole). That story -- the fifth biggest the week before -- was fueled early on by Hillary Clinton's media blitz, which included a series of network interviews. The media practically ignored the Republican challengers last week, even though two of them, Sam Brownback and Duncan Hunter, announced their entrance into the race.
The continuing bloodshed in Iraq -- led by a lethal attack on U.S. troops by militants disguised as Americans -- was the fourth most covered story (at 9%). And "Scooter" Libby's obstruction and perjury trial finished fifth (3%), the media focusing largely on his lawyer's claim that Libby was being sacrificed to protect White House political guru Karl Rove.
For further analysis of the week's news coverage by media sector see journalism.org.
PEJ's News Coverage Index, released every Tuesday, is an ongoing study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the American media. (See a List of Outlets.) The Index is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are and aren't covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. We believe it is the largest continuing study of the media agenda ever attempted.