Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Michael Vick Case Draws Large Audience
Opinions about Media Coverage Show Sharp Racial Divide
Michael Vick's legal troubles attracted a large news audience last week, ranking as the public's most closely followed news story along with the devastating floods in the Midwest and the situation in Iraq.
One-in-four Americans said that they followed the Vick story very closely and 18% said it was the single news story they followed more closely than any other last week. The media, however, devoted far less coverage to the Vick story than to news about Iraq, the 2008 presidential campaign and weather-related stories.
Overall, the public believes Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, has been treated fairly by the press, but there is a sharp racial divide on this issue. While 69% of whites say the press has been fair in the way it has covered this story, only 38% of blacks agree. A narrow majority of blacks (51%) say Vick has been treated unfairly by the media.
In spite of these differences, blacks and whites agree that the Vick story has been over-covered. Roughly half of whites (49%) and 56% of blacks say news organizations are giving too much coverage to this story. Very few whites or blacks say the story has received too little coverage (5% and 13%). Nearly four-in-ten whites (38%) and 28% of blacks say the Vick story has received about the right amount of coverage.
Blacks have paid closer attention than whites to this story as it has evolved over the past month. In late July, 32% of blacks vs. 20% of whites followed allegations that Vick had been involved in illegal dog fighting very closely. Similarly, this past week, as Vick agreed to plead guilty to the federal charges leveled against him, 32% of blacks paid very close attention compared to 22% of whites. Fully 37% of blacks listed Vick's legal troubles as their most closely followed news story last week, making it by far the top news story of the week among blacks. For whites, the most closely followed stories were the floods in the Midwest and the situation in Iraq.
Americans are paying closer attention to Vick's legal problems than they did to allegations of sexual assault against NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. In the summer of 2003, 17% of the public followed the allegations against Bryant very closely. Mike Tyson's 1992 rape trial attracted more attention than either the Vick or Bryant stories – 32% of the public paid very close attention to that story.
These findings are based on the most recent installment of the weekly News Interest Index, an ongoing project of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.