News IndexFor most of those nearly five months, the debate has followed a basic story line—a White House intent on beefing up the U.S. military presence in Iraq versus a new Congress led by Democrats trying to wind down the military role there. Last week, that Iraq policy debate was again the biggest story in the news, accounting for 10% of all coverage from May 20-25, according to PEJ’s Index. The key event was a May 24 Congressional vote that funded the war but did not include troop withdrawal timelines. For much of those five months, coverage has frequently depicted a beleaguered President battling against Democrats, public opinion and even some members of his own party. But last week the coverage generally portrayed him as a clear winner in the tug of war. Many accounts stressed that it could be a temporary victory in a battle to be rejoined when General David Petraeus issues his September status report on Iraq. But for now, the verdict was clear. “Congress Bows to Bush, OKs Iraq Funds” was the headline on the Associated Press story about the vote. On ABC’s “World News Tonight” George Stephanopoulos reported that the President had earned a “victory” in the funding battle while “Democrats were denied their top goal, a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.” Subbing for Anderson Cooper, CNN’s John King summed things up while the caption on the screen read: “Democrats Cave.’’ “The game of political chicken seems to be ending,” said King. “Democrats in Congress who say they were elected to bring the troops home didn’t have the votes to do it.” Bush’s political victory was just one element in a week in which the war in Iraq, the roiling Middle East, and the war against terror more generally dominated news coverage. In all, nine of the top ten biggest stories last week had some Middle East or terror connection. Some of these were quite direct. Aside from the policy debate, the third biggest story was events inside Iraq (9% overall, and the top story in newspapers and online) where the re-appearance of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr was a major development. The Lebanese Army’s battle with radical Islamists at a refugee camp was the fourth biggest story at 6%. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran was the eighth biggest story at 3% and the impact of the Iraq war at home finished tenth at 2%. Three other top-10 stories had some, but less direct, connection with the Middle East and terrorism. That includes immigration (second biggest at 10%) where problems with border enforcement have raised the specter of terrorist threats. Last week’s coverage of the 2008 presidential race (fifth at 6%) included reports on how various candidates voted on the Iraq funding bill. And rising gas prices (sixth at 4%) are related to our need for Middle East oil. The ninth biggest story (2%)—a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey of Muslim Americans—found that a majority were assimilated and satisfied with their lives. But it also made news by registering Muslims’ significant level of concern about how the U.S. is conducting the war on terror. Only one top-10 story —the investigation into the fired U.S. attorneys (seventh at 4%) marked by the Congressional testimony of former Justice Department official Monica Goodling —was strictly a domestic issue that was not tied in the coverage to events in the Mideast. PEJ’s News Coverage Index is a study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the media. (See a List of Outlets.) It is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. (See Our Methodology.) For the second straight week, the debate over immigration policy was a major story, one triggered by the May 17 announcement of a Senate agreement on a compromise bill. In some ways, opponents of the compromise appear to be considerably more passionate and engaged than supporters. That may explain why the two media sectors that provided the greatest percentage of coverage last week (cable at 14% and radio at 22%) are home to talk media hosts—such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and talk radio’s Rush Limbaugh—who have been hammering away at the bill on a regular basis. After the Republican candidates dominated coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign the week of May 13-18, things returned to the more typical pattern last week. The Democratic contenders received more than twice as much coverage as their GOP rivals. A number of events—including Bill Richardson’s official announcement and Michelle Obama’s statement that she is her husband’s “wife,” not his chief advsior—helped drive the coverage. So, too, did two new books about the candidate who, thus far, has attracted the most media attention—“A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton” by Carl Bernstein and “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton” by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. In a report on the May 25 edition of PBS’s “NewsHour,” Chris Cillizza, of Washingtonpost.com, described the impact of the new books as “a lot of pebbles hitting the Clinton campaign” but “no boulder falling on it.” Still, the reports of a pact in which both Bill and Hillary Clinton planned to be president for two terms and the details of a marriage under extreme stress generated heavy media coverage. On the Republican side, one story line was John McCain’s heated exchange with fellow Republican Senator John Cornyn over immigration that resurrected old questions about the Arizona Senator’s temper. (McCain is a supporter of the immigration bill and Cornyn is not.) Also two of the top-10 stories last week ended up, at least in part, being referenda on the news media themselves. The first involved heightened tension between the U.S. and Iran. (This is before the lengthy May 28 meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials over the situation in Iraq.) In the opening moments of ABC’s May 22 newscast, anchor Charlie Gibson announced that the network had developed an exclusive story revealing that the President had “authorize[d] the CIA to carry out covert operations against Iran’s government.” The report, by investigative correspondent Brian Ross, indicated that the White House had approved several secret initiatives—including propaganda and media campaigns—designed to “destabilize the Iranian regime.” Some of the subsequent coverage focused on whether ABC was wrong to reveal this secret plot against Iran. On May 23, Dan Abrams, sitting in for MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, hosted a spirited debate on the issue of journalistic freedom versus government secrecy. Several Republican presidential hopefuls made news by criticizing the network, including former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who stated that he “was shocked to see the ABC News report….The reporting has the potential of jeopardizing our national security.” Another spirited outbreak of media criticism occurred over the reporting of the Pew Research Center’s Muslim American survey. Seizing on the report headline, “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” and the 71% of Muslim Americans who believe people can get ahead in the U.S. if they work hard, a number of outlets played up some of the positive aspects of the survey. The USA Today May 23 front-page headline read “American Muslims reject extremes” while the Minneapolis Star Tribune used the headline “U.S. Muslims ‘largely assimilated, happy.’” But that provoked the ire of some conservative commentators who accused the media of downplaying such findings as the 26% of Muslim Americans under 30 who said suicide bombing was “often,” “sometimes” or “rarely” justified. “If you get past the biased press coverage and the headlines,” asserted radio talk host Rush Limbaugh, “it is clear that America has not moderated Islam or its adherents.’’ Filling in as guest on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel show, former Ohio Congressman John Kasich blamed the media for focusing on the upbeat. He pointed out that the journalists don’t tend to write stories “where it says ‘Boy Scout helped a woman cross [the] street.’” “There’s a big story here, which is 26% of young Muslims say that suicide bombing is justified,” Kasich asserted. Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Note: Due to technical errors, CBS's The Early Show from Thursday, May 24, and CBS radio news headlines from Monday morning, Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning were not included in this week's sample.The ink had barely dried on the May 17 White House and Senate agreement on a major immigration bill when the talk show universe responded with a roar of disapproval. CNN’s Lou Dobbs, an advocate of tougher immigration enforcement, criticized the “apparent mindlessness associated with this compromise” and attacked the legislative process. “People have to be aghast that U.S. Senators would not even read the legislation that they are moving forward to a vote,” he declared. On his MSNBC show, conservative Joe Scarborough seemed equally unhappy with the measure. “The America you once knew may soon change forever,” he warned his viewers. The bill “sounds nice,” he added. “But it is amnesty.” On talk radio, conservative critics such as Sean Hannity and Michael Savage were even less restrained. Hannity paraphrased former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s thoughts on the matter, arguing that “you cannot begin your career or your life as an American by first breaking the law…The American people have had it with this, had it with lawbreakers.” Savage, his voice rising in anger, charged: “We don’t want to negotiate away America…We’re not giving away the sovereignty of America. This is the Alamo right now!” Overall, the immigration debate was the second most popular topic for the week of May13--18, filling 19% of the airtime on the cable and radio talk shows according to PEJ’s Talk Show Index. And the hosts’ response was a clear illustration of the talkers’ unique role in the news landscape. Not only did the talk hosts who weighed in on the subject vigorously exercise their right to opine—rather than report—on the news. But virtually the only voices raised were those of the harsh critics of a bill that lawmakers praised as the height of compromise, something with elements objectionable to those on the left and right. The talk show hosts, however, are under no obligation to reflect broader public opinion. A May 25 New York Times story reported on a new poll indicating that a majority of Americans supported key provisions in the immigration measure. As is often the case in the talk culture, the cable and radio hosts chose several leading news stories of the week and magnified them. The immigration debate that filled 19% of the talk airtime accounted for roughly half that, 9%, of the coverage in the general News Index. The leading talk topic from May 13--18, the 2008 Presidential race, filled 24% of the talk newshole while it accounted for 10% of the general news coverage that week. After the presidential race and the immigration debate, the other major talk subjects were the Iraq policy debate (third at 7%) and the death of Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell (fifth at 4%). Two related stories finished fourth and sixth, respectively, on the talk list. One (at 4%) was former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s dramatic Congressional testimony about Alberto Gonzales’s sickbed visit to then Attorney General John Ashcroft to get him to recertify the administration’s warrantless wiretap program. The other (at 3%) was the continuing fallout over the investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Put them both together and they account for 7% of the talk air time and may add up to more potential trouble for the embattled Gonzales. The Talk Show Index, released each week, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion—a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index.) PEJ’s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index. The leading talk story of the week, the 2008 race for the White House, was overwhelmingly a cable talk phenomenon (about 123 minutes) rather than a hot talk radio subject (about 28 minutes). And while Republican candidates dominated the conversation by about a 3-1 margin over Democrats, thanks in large measure to the May 15 GOP debate, the sense that the field may not yet be settled seems to hover over the discussion. During a debate-post mortem on his May 16 MSNBC show, Tucker Carlson wondered whether Republicans are “still waiting, desperately hoping for some fresh blood in the form, say, of Fred Thompson, Newt Gingrich, maybe even New York City Mayor and multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg.” In a sure sign of his qualms with the field, Michael Savage informed listeners on May 15 that more than 11 million people have visited his web site and encouraged him to run for President in 2008. In the talk host’s words, the message from the public was: “Savage, leave radio in a year and run against the phonies.” The death of Jerry Falwell, who was both a powerful and polarizing figure in religion and politics, might have seemed tailor-made for the talk culture. But only a handful of hosts talked about him, and there did not appear to be much appetite to use his death to re-ignite the culture wars. The Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly gave it something of a try on his May 16 show, when he attacked “the far left” and the media for critical comments made about Falwell after his death. “Within hours of his demise, the far-left hate machine cranked up,” said O’Reilly. “There’s such a thing as decency.” At the same time, O’Reilly acknowledged that “Jerry Falwell was, at times, intolerant himself…I disagreed with him on many issues.” That kind of ambivalence may have prevented Falwell from being a bigger talk subject. He didn’t lend himself to a simple perspective. One subject that attracted primarily liberal hosts such as MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and radio talkers Ed Schultz and Randi Rhodes was the continuing controversy over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Two stories—the investigation into the fired U.S. Attorneys and James Comey’s testimony—were directly connected to the Justice Department and Gonzales’s future there. On his May 15 show, Schultz could barely contain his glee as he talked about the turmoil at the department and the departure of some top-ranking Justice officials (although not yet Gonzales). “I’m not sure if we’re getting justice or not,” he told his listeners. “But we’re attempting to over at the department—as they continue to drop like flies.” Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ
Top Ten Stories in the Talk Show Index 3. Iraq Policy Debate - 7% 4. James Comey Testimony - 4% 5. Jerry Falwell's Death - 4% 6. Fired US Attorneys - 3% 7. Events in Iraq - 2% 8. General White House Scandals - 1% 9. Iraq Homefront - 1% 10. Israeli/Palestinian Conflict - 1% Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index 1. Events in Iraq - 10% 2. 2008 Campaign - 10% 3. Immigration - 9%4. Jerry Falwell's Death - 6% 5. Iraq Policy Debate - 5% 6. Paul Wolfowitz Scandal - 4% 7. Chrysler Sold - 3% 8. James Comey Testimony - 3% 9. Israeli/Palestinian Conflict - 2% 10. Gas/Oil Prices - 2% Click here to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index.
Even with all the bloodshed in Iraq, the “honor killing” report on the May 17 edition of CNN’s “Situation Room” stood out as a particularly grim episode. As the photo of an attractive 17-year-old Iraqi girl appeared on the screen, anchor Wolf Blitzer warned viewers that “some of the images you’re about to see will be very, very disturbing.” What followed was grainy but clearly visible cell phone video of the young woman being kicked and stoned to death by a frantic mob for the sin of spending time with a young man of a different religious background. The final image showed her lying face down on the ground, her apparently lifeless body surrounded by a pool of blood.The violence did not end there. According to CNN correspondent Brian Todd, a group of militants later retaliated for the girl’s killing by slaughtering two dozen people. Last week was one of the rare times this year when events inside Iraq generated more news coverage than the Washington-based policy debate over the war. And it marked the first time in 2007 that the bloodshed in Iraq—which filled 10% of the overall newshole—was the biggest story of the week, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index for the period from May 13—May 18. As horrific as the honor killing story was—and as much as it says about the sectarian divisions plaguing that country—it was only a very small part of last week’s coverage of the situation in Iraq. The topic that dominated reporting inside Iraq was the continuing search for three missing U.S. soldiers who were taken, reportedly by Al Qaeda, during a May 12 ambush. More than half the stories about events inside Iraq last week were devoted largely to the hunt for the three missing Americans.Also contributing to coverage of the situation in Iraq was the news that Britain’s Prince Harry would not be headed to the war zone because of fears he would be exposed to an unacceptable threat level. Two weeks ago—fueled by the news that some GOP legislators had bluntly informed President Bush of their concerns about the war—the Iraq policy debate was the dominant story, filling 14% of the newshole. Last week, it fell to the fifth biggest story, generating only 5% of the overall news coverage.After events inside Iraq—which led the online and network news sectors—the second biggest story of the week (also at 10%) was coverage of the already crowded 2008 Presidential race. Next was the debate over immigration, which attracted its highest level of attention for the year (9%). That was thanks primarily to the announcement that the Senate and White House had reached agreement on a compromise proposal. Three other top 10 stories last week were not directly about politics, but they all had significant political implications.The death of Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell (fourth biggest story at 6%) triggered a lively debate about his role in making conservative Christians a core element of the Republican Party. The resignation of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz (sixth biggest story at 4%) was ostensibly about a conflict of interest involving a pay raise for his girlfriend. But the backdrop to the resignation drama, and a likely source of resentment against him, was Wolfowitz’s role as an intellectual architect of the war with Iraq. And last week’s dramatic Congressional testimony by former deputy attorney general James Comey was the eighth biggest story at 3%. Comey testified about how, in 2004, then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales went to the hospital room of a seriously ill Attorney General John Ashcroft to try and seek recertification oft the administration’s controversial warantless wiretapping program.If there had been a growing sense that the beleaguered Gonzales—with the backing of President Bush—would likely survive the probe into the firing of the eight U.S. attorneys, Comey’s recollection of the sickbed incident seemed to create new doubts about the Attorney General’s job security. PEJ’s News Coverage Index is a study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the media. (See a List of Outlets.) It is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. (See Our Methodology.) The 2008 battle for the White House was the biggest story last week in the newspaper (8%) and cable news (17%) sectors. And a good deal of the coverage was of the South Carolina Republican debate, with a number of post-mortems offering the view that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani rebounded well from a shaky performance in the May 3 California Republican debate. But there was another reason why stories about GOP presidential hopefuls outnumbered stories about the Democratic candidates by almost 3-1 last week. One emerging theme in the Republican race is a sense of doubt about the 10-man field as currently constituted and speculation about whether other contenders— from former senator and actor Fred Thompson to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg—might step into the fray. (Democrats were not immune to this kind of speculation either. Time magazine’s cover story, “The Last Temptation of Al Gore,” examines the idea of the former vice president entering the presidential field.) On the May 15 “Today Show,” correspondent Kelly O’Donnell talked about the “flirt factor” with a number of players—Thompson, Bloomberg, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel—potentially contemplating a White House bid as either a Republican or independent. A day earlier on his MSNBC cable show, Tucker Carlson noted that “so far, polls show…the GOP faithful are disappointed with the current field…that dispirited group, known as the base.” The conversation with Carlson and his guests then went on to speculate at some length about the possibility of an independent run by a ticket featuring Republicans Hagel and Bloomberg. The debate over immigration policy has often been passionate and divisive and the subject has provided plenty of fodder for talk show hosts, particularly CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who is an advocate of tough enforcement. (Last week, it finished second in the cable sector at 11% and led the radio sector at 18% of the coverage.) On its May 18 nightly newscast, CBS first ran a story about how difficult it is to patrol the porous U.S. Mexican border. Then, at the end of the broadcast, it produced an “Assignment America” story that hard-liners on the immigration issue might criticize as propaganda. The segment, which anchor Katie Couric dubbed “the story of an American dream come true,” focused on a youngster who first entered the country at the Mexican border as an illegal immigrant and got his first job picking weeds. Today, at 39, he is the director of brain tumor surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The death of Falwell—which attracted more coverage in cable (10%) and newspapers (7%) than in other sectors—presented the media with an interesting balancing act. They had to assess the legacy of a man who was a potent religious and political force as well as a polarizing figure who initially pinned part of the blame for 9/11 on homosexuals, feminists and the ACLU. A lengthy May 16 Washington Post obit that began on page one quoted former Falwell speechwriter Mel White as saying: “He was a media genius, but part of that was exaggerating, hyperbole, and outrageousness. He once told me that if he didn’t have people protesting him, he’d have to hire them. He felt it was publicity for the kingdom of God.” Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Note: Due to a technical error, Rush Limbaugh's show from Monday, May 14, is not included in this week's sample.Sometimes in the talk show universe news is in the eye of the beholder. Or, more accurately, in the eye of whoever holds the microphone. Last week, for instance, the foiled plot to attack Fort Dix was the third-most popular topic in the talk universe, filling 8% of the cable and radio talk airtime, according to PEJ’s Talk Show Index from May 6-May 11. But while conservative hosts such as cable’s Tucker Carlson and Bill O’Reilly and radio’s Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage were eager to talk about the alleged terrorist plans to wreak havoc, according to the PEJ sample, no one listening to a liberal media host such as Keith Olbermann or Randi Rhodes would have heard much about it.On his May 9 show, Savage blamed the mainstream—and liberal—press for giving short shrift to a “huge story.” “We expect this kind of psychotic behavior from [publisher] ‘Pinch’ Sulzberger of the New York Times,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like the media ignoring the jihadis in New Jersey.” Meanwhile, the liberal hosts last week wanted to keep talking about the growing scandal at the Justice Department over the handling of the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, enough to make it last week’s fifth most popular talk topic (at 4%).The story was punctuated by beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s May 10 appearance before Congress. Against the backdrop of a photo of Gonzales with the caption “Gonzo-gate,” Olbermann on his May 7 show declared that “now Congress is looking at allegations that virtually every level of employment at Justice was subject to a political litmus test. This went right down to the interns.”None of the conservative talkers in the PEJ Index chose to tackle the Justice Department probe last week. It is not a luxury that is expected of the mainstream media. But the ability to ignore a major event—like a terror plot or a Justice Department scandal—that does not comport with the host’s worldview seems to come with the territory in the talk world.The role of subjectivity in selecting subjects worthy of discussion was perhaps even more evident in last week’s most popular talk topic. The debate over Iraq policy filled 21% of the talk airtime. But last week it was almost exclusively a cable topic. On cable TV talk, the subject got twice as much time as any other subject (about 136 minutes). Yet Iraq barely made a blip in radio talk. Eight other subjects got more talk radio play than the Iraq strategy debate, which logged only about 9 minutes of airtime.The 2008 presidential race (14% of the talk time) was the second biggest talk subject last week, followed by the Fort Dix plot (8%), the tornadoes that destroyed the Kansas town of Greensburg (5%), and the U.S. Attorneys flap (4%). The lower half of the top-10 list included the French elections (4%), the immigration debate (3%), the fallout over Don Imus’s firing (3%), U.S. efforts to fight terrorism (3%), and those rising gas prices (3%). (And neither Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the former colonies and British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s resignation made the top-10 list in talk last week, though both were major stories in the media generally. Apparently, Anglophiles are fairly rare in the talk business.) The Talk Show Index, released each Friday, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion—a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index.) PEJ’s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index. Much of the impetus behind the Iraq policy discussion last week was the news that 11 Republican lawmakers had met with President Bush to bluntly explain their concerns about the course of the war. In many media quarters, that was treated as a major development in the domestic political struggle over war strategy. The May 10 edition of CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” contained a report declaring that the “political pressure over Iraq has been mounting on this White House for some time. The difference now – it’s not coming from Democrats, but now openly, from some Republicans.” Conservative Joe Scarborough, who has been critical of the President, opened his May 9 MSNBC show by referencing NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert’s report on “a tense private White House meeting with Republican lawmakers. Their message to Mr. Bush: ‘You have no credibility left on the war.’” But that White House meeting with GOP lawmakers was not a part of any Fox News Channel talk shows examined by PEJ last week. And on his May 11 show, Bill O’Reilly scolded the rest of the media for negativity on the war. After reading a memo from a retired general that, at least in part, expressed the view that some things in Iraq are improving, O’Reilly said: “I doubt you’ll see the general’s memo in the New York Times or any other left-wing media…the anti-war crew is now fully invested in defeat.” One other story that appeared to reveal an ideological divide among talkers was the results of the French elections, in which conservative Nicholas Sarkozy defeated a more liberal female candidate, Segolene Royal. Here again it was conservatives—heartened by the Sarkozy victory—who tackled the topic while liberals stayed silent. They were heartened that a conservative won. But the French election also prompted some conservatives to suggest the results were a bad omen for one of their favorite targets, Hillary Clinton. “This election in France - not good news for Mrs. Clinton,” said Rush Limbaugh. “They’ve done a preliminary analysis of the votes over there – 48% of French women voted against the female candidate!” One other subject that continues to hang around on talk’s top-10 story list is the controversy over the April 12 firing of Don Imus for crude remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Last week, almost all the talk show coverage came in the form of a May 11 special edition of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.” In an edition labeled the “Great Debate,” the co-hosts got the two major antagonists to appear together—Imus’s former producer Bernard McGuirk and Al Sharpton, one of the key advocates for Imus’s firing. Like two prizefighters entering the ring, first Sharpton and then McGuirk walked theatrically from the wings into the studio and sat down. The two men looked so uncomfortable in each other’s presence that McGuirk’s opening quip seemed to sum up the atmosphere: “Let’s get ready to box on Fox.”Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ
Top Ten Stories in the Talk Show Index 3. NJ Terror Plot - 8% 4. Kansas Tornadoes - 5% 5. Fired US Attorneys - 4% 6. French Elections - 4% 7. Immigration - 3% 8. Don Imus - 3% 9. US Domestic Terrorism - 3% 10. Gas/Oil Prices - 3% Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index 1. Iraq Policy Debate - 14% 2. NJ Terror Plot - 6% 3. Kansas Tornadoes - 6%4. 2008 Campaign - 6% 5. Events in Iraq - 3% 6. Tony Blair Resigns - 3% 7. French Elections - 3% 8. California Fires - 3% 9. Queen Elizabeth Visits the US - 2% 10. Fired US Attorneys - 2% Click here to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index. On May 10, the lead story in the Washington Post reported on “a remarkably blunt White House meeting” in which Republican moderates warned President Bush that “his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party.” The same message came through that day in the New York Times’ headline: “At White House, President is Told that He Faces Defections on War.” As it has on a number of weeks this year, the political debate over U.S. policy in Iraq generated more coverage than any other story last week, filling 14% of the overall newshole, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index from May 6-May 11. This time, however, the story was not the predictable and continuing squabbling of Democrats and Republicans over Congressional maneuvering. It was Republicans challenging the President with their concerns that the war in Iraq would damage the party’s political fortunes for years to come. And much of the American news media treated the exchange at the White House as a breakthrough event. On NBC’s nightly newscast, Tim Russert declared, “All eyes on the Republican Party. How long will they support the President’s position on the Iraq War? Yesterday may have been a defining, pivotal moment… It was, in the words of one of the participants, the most unvarnished conversation they’ve ever had with the President.” On the cable channel MSNBC, “Hardball” host Chris Matthews described the meeting in stark terms. “On Tuesday, 11 Republican House members met with President Bush and his top team and delivered a grim message. They warned that the war in Iraq is endangering the very future of the Republican Party, and President Bush has lost all personal credibility in making his case for more war.” Last week highlighted the media’s tendency to report other news through the prism of the war and the perceived political damage it is doing to President Bush, his legacy, the GOP and anyone else associated with the conflict. The resignation of Tony Blair in Great Britain, and even the tornadoes in Greensburg, Kansas, were covered as a reflection of the ripple effect of the war. Iraq has become for the media a master narrative affecting everything. After the Iraq policy debate, the second-biggest story of the week was the foiled plans of a group of would-be terrorists to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey (which filled 6% of the newshole). The Kansas tornadoes were the third biggest story (6%), followed closely by the Presidential campaign (also 6%). Four other stories were bunched tightly behind the first four—events on the ground in Iraq, Tony Blair’s resignation, the French presidential elections and the wild fires in California (all at 3%). It was a week of natural disasters. If one were to combine the tornadoes, the Midwest flooding, the Georgia/Florida wildfires, plus those in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park and Santa Catalina Island, natural disasters (at 13% total) would have rivaled the Iraq policy debate for consuming the media’s attention. Images of fires behind the Griffith Park Observatory, so familiar from such films as Rebel Without A Cause, lent a sense of drama to the footage. PEJ’s News Coverage Index is a study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the media. (See a List of Outlets.) It is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. (See Our Methodology.) Coverage of the Iraq debate last week was made up of multiple story lines. Vice President Cheney made a surprise visit to Iraq. There was more maneuvering over war funding legislation. But a significant element in the evolving media narrative is that the President is beginning to face a revolt in his own party. That was punctuated in the coverage last week by the White House meeting, but it was not limited to that. The media also picked up on remarks by House Minority leader John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi indicating Republicans’ patience on Iraq is not unlimited and that they are likely to reassess the situation in the fall. The reason for all this, as the media portrayed it, was the Republicans are feeling the growing anti-war pressure in their districts and reportedly are worried it could cost them their jobs. “It was a no-holds-barred meeting,” Republican Congressman Ray LaHood of Illinois told the New York Times. In all, roughly a quarter of the Iraq policy coverage was focused mainly on the Republican revolt. And the war debate was the top story in every media sector except for radio, a medium in which talk plays a big part. The second biggest story of the week, the foiled terrorist plot, broke on Tuesday May 8 with the arrests of six men who were allegedly planning an attack on Fort Dix in New Jersey, hoping to kill as many soldiers as possible.The story had some absurdist elements. The attackers made a video of themselves chanting about Jihad but were caught because they were foolish enough to take it to Circuit City for copying. The story, however, fizzled fairly quickly. It was overtaken as the week progressed by natural disasters. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the striking visuals of a town being flattened by the power of nature, the Kansas twisters got more play on television (10% on network and 9% on cable, compared with 2% in print and 6% online).Yet the Kansas disaster also became a story about Iraq when the Democratic Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, initially argued that the relief response was inadequate because the National Guard was stretched too thin by the war in Iraq. This complaint was emphasized many times in the coverage, such as in ABC’s “World News Tonight” report by Barbara Pinto. Steve Sparke, a local resident, was shown sifting through the rubble of what had been his house and business and noted, “If we have to have that many troops over there [in Iraq], we need to keep stuff at home to take care of stuff like this.” The Presidential race, the No. 2 story so far in 2007, was driven by two significant story lines last week. The first was Rev. Al Sharpton’s controversial statement that voters who “believe in God” will defeat Republican candidate Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints. The second was the effort of Republican Rudy Giuliani to clarify his views on abortion following the previous week’s GOP debate where he seemed a bit unclear. The former New York Mayor’s record is in support of keeping abortion legal.Perhaps inevitably, the media last week also tied the resignation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the war that consumed the final four years of his decade in office. “For Blair, a Legacy Overshadowed: Briton’s Decade of Achievements Dimmed by Embrace of Bush and Iraq War,” read the headline in the Washington Post May 10, dominating the middle of the front page, below a picture of Blair and Bush together. In all, about half of the stories in the PEJ Index about Blair’s resignation linked the prime minister to the war. The election in France of Nicholas Sarkozy was also one of the top 10 stories in the U.S. media last week. In some quarters, this, too, was linked to U.S. politics, but in a different manner. Some talk show hosts wanted to connect his victory over his more liberal female rival Ségolène Royal to the chances of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in the United States. “This election in France - not good news for Mrs. Clinton,” said conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. “They’ve done a preliminary analysis of the votes over there – 48% of French women voted against the female candidate! 48%! Now the Mrs. Bill Clinton camp, Clinton, Inc. cannot be looking at this and smiling.” But in the end, it was a tougher week for President Bush. The narrative for the President is a man who is having a hard time on all fronts. Even the ceremonial ones. Normally, a visit from the Queen of England is an occasion to remind Americans of the other part of the President’s job, the ceremonial functions of a head of state. And when Laura Bush persuaded her famously informal husband, reportedly reluctantly, to make their May 7 dinner with the Queen a white tie and tails formal, it was set up to be a reminder that we in the United States are not usually so fussy.Yet in the clips of their encounter captured by the press, President Bush stumbled. During the day the President muffed a line in which he intended to thank her for her support of the American Bicentennial in 1976. But he mistakenly started to say 1776, the year the colonies declared their independence from England and went to war against the mother country. After a long pause as he tried to recover from the gaffe, Bush managed to make a joke. “She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.” That first gaffe was played heavily on cable and on the network news that night. But the Queen, not known as a humorist, then turned that into a two-day media story at the formal dinner that night when she gently poked fun at his mistake. “Mr. President,” she said, “I wondered whether I should start this toast saying, ‘When I was here in 1776.’” Bush responded by beginning his toast with, “Your Majesty, I can’t top that one.” Offering up a quickie review of the exchange, the Today Show’s Meredith Vieira joked, “They should go on the road. I think the Catskills. They’d do well.” Tom Rosenstiel, Paul Hitlin, and Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Note: Due to a technical error, the CBS News radio headlines from Tuesday at 5:00 pm and Wednesday at 9:00 am are not included in this week's sample.The day after the May 3 Republican presidential debate in California, the verdict starting rolling in on America’s talk shows. On his May 4 radio program, conservative bellwether Rush Limbaugh offered “some preliminary comments” that seemed to bode well for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. “I thought Romney looked Reagan-esque,” offered Limbaugh. “He was very articulate and quick.” As for the two Republican candidates atop the early polls, Limbaugh seemed unimpressed. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani “did stumble a bit” on the abortion question, he said, and Arizona Senator John McCain “to me, didn’t quite measure up.” That night on the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes,” Republican strategist Karen Hanretty seemed to feel largely the same way. Giuliani, she asserted, “can’t have it both ways” on the abortion question. “He is a pro-choice candidate. He should simply run as a pro-choice candidate.” The assessment of McCain was harsher. Calling him “too intense and over-prepped,” Hanretty said the senator reminded her of “Slim Pickens, in the movie ‘Dr. Strangelove.’ You know, the character waving his hat over his head as he rides the H-bomb to world destruction.” If the mainstream media post-mortems tend toward caution about about picking debate winners and losers, the talk shows last week were hardly burdened by such reticence. That helped make last week’s big GOP debate—with 10 candidates sharing the spotlight—the biggest talk topic of the week. With about half the campaign-related segments connected to the debate itself, the 2008 race for the White House was the biggest subject, filling 28% of the talk airwaves from April 29 through May 4, according to PEJ’s Talk Show Index. The campaign was also the biggest story in the general News Index (at 13%). But it got more than twice as much attention in the talk show menu (28%). That general pattern of talk hosts using their shows to significantly magnify two or three of the biggest news stories was again evident last week. The second biggest talk subject, the Iraq war policy debate, filled 20% of the talk airtime, in contrast to 12% of the newshole in the media overall. And while the controversy over former CIA director George Tenet’s new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” accounted for 5% of the general news coverage, it represented 13% of the talk show conversation last week. The other two top-five topics were stories that were also political. The immigration debate, the fourth biggest subject (at 6%), was dominated by CNN’s Lou Dobbs, a tireless advocate for tougher enforcement policies. On the week when there were May 1 immigrant-rights rallies across the country, “Lou Dobbs Tonight” aired 13 of the 21 talk segments that focused on the topic. Another story that managed to take on an ideological tinge was the “D.C. Madam” saga, the fifth biggest talk subject at 4%. This story, which threatened to expose a number of influential Beltway figures who had used an escort service, fizzled when ABC’s “20/20” decided not to name names in its much-anticipated May 4 report. But earlier in the week, the radio talkers had a field day. On his April 30 show, conservative Sean Hannity expressed his anger at ABC’s plans to pursue the scandal, suggesting it reflected media bias, not financial avarice. “Is this a big ratings grab?” he asked. “The media salivating over the prospect of the names of Bush administration officials [showing up] on a client list? I wonder if there’s a few Clinton folks in there…once they show up, forget it. It won’t be a story anymore.” On the other side of the political spectrum, liberal radio talker Randi Rhodes seized on the fact that one Bush administration State Department official had resigned after being linked to the escort service. (He argued he was only getting massages.) So she aired a satirical bit that was designed to sound like an R-rated commercial for “Conserva-girls, the escort service just for Republicans.” The Talk Show Index, released each Friday, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion—a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index.) PEJ’s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index. Aside from the proclivity of talk hosts to put considerably more emphasis on the biggest news stories of the week, another area where the Talk Index and general News Index tend to diverge is the bottom of the top-10 story list. The kind of spot news or breaking events that often helps fill out the second half of the News Index are sometimes ignored by the talk shows. This past week, such significant news stories as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s meeting with the Syrian foreign minister, Queen Elizabeth II’s U.S. visit, Rupert Murdoch’s bid to buy Dow Jones, and the turmoil inside the Israeli government after the report on the 2006 war against Hezbollah all failed to make the list of top 10 talk topics. Instead, the bottom half of the top-10 talk topics included the health of Cuba’s ailing leader Fidel Castro (7th biggest topic at 1%), White House Press Secretary Tony Snow’s return to work after cancer treatment (eighth at 1%), and the U.S. conflict with Iran (tenth at 1%). While the talk universe is often known for its passionate ideological arguments between left and right, there are times—albeit rare—when both sides actually find themselves in agreement. Last week former CIA director Tenet—on a media tour to promote his new book—tried to distance himself from the decision to go to war in Iraq while claiming he was being made a scapegoat for the unpopular policy. That managed to anger conservatives who resented his criticism of the White House and were suspicious about his motives. “For him to be the guy that’s out there doing the second-guessing is as ridiculous and absurd a situation as you can imagine,” declared conservative radio host Mark Belling, subbing for Limbaugh on April 30. “This guy was wrong all along.” It also managed to anger liberals who wonder why Tenet wasn’t raising doubts about the war when he was in a position of power in the administration. “How many are paying attention to the whore tour?” asked liberal radio host Ed Schultz on his May 1 show. “That’s we are now calling the George Tenet book tour…He sold his soul on a book tour.” It’s a rare public figure that can bring America’s fractious talk hosts to agreement, but as correspondent Kelli Arena noted in a report on Dobbs’s April 30 show: “George Tenet is finding out it’s not easy to rewrite your own legacy.” Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Top Ten Stories in the Talk Show Index 3. George Tenet Book - 13%4. Immigration - 6% 5. DC Escort Scandal - 4%6. Events in Iraq - 1% 7. Fidel Castro's Health - 1% 8. Tony Snow's Health - 1%9. LA Police Actions at Immigration Rally - 1%10. Iran - 1% Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index 1. 2008 Campaign - 13% 2. Iraq Policy Debate - 12%3. Events in Iraq - 7%4. George Tenet Book - 5%5. Immigration - 5%6. Condoleeza Rice Trip - 4%7. DC Escort Scandal - 2%8. Queen Elizabeth Visits the US - 2%9. Murdoch Bids for Dow Jones - 2%10. Israel/Lebanon Conflict - 2% Click here to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index. The title of former CIA director George Tenet’s new book, “At the Center of the Storm” proved cannily prophetic as he embarked on a media tour last week. If Tenet’s intent was to distance himself from the decision to launch the now unpopular war in Iraq, the effect instead was to ignite a debate over his integrity and judgment. In a May 2 interview on CNN’s “Situation Room,” an unusually combative Wolf Blitzer grilled Tenet, whose book was critical of White House planning for Iraq, about why he did not do more to stop the momentum toward war. “You met with the President every single morning,” said Blitzer. “If you didn’t think it was worthwhile going to war against Saddam Hussein, you clearly could have made this case.”“You’re being, as you know, criticized from the left, from the right, from the center,” added Blitzer, as he read critical remarks about Tenet from such ideologically diverse figures as Maureen Dowd and William F. Buckley Jr. Two days earlier, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin—subbing for Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly—asked one of her guests about Tenet’s April 29 appearance on “60 Minutes.”“Didn’t you get the impression of somebody who was just a pathetic whiner?” she asked. The controversy generated by Tenet’s new book was the fourth biggest story last week, filling 5% of the overall newshole, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index from April 29 through May 4. But the Tenet tempest was really part of a bigger subject—the conflict in Iraq—that continues to dominate the media landscape like no other issue, and which last week spawned many different story lines.The internal U.S. debate over Iraq policy was the week’s second biggest story, at 12% while the situation inside Iraq was the third leading story at 7%. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s delicate diplomatic tango with Syria (she talked to its foreign minister) and Iran (she didn’t meet with its foreign minister) at last week’s conference on Iraq’s future was the sixth biggest story (4%). The impact of the Iraq war on the American homefront, while failing to make the top story list, attracted 1% of the overall coverage. All combined, those five Iraq-related stories accounted for 29% of the news coverage last week, clearly making the war the dominant broad theme. And that doesn’t include the opinions about Iraq expressed by the Republican presidential hopefuls at their May 3 debate in California. That gathering of 10 GOP hopefuls helped make the 2008 presidential race—filling 13% of the newshole—the top single story of the week. The campaign was the top story only the newspaper sector (11%). But if finished a close second to the Iraq policy debate in network TV and in a virtual first-place tie with it in cable news and radio. The other top-five story last week was the immigration debate, (fifth place) which was driven by the May 1 rallies across the country. At 5% of the total coverage, the topic tied its high-water mark for the year. Not surprisingly, it generated the most attention from cable news (11%), where CNN’s Lou Dobbs is a tireless advocate for an immigration crackdown. PEJ’s News Coverage Index is a study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the media. (See a List of Outlets.) It is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. (See Our Methodology.)The bottom four stories in this Index’s top-10 list were an interesting mix of different kinds of news events. The tenth biggest story (at 2%) was the fallout over the internal Israeli report on last year’s inconclusive war with Hezbollah that appears to have further jeopardized the shaky government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. It was a top-five story (7%) in the internationally oriented online news sector. Rupert Murdoch’s bold $5 billion bid to buy the company that publishes the Wall Street Journal was too big a media event for the press to ignore and finished ninth at 2%. (Logically enough, it generated the most attention, at 5%, on newspaper front pages. And were financial pages part of the weekly Index, the total may have grown). Queen Elizabeth II’s first U.S. visit in 16 years, a largely ceremonial event, was the eighth biggest story of the week, at 2%. There may have been a time when a Royal visit would have been a bigger story.The seventh biggest story (also at 2%) —the Washington escort scandal—had the potential to explode into a major tabloid-style saga with some influential figures threatened with public exposure as clients of the service. On April 30, ABC’s “Good Morning America” sounded somewhat breathless, trumpeting the network’s investigation into “the secret list of clients that could take down some of the nation’s most powerful men” and promoting the upcoming “20/20” story with investigative reporter Brian Ross. But when the “20/20” report actually aired on May 4, the network was considerably more cautious, opting not to name names."Like much of Washington, it turns out this is pretty dull stuff," Ross told the Washington Post. If the “D.C. Madam’s” customers didn’t ruffle high-placed Washington feathers, the war in Iraq did. Tenet’s recollections of the run-up to the conflict set off a substantial firestorm while the question of whether Rice would talk to Tehran in the hope of stabilizing Baghdad was a matter of major media curiosity.And in a week that marked the fourth anniversary of the so-called “Mission Accomplished” speech, in which President Bush landed on a aircraft carrier in a flying suit to declare Iraq a victory, the Iraq policy debate was focused on the political standoff between the White House and Congress over war funding and the imposition of withdrawal deadlines or Iraqi government benchmarks. The volatile situation on the ground in Iraq—which could ultimately determine the outcome of that debate—was the leading story online (12%), and the second biggest story (10%) in newspapers. Last week, print journalists did some serious digging into that subject. And the results painted a distinctly mixed picture.On the plus side, the April 29 New York Times revealed “a surprising transformation” inside the dangerous Anbar Province, where Sunni tribal leaders are joining U.S. and Iraqi forces to fight against Al Qaeda and where the “violence is ebbing in many areas…and the insurgency appears to be in retreat.” On the same day, however, the Times reported that seven out of eight American-financed rebuilding programs in Iraq that had previously been declared successes “were no long operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.”A day later, in another ominous note, the Washington Post revealed that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office had been “playing a leading role" in getting rid of some senior security officers primarily for what appear to be political or religious reasons. “The issue strikes at a central question about the fledgling government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki: whether it can put sectarian differences aside to deliver justice fairly,” the story asserted. And that touches on a central question in the policy debate over Iraq. Is the al-Maliki government working in tandem with or at cross purposes with the U.S. government? When it comes to shaping the future, that is probably a bigger issue than what George Tenet did or did not tell George Bush in the days prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Note: Due to the Republican debate on MSNBC the night of Thursday, May 3, our sample included MSNBC's programming that evening from 6:00 - 6:30 and 7:00 - 7:30 pm ET instead of the normal rotation which would have included 8:00 - 8:30 and 9:00 - 9:30 pm ET.In a week when Congress legislated Iraq withdrawal deadlines that were destined to draw a Presidential veto, talk hosts mined some unorthodox angles to the intensifying political showdown over the war. On his April 24 show, the Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly trained his fire on veteran journalist Bill Moyer for his PBS documentary—“Buying the War”—which portrayed the media as having been far too willing to accept the administration’s original WMD rationale for attacking Iraq.In a program that included video of an “O’Reilly Factor” producer confronting Moyers on a New York City street, the host characterized Moyers as a “committed leftist” and declared that he “is not objective, has a problem with the truth, and should no longer be receiving taxpayer money.” On his April 25 program, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann took aim at First Lady Laura Bush who was shown in an interview clip saying that “no one suffers more” than she and the President while watching scenes of violence in Iraq. (Olbermann also played the now-famous footage of the First Couple’s funky Rose Garden hoofing with West African dancers during Malaria Awareness Day). “African dancing in the Rose Garden? The First Lady’s calling attention to her own and her husband’s own supposed suffering? Are these smart moves…politically?” Olbermann asked. The freedom to stray from an issue’s conventional story lines and to select collateral targets is one of the defining characteristics of the talk show culture. So in a crucial week in the war debate—when the main media focus was on a Democratic Congress and President Bush—Bill Moyers and Laura Bush became proxies for one right-leaning and one left-leaning host’s broader views of the war. The argument over Iraq was the second biggest topic on the cable and talk radio shows last week, filling 14% of the airtime according to PEJ’s Talk Show Index from April 22-April 27. Iraq was edged out by the leading topic, the 2008 presidential race (at 15%), which featured the Democrats’ televised April 26 debate from South Carolina.The Iraq debate and presidential race were also the two biggest stories in the general news Index last week. But with a number of other top subjects, there was considerable variance between what the mainstream media covered and the talk show hosts discussed. Such top-10 news stories as the bloodshed in Iraq, the death of Boris Yeltsin, and the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre were nowhere to be found among the leading talk subjects. Instead, softer info-tainment topics such as the fallout from the firing of Don Imus (third biggest topic at 8%), Rosie O’Donnell’s departure from the “View” and ongoing feud with Donald Trump (sixth story at 4%), and Alec Baldwin’s voicemail tirade at his daughter (seventh at 4%) made their way onto the talk menu.On April 26—two weeks after Imus was fired by CBS for his remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team—the subject was re-ignited when his producer/sidekick Bernard McGuirk showed up on the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.” While displaying some contrition, McQuirk did get in a few shots at Al Sharpton—who helped lead the charge to get Imus fired—by calling him a “classless clown” and “sanctimonious skunk.” The Talk Show Index, released each Friday, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion—a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index.) PEJ’s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index. The three biggest talk topics last week—the presidential race, the Iraq debate, and the Imus flap—all generated significant attention on both cable and radio talk shows. But several of the top-10 subjects showed up only in cable and not in any of the radio segments examined in the Index. There was some evidence, at least for last week, that the cable talk menu is a bit more diverse than the radio talk lineup. While the top three stories accounted for about 41% of the total radio talk airtime, they consumed only about 35% of the total cable talk newshole. The major story that was most evenly balanced between the cable and radio shows last week was the presidential race, which was highlighted by a Democrats’ debate that featured more fraternizing than fireworks. But that didn’t keep the radio hosts from letting their flags fly. On his show, liberal radio talker Ed Schultz said he liked all the candidates. “There isn’t one up there I wouldn’t vote for,” he said. “I’m just a big cheerleader today, aren’t I?” Far less impressed was his conservative counterpart Rush Limbaugh who derided the event as a “press conference” masquerading as a debate. “They’re going to have to figure out that Bush isn’t on the ballot anymore,” he said of the Democrats. But perhaps even more than being able to lead with their ideology, the talk hosts are distinguished by their selective—and sometimes creative ways—of using an event or person (such as Bill Moyers and Laura Bush) to represent a much bigger issue. Last week, the issue of global warming finished in a tie for fourth (4%) on the Talk Index and one of those discussions was led by Paul W. Smith, who subbed for Limbaugh on April 24. Smith, who is “kind of in the middle” on the global warming debate, chose to focus on an unusual idea by musician Sheryl Crow—that people use only one tissue per bathroom trip—as an example of environmental activism run amok. (Crow said the one-tissue suggestion was merely a joke.) As he made clear to his listeners, Smith was unenthused about efforts to “protect us all from global warming, one toilet tissue square at a time.” Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Top Ten Stories in the Talk Show Index 3. Don Imus - 8%4 tie. Global Warming - 4% 4 tie. Fired US Attorneys Controversy - 4%6. Rosie O'Donnell - 4% 7. Alec Baldwin Voice Mail - 4% 8. Pat Tillman/Jessica Lynch - 3%9. Immigration - 3%10. Iran - 2% Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index 1. Iraq Policy Debate - 15% 2. 2008 Campaign - 10%3. Virginia Tech Shootings - 7%4. Events in Iraq - 5%5. Boris Yeltsin Dies - 4%6. Pat Tillman/Jessica Lynch - 3%7. US Economic Numbers - 2%8. Texas Tornadoes - 2%9. Fired US Attorneys Controversy - 2%10. Don Imus - 1% Click here to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index. On April 24, the eve of his official announcement for president, Senator John McCain made one of his frequent appearances on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show with John Stewart.” But if McCain expected a jovial chuckle fest, he was wrong. Stewart immediately needled him for his support of the Iraq war. McCain responded with his own barbed humor. “I had something really picked out for you, too,” the Senator said. “It’s a nice little IED (improvised explosive device) to put under your desk.”McCain’s sit-down with Stewart was connected to the two biggest news stories last week—the Iraq debate and the 2008 presidential battle. It highlighted McCain’s position as an Iraq hawk in a week when Congress voted to impose withdrawal deadlines. Stewart’s aggressive jousting with McCain was also reflective of how some of the media are treating his candidacy this time around. The man who’d been something of a press darling in the 2000 presidential race faces less friendly coverage in 2008—in part because of the war. After two weeks in which breaking mega-stories (Don Imus’s firing and the Virginia Tech massacre) dominated the news, two familiar ongoing issues generated the most coverage last week. The top story was the Iraq policy debate at 15% of the overall newshole, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index from April 22-27. Although the debate over Iraq has consistently been a top-five story in the weekly Index, this marked the first time it had been the number one story since mid-February.The crowded and active race to succeed George Bush in the White House—which included a debate among Democrats last week—followed in second place at 10%. Both stories gained significant momentum late in the week. The policy debate—which generated the most coverage online (15%), on network TV (20%), cable news (17%) and radio (16%)—was fueled by the House’s and the Senate’s passage of Iraq funding measures with withdrawal timetables. The President upped the political ante and drama by vowing to veto the legislation. Meanwhile, the televised April 26 debate from South Carolina generated a major portion of the presidential race coverage for the week.In last week’s Index, the April 16 shooting spree at Virginia Tech was the biggest story of the year, filling 51% of the newshole. This week, however, it fell to third place at 7%, leading only in the newspaper sector. The dramatically diminished coverage seemed to reflect some trauma fatigue as well as the realization that there are no easy explanations for the deadly rampage While the bloodshed in Iraq was the fourth biggest story (5%) last week, an event that reflected poorly on the Pentagon was number six at 3%. That was the April 24 Congressional testimony of Kevin Tillman and Jessica Lynch. Tillman, the brother of former NFL player Pat Tillman, talked abut how Pat’s death by friendly fire in Afghanistan was initially covered up by the Pentagon. Lynch was the young servicewoman who said her capture and rescue in Iraq were portrayed in falsely heroic terms. The Tillman-Lynch news was a top five story in online, network and cable news. But coverage slowed significantly after two days.The fifth biggest story (4%) was the death Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected Russian leader and a man who defines the term “mixed legacy.” As the Los Angeles Times put it in a front-page April 24 obit: “Yeltsin’s contradictions were as sweeping as the changes he wrought on his countrymen.” The April 23 death of famed author and journalist David Halberstam was not quite a top-10 story, filling 1% of the overall newshole. Not surprisingly, newspapers gave the most play (3%) to the distinguished career of the former New York Times staffer. PEJ’s News Coverage Index is a study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the media. (See a List of Outlets.) It is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. (See Our Methodology.)A number of developments last week converged to drive coverage of the Iraq policy debate, none more than the looming funding showdown between Bush and a Congress now dominated by Democrats. General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, garnered headlines when he appeared before Congress last week. Former CIA director George Tenet’s controversial new book—“At the Center of the Storm” in which he accuses the White House of going to war with Iraq without having conducted a serious internal debate—also made quite a bit of news. McCain’s April 24 appearance on the “Daily Show” created a bit of a furor of its own, particularly when anti-war Congressman John Murtha took umbrage at his joke about placing an IED under Stewart’s desk and asked for a McCain apology.While not receiving as much overall media attention as the Democrats’ debate, McCain’s official campaign launch was a significant story that attracted some telling coverage. An April 25 report on NBC’s “Today” show cited a poll showing Rudy Giuliani with an 11 point lead over McCain and pointed to McCain’s fundraising problems and “embrace of President Bush’s Iraq war strategy” as two political obstacles. Thus far, McCain has faced some skeptical media scrutiny about the quality of his campaign. And the change in tone of coverage between his 2000 and 2008 races was noted in an April 26 Washington Post piece by Howard Kurtz headlined: “Journalists and John McCain: Is The Honeymoon Really Over?”Meanwhile, if the media were hoping for a slam-bang affair during last week’s first debate among Democrats, those hopes went largely unfulfilled. The consensus verdict was probably summed up in this New York Times April 27 headline: “In Mostly Sedate Debate, Democrats Show More Unity Than Strife.” Finally, the controversy over Don Imus’s firing for remarks about the Rutgers women’s basketball team flared a bit last week, finishing as the 10th biggest story overall, at 1%. (It was a top five story in both cable at 3%, and radio at 5%.) The coverage included an April 26 appearance by Imus’s producer and sidekick Bernard McGuirk on the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.” While McGuirk argued that the Rutgers remarks were made in the context of the “comedy and ridicule” that is the show’s stock-in-trade, he acknowledged that some of the backlash was legitimate and that Imus was right to apologize. But on the subject of Al Sharpton, who helped lead the campaign to get Imus fired, McGuirk was far less conciliatory. Referring to Sharpton as “a classless clown” and “sanctimonious skunk,” McGuirk complained that “the media treated him like he was Nelson Mandela, for God’s sake.” Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ Note: Due to the Democratic debate on MSNBC the night of Thursday, April 26, our sample included MSNBC's programming that evening from 9:00 - 9:30 pm ET instead of the normal rotation which would have included 7:00 - 7:30 pm ET.If you didn’t think the April 16 rampage that left 33 dead at Virginia Tech had anything to do with the war on terror, you weren’t listening to talk radio last week blur the line between reality and fantasy. On her April 16 program, liberal radio host Randi Rhodes—who’d been mocking the President’s linkage of the war in Iraq to global terror—pushed the comparison considerably further. “Al Qaeda…they’re all comin’ to get you,” Rhodes declared. “I’m sure Bush is trying his best to connect [the Virginia Tech shootings] somehow to Al Qaeda. I’m sure he is.” For his part, conservative Michael Savage used his April 19 program to somehow try and link shooter Cho Seung Hui to Islamic terrorism. “Why is the fact that his parents…lived in Saudi Arabia for 10 years and worked in Saudi Arabia for 10 years not being discussed?” Savage asked. “Maybe his father was sympathetic toward…Muslims who hate America.” The Blacksburg tragedy dominated the cable and radio talk airwaves last week as no other story has all year, according to PEJ’s Talk Show Index for April 15-20. The horrific slaughter consumed 63% of the airtime, narrowly eclipsing talk host’s Don Imus firing, which accounted for 61% of the talk menu the week before. (The Imus furor tumbled to 3% in the current Index.) Virginia Tech was also the biggest news story of the year, filling about half of the newshole in our more general News Coverage Index. Like their counterparts in the rest of the media, talk hosts spent time pursuing the many significant news angles to the story—the action of campus authorities, mental health and student privacy, the background of the killer, and the mood on the traumatized campus. But because conflict and debate often provide the oxygen for the talk sector, some of the hosts—particularly those on radio—were mining some of the more divisive byproducts of the shooting. Those subjects included gun control, the debate over NBC’s airing the killer’s video manifesto, and apparently, somehow even global terrorism. A rough breakdown of the talk shows examined by PEJ last week suggests that about one out of every four segments on the Virginia Tech shooting dealt with a political or polarizing aspect of the case. As liberal radio host Ed Schultz noted, while discussing Virginia Tech on his April 17 show: “The advocates are out and about.” Every other subject was overshadowed in the talk universe last week. The second biggest talk subject, at 5%, was another frightening shooting situation, albeit on a much smaller scale than Virginia Tech. The April 20 hostage drama that took two lives at the Johnson Space Center was strictly a cable, rather than radio, talk story with MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson providing almost all the coverage. The third biggest talk story, also at 5%, involved the release of a controversial tape. Actor Alec Baldwin’s phone message calling his 11-year-old daughter a “rude thoughtless pig,” found its way to TMZ—a website devoted to celebrity and entertainment-industry scoops—and then into the media bloodstream. The Iraq policy debate (4%) was the next biggest subject followed by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 vote upholding a ban on the “partial birth” abortion procedure (4%). Abortion is among the most contentious of the “wedge” issues and only conservative radio talkers Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh tackled the court decision last week. The Talk Show Index, released each Friday, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion—a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index.) PEJ’s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index. The subject of gun control seemed in some ways like a natural outgrowth of the mayhem at Virginia Tech. It certainly got attention, but never really seemed to take off as a major theme of the general news coverage. Perhaps that’s because politicians seemed wary about weighing in on the issue and perhaps it’s because there were just too many basic angles of the story to cover.There was no such hesitation in the talk universe. Here the gun control debate got a pretty going over on the talk outlets. On his April 18 radio show, Hannity accused the media of being “fixated on the issue of gun control,” an assertion unsupported by the evidence in our News Coverage Index. And he stated his position that there are “more instances…of people that are using weapons to protect the lives of the innocent. The fallacy here is that guns are the problem. It’s not. It’s the evil intention in the heart of somebody that does not respect a human life.” On the same day, Rhodes attacked the argument that the Virginia Tech situation might have been mitigated had students been armed and able to stop the killer. “Bring back the pearl-handled pistol, mama,” she said sarcastically. “Give it to college kids. Has the right wing never seen video of spring break?” Another topic that inspired an energetic talk debate was NBC’s decision to air the disturbing tape from Cho Seung Hui on April 18. Many other outlets were also quick to run excerpts of the controversial video. That fueled a debate over journalism versus sensationalism that appeared to cross typical partisan lines and talking points. “We’re not going to play the audio of the Virginia Tech shooter on this program,” conservative Rush Limbaugh told his listeners on April 19. “The repeated replay of this stuff is literally nuts...Who is giving this killer the perverse legacy that he sought? It is not talk radio, ladies and gentlemen.” Those sentiments were echoed by the liberal Schultz on his show that day. “If you’re looking for sound of this dude that killed everybody in Blacksburg Virginia, you got the wrong radio show,” he said. “What was NBC thinking?” On his April 19 Fox News Channel show, Bill O’Reilly disagreed, arguing that the showing the video was a proper antidote to the crime. “I ran the tape last night and I’d do it again,” he said. “Here’s why. Evil must be exposed, and Cho was evil. You can see it in his face, and you can hear it in his voice…once evil is acknowledged, steps can be taken to contain it.” Still, another view was offered by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough whose cable network is partly owned by NBC. After a long and rancorous April 19 discussion in which two of his three panelists opposed showing the tape, Scarborough endorsed it on basic First Amendment grounds. “I think that self-censorship on an issue this big, on a story this big, is just wrong,” he said. As a week marred by unthinkable tragedy wound down, so too did the media coverage. TV outlets stopped airing excerpts of the video. News coverage shifted from assessing responsibility for the disaster to the chronicling the beginning of the healing process. Even the radio and cable talk hosts seemed ready to give it a rest. On Friday April 20, not one of the talk shows the PEJ examined raised the subject in the first half hour. Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ
Top Ten Stories in the Talk Show Index 3. Alec Baldwin Voice Mail - 5%4. Iraq Policy Debate - 4% 5. Abortion - 4%6. Fired US Attorneys Controversy - 3% 7. Don Imus - 3% 8. Events in Iraq - 2%9. 2008 Campaign - 1%10. Immigration - 1% Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index 1. Virginia Tech Shootings - 51% 2. Fired US Attorneys Controversy - 6%3. Events in Iraq - 5%4. Iraq Policy Debate - 3%5. Abortion - 3%6. Storms/Severe Weather - 3%7. 2008 Campaign - 2%8. NASA Shooting - 2%9. Afghanistan - 1%10. Alec Baldwin Voice Mail - 1% Click here to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index. |
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