GOP strife ignites campaign coverage

Republican candidates for president spared neither tooth nor claw during their 11/28/07 CNN/YouTube debate, and the resulting verbal bloodshed assured that the 2008 campaign would take the top spot on the Project for Excellence in Journalism coverage chart for the week of 11/25/07-11/30/07. The campaign mounted a clean media sweep, earing the top slot for all five media categories. The Mideast conference in Annapolis MD was an easy second-place winner, with 8% of the overall newshole (to the campaign's 19%), ahead of eight stories ranging from 2%-5%. Sports stories only occasionally crack the top 10, but then the death of NFL Washington Redskin Sean Taylor wasn't really a sports story. It received significant coverage everywhere but on the radio dial, and in the Washington market, where we operate, it may well have been the #1 story, period.

Story	Overall	Newspr	Online	NetTV	CATV	Radio
2008 campaign	19%	10%	19%	18%	29%	24%
Mideast conference	8%	7%	12%	13%	6%	5%
Clinton HQ hostage	5%	x	x	x	17%	5%
Pakistan	5%	7%	11%	4%	x	2%
US economy	4%	5%	5%	8%	x	x
Sean Taylor's death	4%	3%	5%	1%	6%	x
Iraq policy	3%	4%	x	x	5%	6%
Iraq events	3%	5%	x	2%	1%	3%
Immigration	2%	x	x	x	6%	x
Holiday season	2%	3%	x	2%	x	3%
Western fires	x	4%	x	x	x	x
Israel/Palestine	x	3%	x	x	x	x
Sudan teacher/teddy bear	x	x	5%	x	x	x
Paris riots	x	x	4%	x	x	x
Texas baby Grace	x	x	3%	x	x	x
Gas/oil prices	x	x	2%	x	x	x
Lott resignation	x	x	2%	x	1%	x
Stacey Peterson case	x	x	x	6%	2%	x
Natalee Holloway case	x	x	x	2%	2%	x
VP Cheney's health	x	x	x	2%	x	x
Health care	x	x	x	x	x	3%
Global warming	x	x	x	x	x	2%
Thanksgiving	x	x	x	x	x	2%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism

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