Iraq beats out campaign for Q3 coverage

It has seemed almost impossible to avoid news of the presidential campaign, even back in the third quarter when the final vote was still over a year in the future away. Still, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the many facets of the Iraq saga eclipsed campaign coverage, with reporting on the policy debate claiming the top spot all on its own. When you add in other Iraq categories, the conflict accounted for 16.1% of the total newshole.

It's not unusual for a disaster to make it on to one of PEJ's weekly coverage charts, but it has to be special to make it on to the quarterly. Such was the case for two such events, the bridge collapse in Minneapolis-St. Paul, #5 with 2.7% of the newshole, and the Utah mine collapse, at #10 with 1.8%. And the ongoing coverage of the travails of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), which is still in the news after breaking in August, grabbed #8 with a 2% share.