Summer doldrums, scattered coverage

The biggest story of the week was not about a candidate for president, it was about a big-city mayor who once left the Democratic party also leaving the Republican party to become an independent. That led to speculation that Michael Bloomberg may run a third-party campaign, and propelled the 2008 campaign back to the top of the latest Project for Excellence in Journalism coverage chart for the week of 6/17-22/07. Still, only two of five media put it on top of their own individual coverage list. And only two other stories, events in Iraq and the Palestinian conflict, received universal top-ten coverage from all five media categories. Weather figured back into the mix, and the sad saga of a missing Ohio woman was propelled onto the overall top ten by a strong cable focus. This marked the second week in a row that the top story barely broke into double digit territory, and the lack of any one thing to focus on allowed 23 separate stories to get attention from one medium or another. Cable just couldn't resist keeping Paris Hilton's name alive, and may well get some company after her sit-down with Larry King and whomever else scores this major tabloid get.

Story	Overall	Newspr	Online	NetTV	CATV	Radio
2008 campaign	11%	9%	7%	9%	18%	12%
Iraq events	9%	10%	15%	12%	7%	3%
Palestine conflict	7%	9%	10%	5%	2%	8%
Ohio woman	5%	x	x	5%	15%	x
Immigration	4%	2%	x	3%	6%	10%
Charleston fire	3%	x	6%	7%	3%	2%
Energy debate	3%	4%	x	3%	x	5%
Iraq homefront	2%	4%	5%	x	x	x
Afghanistan	2%	2%	5%	2%	x	x
Texas flooding	2%	x	x	4%	3%	x
Katrina aftermath	x	2%	x	x	x	x
General war on terror	x	1%	x	x	x	x
Congress	x	1%	x	x	x	x
Media donations	x	x	5%	x	x	x
North Korea	x	x	4%	x	x	x
Domestic terrorism	x	x	3%	x	3%	x
Israel/Palenstine	x	x	3%	3%	x	x
Iraq policy	x	x	x	x	3%	x
Paris Hilton	x	x	x	x	2%	x
Talk show wars	x	x	x	x	x	4%
Fired US attorneys	x	x	x	x	x	4%
White House scandals	x	x	x	x	x	4%
Global warming	x	x	x	x	x	2%
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism

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