Media gives the campaign a rest

Finally, coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign cooled off a little bit, as measured by the Project for Excellence in Journalism during the week of 4/7/08-4/13/08. It still picked up 41% and 33% from cable and radio journalists, respectively, but managed a mere 23% overall, and was not even the top story for a change at two other media, online and network TV.

And the usual second-place story, the sad state of the US economy, was knocked all the way down to #7 with a 3% share of available time and space. The General Petraeus/Ambassador Crocker show on Capitol Hill fueled the Iraq policy debate to a 10% share, good for #2, and the constant attacks by Tibet sympathizers on the Olympic torch made it the #3 story for the week.

The campaign story figures to heat right back up, with the key Pennsylvania primary now less than a week away.