The immigration debate and the WikiLeaks finished #1 and #2 in the Project for Excellence in Journalism report on news coverage for the week of 7/26/10-8/1/10. But WikiLeaks was essentially an Afghanistan story, and if you add in stories about, well, Afghanistan, the combined total is 19%.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the economic crisis both received double-digit overall coverage, making it a rare week with four stories getting past the 9% threshold.
The presence of Immigration in the top spot was largely the doing of the cable segment of the media – it invested 29% of its time in the story, while one of the remaining four segments gave it 12% and the other three kept it out of double-digit territory.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | NetTV | CATV | Radio |
| Immigration debate | 13% | 8% | 8% | 12% | 29% | 6% |
| WikiLeaks | 13% | 11% | 15% | 20% | 10% | 7% |
| Oil spill | 12% | 11% | 19% | 14% | 6% | 6% |
| Economic crisis | 10% | 14% | 11% | 4% | 6% | 14% |
| Afghanistan | 6% | 9% | 7% | 8% | 4% | x |
| 2010 elections | 4% | 6% | x | x | 6% | 7% |
| Congressional scandals | 3% | x | 4% | 3% | 6% | 4% |
| Obama administration | 3% | x | x | x | 6% | 6% |
| Chelsea Clinton wedding | 2% | 2% | x | 3% | x | x |
| US auto industry | 2% | x | x | 2% | 3% | 5% |
| Health care | x | 4% | x | x | x | x |
| Cyberspace issues | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| David Paterson | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Pakistan | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| Arlington Cemetary scandal | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| Kern CA wildfires | x | x | 2% | 2% | x | x |
| Russia | x | x | 1% | x | x | x |
| Shirley Sherrod fired | x | x | x | 2% | x | x |
| September 11 news | x | x | x | x | 2% | x |
| Lockerbie | x | x | x | x | x | 5% |
| Energy debate | x | x | x | x | x | 4% |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
