Larry Craig (R-ID) must have been thrilled at the arrival of General David Petraeus to discuss the situation in Iraq with Congress. The resulting tunnel vision coverage of Iraq policy dominated the news focus for the week of 9/9/07-9/14/07, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s latest coverage chart, finally giving the embattled senator a break. PEJ noted that the Petraeus spotlight left little room for other topics, meaning six of the top ten stories picked up only a 2% share of the newshole. 13 other stories received top-ten coverage, but only for one or two media categories, including two foreign affairs stories – the resignation of Japan’s top exec and the Vladimir Putin’s decision to disband the Russian government – received only scant attention and failed to make the top ten list. There was still room for some tabloid fare. The missing UK girl did make the top ten, Brittney Spears showed up online and cable was happy to welcome OJ Simpson back to the lineup. There was absolutely no sign of Larry Craig after pulling a 7% overall share the week before, but watch for a return engagement when he goes to court to try and reverse a guilty plea on 9/26/07.
