Echo/amplification chamber in full working order

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The Project for Excellence in Journalism Talk Show index for the week of 7/15-20/07 revealed the typical weekly pattern. Talkers took the top news stories and concentrated on them to a greater extent than news operations could. They took #1 Iraq policy from 14% up to 19%, #2 2008 campaign from 9% to 13%, and #3 domestic terror from 6% to 10%. At this point, talker interest diverged from the news. As a group they made the immigration #4 topic, but as PEJ notes, Lou Dobbs is liable to fuel this issue on his own in any given week. And talkers were still hot on trail of an issue close to their hearts, the Fairness Doctrine, devoting 5% of their time to it.