After taking a back seat for quite awhile, health care reform spent its second week atop the news coverage chart put together by the Project for Excellence in Journalism for the week of 3/1-7/10. The economic crisis and the earthquake in Chile rounded out a trio of topics that earned a double-digit share of total coverage.
Despite the fact that there were quite a few stories underneath the radar of the overall coverage chart but made appearances on one or two individual media charts, we have to award a gold star to the cable news sector, which had all of the overall top ten stories on its own list, although in a different order.
Congress is coming into focus already, with stories devoted to the 2010 elections, and more stories devoted to congressional scandals. If the troubles of New York Gov. David Paterson are lumped into this group, the trio would also get into double-digit territory.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | NetTV | CATV | Radio |
| Health care debate | 18% | 10% | 17% | 15% | 29% | 15% |
| Economic crisis | 13% | 15% | 11% | 7% | 14% | 16% |
| Chile earthquake | 10% | 8% | 12% | 16% | 6% | 7% |
| 2010 elections | 5% | 5% | 5% | x | 7% | 9% |
| Congressional scandals | 3% | x | 4% | 3% | 5% | 7% |
| Domestic terrorism | 3% | x | 4% | 2% | 4% | 3% |
| David Paterson | 3% | 4% | x | x | 3% | x |
| Obama administration | 2% | 3% | 3% | x | 1% | 4% |
| Events in Iraq | 2% | x | 3% | x | 3% | x |
| Pentagon shooting | 2% | x | x | 3% | 3% | x |
| Iran | x | 4% | x | x | x | x |
| Afghanistan | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| Winter Olympics | x | 3% | x | 2% | x | x |
| Education system | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| Toyota recall | x | x | 3% | x | x | 4% |
| US auto industry | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| USPS troubles | x | x | x | 3% | x | x |
| Chelsea King murder | x | x | x | 3% | x | x |
| US airline industry | x | x | x | 2% | x | 6% |
| Global warming | x | x | x | x | x | 2% |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
