After experiencing long periods of time where one story is sucking all the oxygen out of the newshole week after week, as the election did all of last year, we are now seeing fluctuation, with different topics getting the spotlight as breaking developments warrant.
According the the Project for Excellence in Jounalism tally for 5/11/09-5/17/09, talk about torture propelled domestic terrorism to the top of the charts, unseating the economic crisis, which was in the #2 slot and was the only other story in double digits. A wide variety of other stories received a decent amount of coverage.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net.TV | CATV | Radio |
| Domestic terrorism | 22% | 7% | 17% | 11% | 42% | 32% |
| Economic crisis | 12% | 15% | 13% | 7% | 12% | 11% |
| Health care debate | 16% | 11% | 5% | 6% | 4% | 7% |
| US auto industry | 5% | 9% | 6% | 6% | x | 3% |
| Afghanistan | 4% | 5% | 4% | 4% | 4% | x |
| Buffalo flight crash | 3% | x | x | 10% | 3% | x |
| Hubble telescope | 3% | x | 3% | 7% | 2% | 2% |
| Pope in Middle East | 2% | x | 7% | 2% | x | 2% |
| Pakistan | 2% | 3% | 3% | x | x | 2% |
| Soldier shoots soldiers | 2% | x | x | 4% | 3% | x |
| Pollution/emissions | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| Cyberspace issues | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Obama Notre Dame speech | x | 2% | x | x | 2% | x |
| Immigration | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Iran | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| Sri Lankan conflict | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| 2008 Chinese earthquake | x | x | x | 3% | x | x |
| WH Correspondents Dinner | x | x | x | x | 2% | 5% |
| Miss USA controversey | x | x | x | x | 2% | 4% |
| Souter retires from SCOTUS | x | x | x | x | x | 1% |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
