What a strange week. The #1 and the #2 overall news stories did not make the top ten list of all five media measured by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. In fact, only one top ten story DID receive universal coverage. It took Karl Rove’s resignation to pull off that off during the week of 8/12/07-8/17/07. With 8% of the total media attention span, the 2008 campaign edged out three stories with 7%, but was the #1 story on only one medium, that being radio. Iraq in particular and the mideast in general almost always account for a major comprehensive portion of the newshole, but this week only one aspect of the ongoing story even made the list, and at that, the events in Iraq saga picked up a mere 5% of total coverage. Storms, earthquakes and other disasters competed for attention, with newly-minted weather events joining ongoing coverage of the mine disaster in Utah. The Minnesota bridge collapse was the biggest story to drop off the overall top ten list, although it still was good for 2% of the newspaper hole. Interestingly, the Don Imus/CBS settlement that opened up the door for his possible return to radio picked up 5% of cable’s time, but failed to make the radio top ten list.
