News smorgasbord

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There was a little bit of something for everyone during the week of 9/2/07-9/7/07, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s latest coverage chart. Washington and the nation had been focusing on the visit to Capitol Hill by General David Petraeus, which was more than enough to vault the Iraq policy debate to the top of the chart with a convincing 17% of the total newshole. But beyond that, there was an election battle still being waged in both parties, scandal involving a sitting US senator, a video visit from Osama Bin Laden and a serious hurricane to cover. There was even a tabloid element on the top 10 list as the ongoing saga of the missing UK girl pulled a 2% share of available time and space. The high focus on Iraq and the 2008 presidential campaign ate up nearly 30% of total focus between them, which left a lot of other stories competing for the remainder. The individual media lists show stories with unusually high newshole percentages in one sector, but which failed to garner enough cross-media interest to make the overall list.


Story

Overall

Newspr

Online

NetTV

CATV

Radio

Iraq policy

17%

16%

12%

22%

15%

21%

2008 campaign

12%

11%

7%

11%

18%

13%

Larry Craig scandal

7%

3%

4%

5%

10%

16%

Iraq events

5%

3%

12%

7%

x

2%

Bin Laden video

5%

x

x

6%

11%

4%

Germany terror arrests

4%

3%

6%

4%

4%

x

Hurricane Felix

3%

x

10%

2%

2%

2%

Domestic terrorism

3%

7%

x

x

2%

2%

Steve Fossett missing

2%

x

3%

4%

2%

x

Missing UK girl

2%

x

2%

2%

5%

x

Toy recalls

x

3%

x

x

x

x

Global warming

x

3%

x

x

x

2%

Iran

x

2%

x

x

x

x

Health care

x

2%

x

x

x

x

Pavarotti dies

x

x

7%

x

x

2%

North Korea

x

x

6%

x

x

x

Pakistan

x

x

x

6%

x

x

Immigration

x

x

x

x

4%

x

US economy

x

x

x

x

x

3%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism