If you though the testimony of General David Petraeus before Congress put the news focus on the debate over Iraq policy, you were right. As we reported earlier in the week, the ongoing events surrounding the General ate up 36% of available news time and space, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. As usual, talkers took the newsers’ favorite ball and really ran with it, taking the topic just a hair under the halfway point with 49% of total talk attention. The 2008 campaign picked up a healthy 10%, double what newsers gave it, and September 11 commemorations ate up another 5%. With 4% of talk focus going to immigration, there was barely time left for anything else, indicated by the fact that five stories made it onto the top ten list with a mere 1% share.
