But that didn’t stop the media from keeping the lasers trained on Obama and McCain during the week of 10/20/08-10-26-08, according to the latest charts from the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
As usual cable led the charge, giving the presidential election 79% of its attention, but there was enough focus elsewhere in the media to send the story over the halfway mark with 52%.
A little bit of attention went down ticket, but we’re only talking 2%, which was tied for third place. The financial crisis was still oni most minds, and it took 20% of the newshole. Four Iraq/Afghanistan/terrorism topics combined for 5%.
| Stories | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net.TV | CATV | Radio |
| 2008 campaign | 52% | 31% | 40% | 52% | 79% | 60% |
| Financial crisis/bailout | 20% | 25% | 28% | 19% | 9% | 19% |
| 2008 congressional campaign | 2% | 4% | x | 1% | 2% | <1% |
| US economy | 2% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 1% | x |
| Events in Iraq | 2% | x | 4% | x | x | 1% |
| Afghanistan | 2% | 3% | 1% | 3% | x | x |
| Baseball playoffs/World Series | 1% | 2% | 3% | 1% | x | 1% |
| Gas/oil prices | 1% | 2% | x | 2% | x | 1% |
| Domestic terrorism | 1% | 3% | x | x | x | 1% |
| Iraq homefront | 1% | 2% | x | 2% | x | x |
| Health care | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| Energy debate | x | x | 1% | x | x | x |
| Thailand unrest | x | x | 1% | x | x | x |
| Zimbabwe elections | x | x | 1% | x | x | x |
| Russia | x | x | 1% | x | x | x |
| US auto industry | x | x | x | 1% | x | <1% |
| US airline industry | x | x | x | <1% | x | <1% |
| Immigration | x | x | x | x | 2% | x |
| Missing persons | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Talk show host wars | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Ted Stevens scandal | x | x | x | x | 1% | 1% |
| Cyberspace issues | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Same-sex marriage | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
