Stop the world, I wanna go to Denver

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During the week of 8/25/08-8/31/08, there were practically only two places of journalistic interest on the face of the Earth, according to the latest Project for Excellence in Journalism survey – the DNC in Denver and wherever Hurricane Gustav was.


Campaign 2008 stories consumed 69% of all time and space. And we now regret ever mentioning the phrase "saturation coverage" in reference to the cable news channels, because THIS is the week they demonstrated what that phrase really means with 94% blinder-level coverage of the election.

Six of the overall top ten stories made the list with a mere 1% share of the newshole, and eight made the cable top ten list with less than 1% of its time. It doesn’t take the Amazing Kreskin to predict that on next week’s PEJ chart, with the RNC in Minneapolis-St. Paul, with Gustav hanging around and with Hanna and other storms lining up in the Caribbean, that we’ll be seeing more of the same.

Story Overall Newspaper Online Net.TV CATV Radio
2008 campaign 69% 53% 50% 79% 94% 69%
Hurricane Gustav 7% 5% 15% 8% 3$ 3%
Georgia/Russia conflict 2% 6% 8% 1% <1% 4%
Events in Iraq 1% 3% 4% x <1% 2%
US economy 1% 2% 2% 1% <1% 1%
Olympics 1% x x 2% x 2%
Afghanistan 1% x 3% x x x
Hurricane Katrina 1% x 2% <1% x x
Gas/oil prices 1% 2% x x <1% 1%
Immigration 1% 1% x x x <1%
Iraq homefront x 2% x <1% x x
Global warming x 2% x x x x
Energy debate x 1% x x x x
Tropical storm Fay x x 2% <1% <1% <1%
Cyberspace issues x x 2% x x x
Zimbabwe elections x x 1% x x x
US airline industy x x x 1% <1% x
Clark Rockefeller charges x x x <1% x x
Tubbs Jones dies x x x x <1% x
Russia x x x x <1% x
Israel/Palestine conflict x x x x x <1%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism