The world of talk followed standard operating procedure during the week of 7/8-13/07. It took to top news story of the week and bumped up the volume on it. But unlike most weeks, it was content to bump it up just the tiniest little bit. Straight news outlets gave Iraq policy 20% of coverage, and talkers upped that slightly to 22%. The pattern held for the 2008 campaign as well, which got 7% of the news hole and 8% of the talk hole. Here's the difference, though. The campaign was the #2 news story, but only came in #3 on the talk chart, after the domestic terror threat, #2 with 9% after getting only #4/4% of the news focus. Other terror and Middle East topics all competed with various other topics for small slices of the coverage pie.
