Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Publications

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    Sherrod Case Draws Heavy Coverage, Modest Interest

    Summary of Findings The controversy surrounding the firing of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod attracted widespread attention from the news media last week and was the dominant story on cable news networks. The public, however, showed modest interest in the Sherrod affair and, as has been the case since early May, the oil […]

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    Media, Race and Obama’s First Year

    As a group, African Americans attracted relatively little attention in the U.S. mainstream news media during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency — and what coverage there was tended to focus more on specific episodes than on examining how broader issues and trends affected the lives of blacks generally.

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    Obama’s Policies Seen as Better than Bush’s for Improving the Economy

    Overview While most Americans disapprove of Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, far more think his administration’s policies – rather than those of the Bush administration – would do more to improve economic conditions over the next few years. As Congress gears up for debate over the tax cuts passed when Bush was president, the […]

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    The Reconstruction of a Media Mess

    The Shirley Sherrod saga started with a video posted online and ended with a flurry of finger pointing.  In a special report, PEJ reconstructs a chronology of how the story reverberated around the media echo chamber before dramatically changing course. And this week’s News Coverage Index finds that the tale of the USDA employee prematurely forced out of her job was the No. 2 story in the news agenda.