Journalism

After dominating news coverage for the first three months of the year, the disagreement over U.S. strategy in Iraq took a back seat in recent weeks to such topics as the presidential campaign and the battle over immigration. But what happened last week in Washington re-ignited old passions and re-engaged the press.

President Bush triggered a major political brouhaha when he commuted the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby. And the campaign fundraising numbers brought good and bad tidings to various presidential contenders. But a surprising twist in the U.K. terror saga dominated the media agenda last week.

The demise of the immigration bill that was so vocally opposed by so many talk hosts dominated the airwaves last week. But the nation’s radio and cable talkers were also interested in Paris Hilton’s freedom, the grisly murder/suicide spree of a pro wrestler and a nasty dustup between the wife of a Democratic presidential hopeful and a controversial conservative commentator.

With the apparent demise of the immigration reform bill, a major Supreme Court decision on race, and a few natural disasters, last week was jammed with big news events. But nothing got the media’s attention like a couple of suspicious cars parked in London.

The race for the White House was easily the most discussed story on the radio and cable talk shows last week. But the debate over the hotly contested immigration bill also bubbled over on the airwaves. And one of the top talk topics even involved a call for more political diversity along the radio dial.

Was it a tease, a trial balloon, or a trivial matter? New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to shed his GOP label sure had the media buzzing last week. And while dramatic events inside Iraq generated substantial coverage, the policy debate over the war has slipped onto the press back burner in recent weeks.

The impassioned debate on the talk airwaves wouldn’t go away last week as the once-imperiled immigration bill appeared to get a new life. And that had some conservative hosts putting former GOP allies on their enemies list. The talkers were also more interested in HBO’s gang wars than the Hamas-Fatah battles.

It took Presidential intervention, but the changing fortunes of the controversial immigration reform legislation was the leading story last week. Still, U.S. domestic politics were almost overshadowed violence in the Mideast. And why did the ending of a cable series make the nightly news?