While the President’s plan to commit 22,000 more troops to Iraq dominated the media agenda last week, it was an even bigger story in the radio and cable talk show universe, according to the first edition of the new PEJ Talk Show Index. From Rush Limbaugh to Keith Olbermann, talk hosts across the political spectrum weighed in on the surge, mirroring the raging debate in Washington and throughout the country.
President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq, and the reaction from Capitol Hill to Baghdad, overwhelmed virtually every other event in the media last week. The only non-Iraq stories to crack PEJ's News Coverage Index Top 5 last week were the Democrats in Congress and U.S. military strikes in Somalia.
The deteriorating conflict in Iraq was still the leading story line in the news last week. But the media were also tested by a terror false alarm, a major campaign trail gaffe, lethal weather, and the tragic death of a great athlete, according to the PEJ News Coverage Index.
The jury has spoken in the perjury and obstruction trial of Scooter Libby that so intimately involved the journalism profession itself. We know the vice-president’s former top aide was found guilty. But who and what else did the media implicate in its post-verdict coverage?
The cable talkers didn’t have much to say about the State of the Union address, and the liberal hosts didn’t weigh in on Clinton’s presidential bid. But war and politics still managed to dominate the talk show agenda last week—even more so than the overall news coverage.
The increasingly crowded 2008 presidential field and the intensifying political battle over Iraq competed with President Bush’s State of the Union Address for media attention last week. But the PEJ index of the news also reveals that a series of smoldering global hotspots are now attracting more coverage.
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