Even in a week with North Korea, Iran, Anna Nicole, and Hillary on the front burner, it’s U.S. strategy in the Iraq war that commands the talk airwaves. And the dominance of that debate reveals something about the nature of the talk show culture.
The nation’s radio and cable talk shows can’t resist talking about the blockbuster hot button issues like Iraq and the presidential campaign. But on subjects ranging from global warming and tensions with Iran to the Scooter Libby trial and the death of Molly Ivins, the talk conversation is very much shaped by the hosts’ own agendas.
More so than any time this year, no single story dominated the news last week. But a number of sudden events and slowly developing subjects found their way into the headlines. Anna Nicole Smith faded, Al Gore re-emerged, and Bob Woodruff came back home to ABC.
The endless parade of Anna Nicole Smith legal proceedings was still a source of fascination for the cable talk hosts last week. But their radio counterparts opted for another favored subject—and it was open season on the 2008 campaign season.
It may come as no surprise that the president’s Iraq strategy was the hottest topic on cable and radio talk shows last week. But the second edition of the PEJ Talk Show Index also reveals that the idea of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton battle for Democratic hearts and minds got tongues wagging and pundits pontificating.
There was plenty of conversation about Rudy Giuliani and Scooter Libby on the radio and cable talk shows last week. And the debate over Iraq continued to be the biggest topic. But the mysterious death of a blonde bombshell pushed everything else to the sidelines, as the talkers took up time wondering about her appeal.
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?
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