The top subjects for bloggers last week involved Washington-centric stories, but not the one that galvanized much of the mainstream media. The lead subject on Twitter was about online news judgment. And on YouTube, an eight-month-old clip featuring remarks by talk host Glenn Beck became the subject of a debate about inflammatory speech.
Obama’s replacement of General McChrystal as the head of NATO forces in Afghanistan generated voluminous political analysis last week. Coverage of the war approached a level not seen since late last year. Meanwhile, the Gulf oil spill continued to attract headlines, as did Wall Street reform.
During a Christmas week when the Senate passed its version of health care reform, social media devoted more attention to the subject than it had at any time this year. Bloggers also focused on an international grassroots campaign. On Twitter, a Blackberry outage led the way, while on YouTube, questions about the attack on the Italian Prime Minister drew significant attention.
The economic crisis showed few signs of easing, a scandal-plagued governor tried to anoint a Senator, and the incoming President moved to Washington. But last week, the guns of the Middle East dominated the news agenda.
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?
From Capitol Hill to a refugee camp in Lebanon to ABC’s investigative team, the Mideast and the war on terror thoroughly dominated the media last week. Meanwhile, a controversy of sorts erupted over how news outlets treated the results of a new survey of Muslim-American attitudes.
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