Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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General David Petraeus’ appearance on Capitol Hill last week helped turn the Iraq debate into one of the biggest talk topics of the year. The general may not have changed many minds in Congress, but he provided talk hosts on both sides of the political spectrum with plenty of ammunition.
Summary of Findings The 2008 presidential campaign began much earlier than usual, but public interest in the campaign is at most only modestly higher than in previous campaigns. While Democrats are following the campaign more closely than at the same stage in previous primary contests, Republicans are no more engaged than in the past, resulting […]
One is a longtime senator who may be driven from office by scandal. Another is a former senator who announced his intent to seek the highest office in the land. Both were target-rich environments for the talk shows last week and both took their share of lumps. This, plus Michael Savage’s memorable Pavarotti tribute.
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 deadly collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis last week quickly became one of the most heavily covered events of the year so far. And while it was the top story in every medium, coverage was particularly intense on cable TV, where officials, rescuers and even some victims told their stories.
Summary of Findings While Barry Bonds’ 756th career home run broke one of baseball’s long standing records, it was a non-event for many Americans. Just 12% followed the story very closely, while a 42% plurality did not follow the story at all closely. Bonds’ record received significantly less public attention than the last home run […]
Summary of Findings Hillary Clinton continues to lead Barack Obama by a wide margin in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Obama has something Clinton doesn’t have — the support of Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey endorsed Obama in May of this year and recently held a fundraiser for him at her Malibu, Calif. home. […]
In laying out the important data collection questions, workshop participants touched on five themes, to be discussed in detail in this section of the essay: Productivity: Why are accurate measures of broadband and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) important to measuring the economic productivity? Public policy and government intervention: If government chooses to intervene […]