Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The recent controversy surrounding sermons by Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Wright, and Obama’s March 18 speech on race and politics have attracted more public attention than other recent campaign events, according to Pew’s weekly News Interest Index. Nearly eight-in-ten (79%) say they heard at least something about Wright’s sermons (51% a lot, 28% a little) […]
Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in December, 2008, for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Vali Nasr, author of the 2006 book, The Shia Revival, surveyed the geo-political landscape of today’s Middle East, arguing that the 2003 invasion of Iraq has fundamentally […]
Summary of Findings The videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial sermons and Barack Obama’s subsequent speech on race and politics have attracted more public attention than any events thus far in the 2008 presidential campaign. A majority of the public (51%) said they heard “a lot” about the videos, and an even larger percentage (54%) […]
Summary of Findings Over the course of the primary campaign season greater numbers heard about controversies associated with Barack Obama than heard about other campaign events. Nonetheless, far more Americans believe that the press coverage has favored Barack Obama than think it has favored Hillary Clinton. Nearly four-in-ten (37%) say that in covering the Democratic […]
Summary of Findings The latest round of news about Barack Obama and his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright dominated campaign news coverage last week. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s (PEJ) Campaign Coverage Index, 42% of all campaign coverage last week dealt with the Rev. Wright controversy. Wright’s comments are by far the […]
In a week in which the campaign overwhelmingly dominated the talk airwaves, the hottest issue was Obama’s speech aimed at dampening the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy. In the talk show universe, the response was impassioned, but the verdict was far from unanimous.
Summary of Findings Hillary Clinton’s retraction of her claim that she came under sniper fire while visiting Bosnia in 1996 was one of the main campaign storylines last week. But the controversy over her statements did not resonate as widely as the furor over statements made by Barack Obama’s pastor earlier in March. Roughly four-in-ten […]
When it came to coverage, John McCain was a forgotten man compared with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But perhaps no news was good news for the GOP in a week during which the press highlighted some of the uglier divisions among Democrats.
The key media narrative last week involved growing pressure on Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the primary fight. Meanwhile, Barack Obama tried his hand at hands-on campaigning while John McCain hoped to grab the media’s attention with a tour of some old stomping grounds.