Two Explosive Scandals Top the News
With additional women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, the 2012 presidential race was the No. 1 story for the second week in a row.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
With additional women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, the 2012 presidential race was the No. 1 story for the second week in a row.
In a conference call with journalists, Pew Forum staff members discussed the findings of a Pew Forum survey, Mormons in America: Certain in Their Beliefs, Uncertain of Their Place in Society. The survey examines Mormons’ religious beliefs and practices, political ideology, and attitudes toward their faith, family life, the media and society.
Tensions drove Occupy Wall Street coverage to its biggest week so far and an interview with Jerry Sandusky ushered in a second week of major coverage of Penn State’s sexual abuse scandal.
According to a Pew Forum survey of professional prison chaplains, America’s state penitentiaries are a bustle of religious activity. The Pew Forum hosted an event to discuss the survey’s key findings with journalists, policymakers and experts who have worked with the correctional system.
Even after it had passed, the hurricane that slammed the East Coast continued to be the top news story across the U.S. last week as damage mounted. A scheduling skirmish over a presidential speech made the economy the No. 2 story while the hunt for a deposed dictator was a smaller story than his fleeing the capital.
There were no late summer news doldrums last week as the apparent conclusion of a civil war and a pair of natural disasters topped the news. The rebel takeover of Libya generated the biggest week of attention to that conflict in five months while an earthquake and a hurricane brought the media focus back to the Northeast United States.
The long-awaited debt ceiling deal in Washington triggered a torrent of overwhelmingly negative economic coverage that easily proved to be the dominant story of the week. And two major newsmakers earlier in the year, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifffords, re-emerged in the headlines last week.
The growing News of the World scandal drew increased media attention last week, but not enough to stanch interest in the debt deliberations in Washington, which have fueled the top story for five weeks running. A record-breaking heat wave, the end of an era at NASA and a relatively quiet presidential campaign also ranked among the top stories last week.
Though the economy topped the mainstream news agenda, Obama’s troop drawdown announcement gave Afghanistan its biggest week of coverage in a year. And while mainstay subjects—the campaign and the Mid-East—continued to make news, the surprise arrest of one of the FBI’s most wanted dominated the end of the week.
The latest outbreak of violent spring storms proved to be the biggest weather story in PEJ’s four years of tracking news coverage. An election in New York State turned into a major economic story and the prospect of a Palin candidacy helped drive coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign last week.