Politics Punctuate the Terrorism Debate

With two of the nation's more politically polarizing figures helping fuel the narrative, the US campaign against terrorism was the No. 1 story last week. Terrorism coverage accounted for 22% of the newshole from May 11-17, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. But the story was much bigger on the ideological, debate-oriented talk shows on radio and prime-time cable. Indeed, terrorism filled 50% of the airtime for the 13 talk shows studied by PEJ last week. Those discussions were doubtless driven in part by a political dynamic -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was embroiled in a controversy with the CIA over waterboarding briefings, and former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who continued his public campaign against Barack Obama's policies.