Budget Battles Lead the News

After several weeks of being overshadowed by Mideast turmoil, domestic policy and politics returned to the news with a vengeance last week. At the same time, coverage of the often violent unrest in the Muslim world fell by almost half, even as democracy movements spread from Egypt to Bahrain and Libya. For the week of February 14-20, two pitched budget battles—one in Washington, the other in Madison, Wisconsin—drove coverage of economic issues to 35% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That marks the most economy-related coverage in a single week since December 6-12, 2010, when it reached 40% of the newshole studied by PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index. Taken together, three storylines—Obama’s $3.73 trillion budget, the deficit and state budget crises highlighted by Wisconsin protests over the governor’s attempt to cut union benefits and bargaining power—accounted for more than 80% of the week’s economic coverage.