Iraq Policy and Presidential Politics Top the News

IRAQ POLICY AND PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS TOP THE NEWS
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
After two weeks in which breaking mega-stories (Don Imus’s firing and the Virginia Tech massacre) dominated the news, two familiar ongoing issues generated the most coverage last week. The top story was the Iraq policy debate at 15% of the overall newshole, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index from April 22-27. Although the debate over Iraq has consistently been a top-five story in the weekly Index, this marked the first time it had been the number one story since mid-February.
The crowded and active race to succeed George Bush in the White House -- which included a debate among Democrats last week -- followed in second place at 10%. Both stories gained significant momentum late in the week. The policy debate -- which generated the most coverage online (15%), on network TV (20%), cable news (17%) and radio (16%) -- was fueled by the House’s and the Senate’s passage of Iraq funding measures with withdrawal timetables. The President upped the political ante and drama by vowing to veto the legislation. Meanwhile, the televised April 26 debate from South Carolina generated a major portion of the presidential race coverage for the week.
http://www.journalism.org/node/5343