Court Ruling on California Prisons Leads on Blogs

Bloggers displayed a strong law and order streak last week as two crime and public safety topics combined to account for nearly half (47%) of the news links studied by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

From May 23-27, the top story on blogs (34% of the news links) was the May 23 U.S. Supreme Court ruling ordering California to release thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding, making it the No. 1 subject, according to PEJ's New Media Index. The Court's 5-4 decision found that the overcrowding led to "needless suffering and death" among prisoners. But that position held little sway with most bloggers who were upset with the ruling and far more concerned about a threat to public safety than any dangers posed to the inmates. Another California crime story, the May 22 arrest of a suspect accused of severely beating a San Francisco Giants baseball fan at Dodgers Stadium in March, was the No. 3 story on blogs, at 13%. It had been almost two months since the initial highly publicized incident occurred, and bloggers expressed relief that an arrest was finally made in a case that has left the victim fighting for his life.