Journalism

A GOP debate, a Royal visit, Murdoch’s media move, and a Washington sex scandal all generated their fair share of news coverage last week. But it’s still the battle over Baghdad—with a cast of players that last week included George Tenet and Condoleezza Rice—that captured most of the media’s attention and energy.

The biggest news stories were also the most discussed topics on America’s cable and radio talk shows last week. But the talk hosts often bring their own angles to the main story lines—and that can often involve finding a scapegoat or villain. Plus Imus, Rosie and Alec Baldwin all get play, mostly on the cable airwaves.

With the Virginia Tech shootings and Don Imus controversy beginning to fade into the news background, a couple of very familiar subjects commanded the most media attention last week. And Arizona Senator John McCain managed to find himself in the middle of both stories.

It’s probably no surprise that the college campus massacre proved to be the biggest talk show topic of the year. But while there were plenty of subplots to talk about, radio and cable hosts managed to seize on some of “hot button” issues to emerge from the worst shooting spree in the nation’s history.

He was a newspaperman and a war correspondent, a prolific author and an insatiably curious sports fan. But above all, David Halberstam—who died at age 73 in a car accident on Monday—was a reporter committed to helping his readers understand the complex world around them. PEJ senior counselor Bill Kovach offers his tribute to his friend, one of the nation’s most distinguished journalists.

The Attorney General faced a grilling from Congress, the Supreme Court weighed in on abortion rights, hundreds were slaughtered in a single day in Iraq, and a vicious storm wreaked havoc on the East Coast. But each of those events last week was completely overshadowed by the media’s non-stop coverage of the horrific events that unfolded on the campus of Virginia Tech.

To say Don Imus’s controversial words were a big topic on the talk shows last week is an understatement. The Imus story ruled the talk airwaves like no other since the Index began, taking up 61% of the talk time. But often Imus was less the subject of the talk than a way to take on other people and issues.

In a week that marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein and the end of the Duke lacrosse scandal, the remarks of a cable and radio talk show host dominated the news media. The fall of Don Imus had just the mix of ingredients that tend to seize the media imagination.

The Iranian hostage situation and the argument over Iraq policy were hot topics on the cable and radio talk shows last week. But in some ways, the U.S. Speaker of the House’s decision to talk to the President of Syria shed even more light on how the talk universe really works.