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News Coverage

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  • report

    Candidates’ Policy Positions Still Not Widely Known

    Summary of Findings While Barack Obama has been the dominant figure in the presidential campaign, both in press coverage and public visibility, most Americans say they do not know very much about his policy positions. Only 40% say they know a lot or a fair amount about his positions on foreign policy; 59% say they […]

  • report

    Running on Faith

    In the 2008 election season, religion has been a significant factor for candidates in both parties. But even with the Jeremiah Wright controversy, evangelical voter angst, and a Mormon candidate, the media largely avoided dealing directly with the explosive issue of faith.

  • report

    Two campaign speeches, one JFK moment?

    Through the 2008 primary election season, two candidates—Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican former governor Mitt Romney—received more media attention about their faith than any of the other candidates combined.

    For both, the attention raised concerns about their relig …

  • report

    For Public, Oil Prices and Economic News Overshadow Campaign

    Summary of Findings News organizations continued to focus a great deal of attention on the presidential campaign last week, but the public was more interested in news about the rising price of oil and the overall economy. As the price of oil reached a new record, a solid majority (57%) followed news about rising oil […]

  • short reads

    Follow-Up Failure in Texas

    That’s how much more coverage the Texas raid of a polygamist ranch received compared to the ruling later reversing it.

  • report

    Foreign Disasters Attract Interest Despite Modest Coverage

    Summary of Findings The American public expressed strong news interest in the earthquake in China last week even as the news media remained heavily focused on the presidential campaign. In spite of modest coverage of both the earthquake in China and the cyclone that hit Burma, the public had a fairly good sense of the […]

  • short reads

    Media Pass on NY Times Pentagon Piece

    A single pair of follow-up stories to The New York Times military analyst expose have appeared in the mainstream press, according to a PEJ analysis.

  • report

    Why News of Iraq Dropped

    The tactical success of the surge and the tactical failures of the new Democratic Congress are among the reasons why the five-year-old conflict seems to have disappeared from the headlines. And then there are the competing demands of covering the most intriguing presidential campaign in recent memory.