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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\nNearly one-fifth of all coverage studied during the year relating to African Americans (19.4%) had to do with Gates\u2019 arrest and the ensuing controversy, including Obama\u2019s remarks. During its height, however, the Gates story was never huge. Its biggest week, according to PEJ\u2019s News Coverage Index, was the week the story broke, July 20-26, and it occupied 11.9% of the newshole, making it the No. 3 story for that week.<\/p>\n\n
The story took off in the mainstream press after Obama made comments about the arrest at one of his press conferences. Indeed, Obama, not involved at all in the initial incident, was a central newsmaker in roughly half of all African American-related Gates coverage. <\/p>\n\n
In the time period studied, the Gates saga was the biggest African American storyline in all news sectors except for cable where the Obama Administration story was slightly larger. <\/p>\n\n
Network morning news programs devoted the most time to the incident, as 45.2% of their African American-related coverage centered on the Gates arrest. <\/p>\n\n Almost a quarter, 24.1%, of talk radio programming predominantly about African Americans was devoted to the Gates incident.<\/p>\n\n Online news filled 21.2% of its African American newshole with stories about the Gates arrest. On evening network news, the story filled 20.9% of the newshole.<\/p>\n\n On cable, that was true of 19.9% of its African American-related coverage, second only to the Obama Administration at 25.9%. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n [1]<\/p>\n\n\n What sort of African American angle emerged in the coverage of the Gates incident? Was there an attempt to discuss the black population more broadly, or did the media stay focused on the individuals directly involved? <\/p>\n\n To a certain degree, this varied according to each media sector. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n Cable news and network morning television in particular focused on the aftermath, often bringing in pundits or other outsiders for discussion. But, even using some of the same sources, there was a distinct difference in the image that emerged from each of the two sectors. Morning news segments, usually a brief packaged piece followed by a discussion with two or more guests, tended to be more symbiotic, with the guests often voicing agreement over the issues at hand and offering a positive sense of how things could move forward.<\/p>\n\n For example, on the July 23, 2009 Today Show, NBC\u2019s Matt Lauer interviewed Michael Eric Dyson, an author (and common interviewee across the media sectors), and Michel Smerconish, also an author and a radio host.\u00a0 Although the two men disagreed, they acknowledged each others\u2019 points of view, and never interrupted each other.<\/p>\n\n And on the July 24, 2009 Early Show on CBS, correspondent Harry Smith interviewed Professor Gates\u2019 daughter Elizabeth, a writer for DailyBeast.com, along with the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Denise Simmons.\u00a0 The two women remained very cordial throughout, with Gates even praising the other interviewee\u2019s words, \u201cAs the mayor just eloquently stated, my father has said that he\u2019ll participate in whatever the next step must be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n As the case went on, the coverage followed the same pattern, although the topic evolved.\u00a0 On a July 28, 2009 Early Show, after airing the taped recording of the 911 call, Harry Smith interviewed the Rev. Jesse Jackson about the debacle.\u00a0 Smith asked Jackson about the upcoming \u201cbeer summit\u201d between Obama, Gates and Officer James Crowley and whether the men could find common ground; he also noted the feel-good mood after Obama was elected and asked whether the U.S. could ever be a color blind country.<\/p>\n\n Jackson responded that, \u201cNo one desires to be blind. We should be conscious\u2026and we should be caring. I think the real deal here is that we do not have an explosive situation. President Obama has tried to reduce the temperature in the Doctor Gates and Crowley case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n On talk radio, the tenor was quite different.\u00a0 Most of the coverage in this sector came from the conservative talk show hosts. Liberal host Ed Schultz did not spend any significant time on this story. Another liberal talker, Randi Rhodes, devoted two segments to the arrest. <\/p>\n\n Since right wing talkers were most likely to talk about the issue, it is not surprising that most of the radio talk show coverage strongly critiqued Obama\u2019s response to the Gates arrest. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n [should have]<\/p>\n\n\n Also on July 23, Michael Savage called Obama a \u201cjive artist\u201d and said his and Gates\u2019 actions were anti-police. <\/p>\n\n Sean Hannity also blasted Obama in his radio show July 24, 2009 for saying that the cops acted \u201cstupidly.\u201d\u00a0 He demanded that Obama apologize to Crowley.<\/p>\n\n Much of the internet news coverage was made up of wire stories that followed the same trajectory of the case that the other outlets followed.\u00a0 Although there was some analysis, most coverage described the events of the case, Obama\u2019s comments, the 911 call and the subsequent beer summit.<\/p>\n\n A July 21, 2009 Associated Press story published on AOL News explained that \u201csupporters say Gates was the victim of racial profiling\u201d and then went into a detailed account of the events that led up to the arrest.\u00a0 The article also pulled in quotes from several prominent African Americans including the Rev. Al Sharpton and some of Gates\u2019 colleagues.<\/p>\n\n Network evening news produced the most enterprising pieces, looking beyond the political issue at hand to broader racial implications. CBS Evening News aired a July 23, 2009 story on the recent history of clashes between African Americans and law enforcement.\u00a0 A day later, ABC\u2019s World News Tonight aired a report on the same issue. <\/p>\n\n On July 23, 2009, PBS\u2019 NewsHour aired a package about the incident and then Ray Suarez interviewed Antwi Akom, a professor of urban education and Joseph Thomas, Jr., the African American chief of police for Southfield, Michigan and an adjunct professor of political science. In this rather formal, polite interview, the three men focused on the problem of racial profiling as opposed to focusing solely on the Gates incident.\u00a0 The tenor of the discussion reflected much of the coverage seen in the African American press about the incident. Cable news attention was similarly focused on political implications, though here both sides of the aisle weighed in strongly. On cable news, particularly evening prime time, the tone was quite different. These programs fixated more on the political implications. Here, debate and disagreement came from both the guests and the hosts themselves. \u00a0 <\/p>\n\n On the O\u2019Reilly Factor\u2019s July 23, 2009 show, for example, sit-in host Monica Crowley repeatedly criticized Obama for weighing in on the matter at all. \u201cWe weren\u2019t there, we don\u2019t know what happened, but neither does the president.\u00a0 So why is he taking sides in the case of a Harvard professor accusing a local cop of racism?\u201d <\/p>\n\n CNN in some ways benefited from timing as the Gates arrest occurred shortly before the premiere of the Black in America 2 series.\u00a0 Several African American guests were already scheduled to appear on the various prime time programs.\u00a0 The conversation quickly turned to the Gates affairs, with heated remarks and exchanges among the guests. Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room, for example, aired a live interview with African American comedian D.L. Hughley and an African American radio host, Bev Smith.<\/p>\n\n Smith was incensed about Gates\u2019 arrest and racism overall.<\/p>\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re outraged.\u00a0 We\u2019re outraged that an intellectual\u2026He is not unknown in his community nor is he unknown by the police department. My listeners were calling the police department and registering our outrage.\u00a0 We cannot have our leadership treated in such a way.\u00a0 We\u2019re outraged, but we\u2019re not surprised, Wolf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Blitzer\u2019s interview touched more on race relations than most other coverage of the arrest, asking the guests if they had ever been racially profiled and if the situation for African Americans was getting better \u2013 to which Smith\u2019s quick response was that it was \u201cabsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Newspapers, at least on their front pages, stuck more to the events as they unfolded. The Washington Post, for example, had a front page story on July 22, 2009 about the arrest.\u00a0 The Post interviewed Gates, who said that the arrest will lead him to \u201cturn his intellectual heft and stature to the issue of racial profiling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n One area of commonality across media sectors came in the black voices they brought into the coverage. Most interviewed a mix of African Americans not tied to the case in any way but who were academics, political analysts and black activists, who could speak personally as a voice from the African American populace. Some of the most prominent voices included conservative Bob Parks and liberal Earl Ofari Hutchinson, American political science professor, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Reverend Jesse Jackson and political analyst Donna Brazile.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/legacy\/u29\/Gates_Coverage_0.png\")
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