{"id":90163,"date":"2009-03-03T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2009-03-03T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2009\/03\/03\/news-coverage-index-february-23-march-1-2009\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:24","slug":"news-coverage-index-february-23-march-1-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2009\/03\/03\/news-coverage-index-february-23-march-1-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Obama Narrative: \u201cChange\u201d was an Understatement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

In a week chock full of major events designed to address the crisis\u2014a fiscal responsibility summit, a prime-time presidential speech and the unveiling of Obama\u2019s first budget\u2014the increasingly frail state of the U.S. economy again dominated the headlines. <\/p>\n\n

And amid the swirl of events, a media meta narrative was forming that was considerably greater than the sum of the news: After only five weeks in office, Obama was staking his presidency on a stunning and sweeping overhaul of domestic priorities. <\/p>\n\n

Driven primarily by the Obama budget and concerns over the nation\u2019s red ink, the economic crisis was easily the top story from February 23-March 1, according to the Pew Research Center\u2019s Project for Excellence in Journalism. It filled 38% of the newshole, compared with 39 % the previous week. But that is only a partial indicator of the dominance of economic news last week. <\/p>\n\n

The second biggest story (10% of newshole), was Obama\u2019s Feb. 24 speech\u2014delivered to Congress but aimed at living rooms\u2014intended to strike a balance between reassurance and urgency about the country\u2019s economic stability. Coverage of the failing U.S. auto industry accounted for another 2%. Some of the media\u2019s attention to the mechanics of the new Administration last week also included an analysis of Obama\u2019s ambitious efforts at domestic restructuring. <\/p>\n\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n\n

As events unfolded, the developing theme was the sheer breadth and scope of the change\u2014certain to trigger major battles in Washington\u2014that Obama was pushing in the early days of his tenure. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe budget President Obama proposed on Thursday is nothing less than an attempt to end a three-decade era of economic policy dominated by the ideas of Ronald Reagan and his supporters,\u201d declared a story in the New York Times. <\/p>\n\n

A similar, if blunter, sentiment came from Atlantic Media blogger Andrew Sullivan who wrote that Obama had seized on the economic crisis as a \u201cmoment for more radicalism than might have seemed possible only a couple of months ago…If none of this works, he will have taken a massive gamble and failed. But if any of it works, if the economy recovers\u2026then we’re talking less Reagan than FDR in long-term impact.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt’s going to be a riveting first year, isn’t it?\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n

The Economic Crisis: <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

In a sign of how pervasive and diverse the economic problems are, for the third week in a row a different component of the financial crisis drove coverage of the economy. Three weeks ago, it was the debate over the $787 billion stimulus package. Two weeks ago, it was the housing and mortgage package unveiled by the administration. Last week, February 23-March 1, Obama\u2019s budget proposal and the nation\u2019s growing deficit combined as the top theme, accounting for one-third (33%) of the financial meltdown coverage. The next largest storyline was the continuing banking and credit crunch and the financial bailout program (21% of the economic newshole) followed by coverage of the still simmering debate over Obama\u2019s stimulus plan, at 11%. <\/p>\n\n

The week began with a White House event clearly intended to demonstrate the President\u2019s concern about the red ink in light of massive federal spending\u2014a February 23 fiscal responsibility summit. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cPresident Barack Obama is bringing together dozens of advisers and adversaries to discuss how to curb a burgeoning federal deficit laden with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid obligations,\u201d said an AP story posted on AOL news. \u201cObama’s summit at the White House on Monday is the first meeting toward a strategy to address the long-term fiscal health of the nation\u2026Even before it began, some of its 130 invited participants cautioned against over inflated expectations.\u201d <\/span> <\/p>\n\n

The increasingly ominous economic news, however, seemed to move faster than Washington\u2019s ability to keep pace. \u201cTonight the topic is jobs and we have another grim new number,\u201d declared Brian Williams on the February 26 NBC newscast. \u201cSix hundred and sixty-seven thousand Americans filed for first time unemployment benefits, just last week.\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n\n

\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

What came next was an economic man-bites-dog story, slices of the economy\u2014or \u201cpockets of optimism\u201d\u2014that were doing well in tough times. Among the examples were a shoe repair business in South Florida (because people aren\u2019t buying new shoes) and a mechanic in San Antonio who opened an auto repair shop in his backyard.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n

Toward the end of the week, however, the Obama budget and its potential implications simply overwhelmed the rest of the narrative. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIn $3.6 Trillion Budget, Obama Signals Broad Shift in Priorities,\u201d declared the banner headline atop the February 27 Washington Post. In an accompanying analysis, Dan Balz wrote that, \u201cPresident Obama’s first budget\u2014with its eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit, a health-care fund of more than $600 billion, a $150 billion energy package and proposals to tax wealthy Americans even beyond what he talked about during his campaign\u2014underscores the breadth of his aspiration to reverse three decades of conservative governance and use his presidency to rapidly transform the country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\u201cLike Ronald Reagan for Republicans 28 years ago, the new Democratic president is staking out his party’s position on spending and taxes. Whereas Reagan sought to limit government, Obama wants to expand its reach,\u201d added the February 27 USA Today story, while conjuring up the President\u2019s favored campaign slogan. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis is change, whether you believe in it or not.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The Speech<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Not surprisingly, Obama\u2019s first big speech to Congress attracted considerably more attention (10% of the newshole) than George Bush\u2019s final State of the Union Address (6%). <\/p>\n\n

Among other things, circumstances prompted lots of historical comparisons, most frequently to Franklin Delano Roosevelt who took office in the midst of the Great Depression. And many of the commentators seemed to be gauging the speech for its psychological content, eager to see whether Obama could ladle out enough hope to go along with the castor oil of current economic reality. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt’s interesting to compare Obama’s first big presidential speech with Roosevelt’s,\u201d ventured Michael Kinsley in an op-ed column. \u201cOn the all-important Reassure-o-Meter, I’d call it a tie.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

On the February 25 edition of CBS\u2019s Early Show, chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer cited snap polls showing a favorable reaction to the speech. (One CBS survey indicated the percentage of those who approved the President\u2019s economic plans jumped to 80% after the speech compared with 63% before.) <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI thought it was a very effective speech,\u201d said Schieffer. \u201cHe tried to explain some of the bitter medicine that he says is going to be needed to get the economy going again.\u201d Then Schieffer returned to that key theme in the week\u2019s media narrative, declaring that Obama is \u201cstaking his presidency on this enormous program.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

A more critical assessment came in William Kristol\u2019s column. \u201cObama’s speech reminds of Ronald Reagan’s in 1981 in its intention to reshape the American political landscape. But of course Obama wishes to undo the Reagan agenda,\u201d he wrote. Republicans \u201ccan’t allow Obama to make of 2009 what Franklin Roosevelt made of 1933 or Johnson of 1965.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Newsmakers of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

All this meant that Obama was an even bigger story last week than he had been. From Feb. 23-March 1, the President was a lead newsmaker\u2014meaning he was featured in at least 50% of a story\u2014in 20% of the week\u2019s stories, his highest level of coverage since inauguration week. <\/p>\n\n

No one else came remotely close to matching the President\u2019s coverage and his closest competitor suffered by comparison\u2014on several fronts. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, touted as a rising young Republican star, was given the largely thankless task of responding to Obama\u2019s February 24 speech, and he turned in what the media considered a shaky performance, panned by liberals and conservatives alike. For that, he was the No. 2 newsmaker of the week, but only at 1% of the stories. <\/p>\n\n

At No. 3 (also at 1%) was Gary Locke, the former Washington governor and the newest candidate in Obama\u2019s third attempt at picking a Commerce Secretary. After that came a man who had a mixed week. The good news for Tiger Woods (1%) was that he returned to professional golf competition after an eight-month absence due to knee surgery. The bad news was the he was upset in the second round of the Accenture Match Play tournament by South Africa native Tim Clark who had yet to win on the PGA Tour. The fifth newsmaker on the list, also at 1%, was Attorney General Eric Holder. <\/p>\n\n

The Rest of the Week\u2019s News<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Almost lost amid the tsunami of economic news was, oh, the end of the war in Iraq. After the economic crisis and the President\u2019s speech accounted for almost 50% of the week\u2019s newshole, the No. 3 story from February 23-March 1 involved a major foreign policy decision that formally ended the political debate over the war. <\/p>\n\n

The news that Obama planned to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, leaving behind a residual force of about 50,000, filled 6% of the newshole. While that represented twice as much coverage as Obama\u2019s decision to send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan the previous week, that modest level of attention is a reflection of how much has changed in a year. At one point, Iraq looked to be the burning issue in the 2008 presidential race and Obama used it to differentiate himself from Hillary Clinton in their long primary battle. But early in 2008, months before the dimensions of the meltdown became known, it was clear that economic worries had surpassed the war as the most important issue for voters. <\/p>\n\n

Even more stunning, in its own way, was the almost unanimous acceptance of the policy change, praised by officials from George Bush\u2019s cabinet and John McCain\u2019s camp. The only discordant note seemed to come from the left of Obama\u2019s own party, who grumbled about the number of troops that would remain. <\/p>\n\n

The fourth-biggest story of the week, at 5%, was coverage of the mechanics of the new Obama administration, where the President\u2019s appointments, most notably Gary Locke, dominated the narrative. The No. 5 story at 2% was coverage of the Academy Awards where the big news was the film Slumdog Millionaire, which walked away with eight statues. Some conservative talk hosts, including Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage, also had something to say the liberal proclivities of Hollywood and Sean Penn, an outspoken activist who won an Oscar for his portrayal of openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. <\/p>\n\n

About the NCI<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

PEJ\u2019s weekly News Coverage Index examines the news agenda of 55 different outlets from five sectors of the media: print, online, network TV, cable and radio. (See List of Outlets<\/a>.) The weekly study, which includes some 1,300 stories, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of that media narrative and differences among news platforms. The percentages are based on “newshole,” or the space devoted to each subject in print and online and time on radio and TV. (See Our Methodology<\/a>.) In addition, these reports also include a rundown of the week\u2019s leading newsmakers, a designation given to people or institutions who account for at least 50% of a given story. <\/p>\n\n

Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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