![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/legacy\/u7\/image006.gif\")
<\/figure>\n\nPBS\u2019s nightly NewsHour also had the same list of top four stories, with one notable distinction. The program devoted much more time to its No. 1 story, the policy debate. It filled 23% of the newshole on the first half hour of the NewsHour. Of the three commercial broadcast networks, by comparison, the highest total for the Iraq debate was 8% on ABC. When all three threads of the Iraq war are combined\u2014policy debate, events on the ground and homefront, PBS filled almost twice as much of its airtime (33%) with war-related coverage than the next closest commercial network, CBS (at 17%). (It\u2019s worth noting that the hour-long PBS broadcast has an extra 30 minutes to devote to news each evening.)<\/p>\n\n
When it comes to cable news, there tends to be considerably more variation in story selection.<\/p>\n\n
In the third quarter of 2007, the third-biggest story on CNN was the ultimately unsuccessful effort to save the six men trapped in a Utah mine cave-in. The saga filled 6% of the cable network\u2019s airtime for the three months. On the Fox News Channel, the mine disaster was a less newsworthy event and finished as the eighth-biggest story of the quarter, at 2% of the newshole. On MSNBC, the tragedy got even less attention, finishing out of the top-10 story list at 2%.<\/p>\n\n
There was general agreement among the three cable nets about the top two stories of the quarter\u2014the presidential race and the Iraq policy debate. (Although CNN was the only one to devote more coverage to the war debate rather than the campaign). But on other stories, the cable rivals made some very different coverage choices.<\/p>\n\n
The oldest of the three cable news operations and the one with the broadest global reach, CNN devoted the most coverage to events inside Iraq (4%), its fifth-biggest story of the year. It was also the only one of the three cable competitors to include the recalls of pet food and Chinese products among its top 10 stories, at 2%. Given Lou Dobbs\u2019 constant attention to the subject, immigration, the fourth-biggest story at 6%, is a bigger subject on CNN than either of its two competitors.<\/p>\n\n The Fox News Channel, which according to one\u2019s viewpoint either tilts to the right or is a refreshing antidote to predominant liberal bias, devoted more coverage than its rivals to two threats to U.S. national security. Domestic terrorism issues were No. 3 at 5% and the simmering tensions between Iran and the U.S. were the sixth biggest story at 4%. It also devoted more airtime than CNN and MSNBC to the two big celebrity crime cases. O.J.\u2019s run-in with the law was the fifth biggest at 4% while Michael Vick\u2019s dogfighting bust, at 2%, was the tenth-biggest story.<\/p>\n\n For the third quarter in a row, the Fox News Channel also devoted less time to the Iraq war than CNN and MSNBC. When the three war threads\u2014the Iraq policy debate, events inside Iraq, and the war\u2019s impact on the homefront\u2014are combined, 11% of Fox\u2019s airtime was devoted to the war in the third quarter. That compares with 17% at CNN and 19% at MSNBC.<\/p>\n\n MSNBC, which promotes itself as a source for political news\u2014\u201cthe place for politics\u201d is one of its slogans\u2014and has more implicitly acknowledged efforts to develop a more liberal prime-time lineup (they were interested in giving Rosie O\u2019Donnell a show), showed that its marketing is also backed up by its story selection. It easily devoted the most airtime to the campaign (19%), compared to 11% at Fox and 7% at CNN. MSNBC also provided more coverage to Larry Craig (No. 3 story at 5%), the Valerie Plame outing case that resulted in the conviction of Scooter Libby (No. 6 at 3%), the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (No. 8 at 2%) and the resignation of Karl Rove (No. 10 at 2%) than either of its competitors.<\/p>\n\n Moreover, MSNBC front-loaded heavily on its two top stories. Combined, the presidential campaign (19%) and the Iraq policy debate (18%) filled 37% of the network\u2019s overall newshole in the quarter. At CNN, it took the top six stories combined to fill 37% of the newshole and on Fox, it took the top seven stories to reach that level.<\/p>\n\n The trend was even more pronounced on prime time, where the top issues of the day are dissected and discussed. At night on MSNBC, the Iraq debate and the race for the White House accounted for 45% of all coverage. On Fox, those two subjects accounted for about half as much coverage, 22%. On CNN, the war debate and campaign accounted for one-fifth of all of that network\u2019s coverage, at 20.<\/p>\n\n In the world of radio news and information, the type of platform made a difference. While NPR\u2019s \u201cMorning Edition\u201d and the ABC and CBS radio headlines both made the Iraq policy debate the top story, talk radio devoted the most time to the presidential campaign. (The 2008 race was only the 11th biggest topic on the headline services.) Meanwhile, talk radio\u2019s third-hottest subject, the Larry Craig scandal, was No. 7 in the headlines and not even among \u201cMorning Edition\u2019s\u201d top 20 stories of the quarter.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the third quarter, some patterns among different media sectors and outlets continued to reveal themselves. One such pattern is the basic similarity in the news judgment on the three nightly commercial broadcast network newscasts. From July through September, the lineup of the top four stories\u2014the Iraq war policy debate, followed by events inside Iraq, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[921],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-90592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","bylines-benjamin-wormald","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":90523,"word_count":936,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/news-judgments-by-outlet\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":90523,"title":"Terrorism, Tight Credit, and Tragedies Emerge in the News in Third Quarter","slug":"terrorism-tight-credit-and-tragedies-emerge-in-the-news-in-third-quarter","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/terrorism-tight-credit-and-tragedies-emerge-in-the-news-in-third-quarter\/","is_active":false},{"id":90532,"title":"The Summer of Terror Jitters","slug":"the-summer-of-terror-jitters","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-summer-of-terror-jitters\/","is_active":false},{"id":90540,"title":"The Economy Emerges As A Big Story","slug":"the-economy-emerges-as-a-big-story","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-economy-emerges-as-a-big-story\/","is_active":false},{"id":90546,"title":"Disasters Get Big Play","slug":"disasters-get-big-play","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/disasters-get-big-play\/","is_active":false},{"id":90554,"title":"The Craig Scandal","slug":"the-craig-scandal","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-craig-scandal\/","is_active":false},{"id":90563,"title":"Iraq War Coverage: Petraeus Keeps The Numbers Steady","slug":"iraq-war-coverage-petraeus-keeps-the-numbers-steady","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/iraq-war-coverage-petraeus-keeps-the-numbers-steady\/","is_active":false},{"id":90571,"title":"The 2008 Campaign: Steady Coverage with Clinton as Top Newsmaker","slug":"the-2008-campaign-steady-coverage-with-clinton-as-top-newsmaker","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-2008-campaign-steady-coverage-with-clinton-as-top-newsmaker\/","is_active":false},{"id":90578,"title":"Top Newsmakers: Politicians and Criminal Defendants Lead The Way","slug":"top-newsmakers-politicians-and-criminal-defendants-lead-the-way","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/top-newsmakers-politicians-and-criminal-defendants-lead-the-way\/","is_active":false},{"id":90583,"title":"Immigration Retreats To The Shadows","slug":"immigration-retreats-to-the-shadows","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/immigration-retreats-to-the-shadows\/","is_active":false},{"id":90592,"title":"News Judgments By Outlet","slug":"news-judgments-by-outlet","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/news-judgments-by-outlet\/","is_active":true},{"id":90598,"title":"General Topics: Winners and Losers","slug":"general-topics-winners-and-losers","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/general-topics-winners-and-losers\/","is_active":false},{"id":90606,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-67-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/methodology-67-2\/","is_active":false},{"id":90610,"title":"Topline","slug":"topline-33","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/topline-33\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":90592,"title":"News Judgments By Outlet","slug":"news-judgments-by-outlet","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/news-judgments-by-outlet\/","is_active":true,"page_num":10},"next_post":{"id":90598,"title":"General Topics: Winners and Losers","slug":"general-topics-winners-and-losers","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/general-topics-winners-and-losers\/","is_active":false,"page_num":11},"previous_post":{"id":90583,"title":"Immigration Retreats To The Shadows","slug":"immigration-retreats-to-the-shadows","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/immigration-retreats-to-the-shadows\/","is_active":false,"page_num":9},"pagination_items":[{"id":90523,"title":"Terrorism, Tight Credit, and Tragedies Emerge in the News in Third Quarter","slug":"terrorism-tight-credit-and-tragedies-emerge-in-the-news-in-third-quarter","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/terrorism-tight-credit-and-tragedies-emerge-in-the-news-in-third-quarter\/","is_active":false,"page_num":1},{"id":90532,"title":"The Summer of Terror Jitters","slug":"the-summer-of-terror-jitters","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-summer-of-terror-jitters\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},{"id":90540,"title":"The Economy Emerges As A Big Story","slug":"the-economy-emerges-as-a-big-story","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-economy-emerges-as-a-big-story\/","is_active":false,"page_num":3},{"id":90546,"title":"Disasters Get Big Play","slug":"disasters-get-big-play","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/disasters-get-big-play\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},{"id":90554,"title":"The Craig Scandal","slug":"the-craig-scandal","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-craig-scandal\/","is_active":false,"page_num":5},{"id":90563,"title":"Iraq War Coverage: Petraeus Keeps The Numbers Steady","slug":"iraq-war-coverage-petraeus-keeps-the-numbers-steady","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/iraq-war-coverage-petraeus-keeps-the-numbers-steady\/","is_active":false,"page_num":6},{"id":90571,"title":"The 2008 Campaign: Steady Coverage with Clinton as Top Newsmaker","slug":"the-2008-campaign-steady-coverage-with-clinton-as-top-newsmaker","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/the-2008-campaign-steady-coverage-with-clinton-as-top-newsmaker\/","is_active":false,"page_num":7},{"id":90578,"title":"Top Newsmakers: Politicians and Criminal Defendants Lead The Way","slug":"top-newsmakers-politicians-and-criminal-defendants-lead-the-way","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/top-newsmakers-politicians-and-criminal-defendants-lead-the-way\/","is_active":false,"page_num":8},{"id":90583,"title":"Immigration Retreats To The Shadows","slug":"immigration-retreats-to-the-shadows","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/immigration-retreats-to-the-shadows\/","is_active":false,"page_num":9},{"id":90592,"title":"News Judgments By Outlet","slug":"news-judgments-by-outlet","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/news-judgments-by-outlet\/","is_active":true,"page_num":10},{"id":90598,"title":"General Topics: Winners and Losers","slug":"general-topics-winners-and-losers","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/general-topics-winners-and-losers\/","is_active":false,"page_num":11},{"id":90606,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-67-2","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/methodology-67-2\/","is_active":false,"page_num":12},{"id":90610,"title":"Topline","slug":"topline-33","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/12\/06\/topline-33\/","is_active":false,"page_num":13}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Terrorism, Tight Credit, and Tragedies Emerge in the News in Third Quarter","parent_id":90523},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"News Judgments By Outlet","description":"In the third quarter, some patterns among different media sectors and outlets continued to reveal themselves. One such pattern is the basic similarity in the news judgment on the three…","og_title":"News Judgments By Outlet","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"2 images are missing alt text.","data":{"count":2}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 13 paragraphs.","data":{"count":13}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"eeb4ff31-576b-4c2b-82cf-cdf44a790ea7","termId":921}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135657,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90592\/revisions\/135657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=90592"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=90592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/legacy\/u7\/image007.gif\")
<\/figure>\n\n