{"id":90595,"date":"2007-07-09T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-07-09T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/07\/09\/pej-news-coverage-index-july-1-6-2007\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:36","slug":"pej-news-coverage-index-july-1-6-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/07\/09\/pej-news-coverage-index-july-1-6-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cDoctors\u2019 Plot\u201d is Number One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.K. terror plot that hit the headlines June 29 with the discovery of two undetonated car bombs in London took a strange and disturbing turn last week. <\/p>\n\n

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

One day later, attackers drove a vehicle into the Glasgow airport terminal, triggering a panicky, fiery scene, convincing British authorities to raise the alert level to \u201ccritical\u201d and generating stepped-up security in the United States. <\/span>Then the unusual nature of the plot\u2014and the plotters\u2014began to unfold. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cShocking revelations that doctors were at the heart of that British terror plot,\u201d declared Katie Couric on CBS\u2019s July 2 newscast. The next morning, while reporting that six suspects in the case were doctors or medical students, ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d hammered away at the theme of \u201cprofessional healers who were apparently determined to kill.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very disturbing development morally and practically,\u201d asserted ABC\u2019s Terry Moran. \u201cDoctors are trusted all over the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

On the July 4 \u201cToday\u201d program, NBC correspondent Lisa Myers reported that \u201cthe British government now is looking at how to tighten scrutiny of foreign doctors who come here to practice medicine.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

By the end of the week, there was an alarming, if tenuous, American connection to the saga. Anchoring a July 6 ABC radio newscast, Charles Gibson noted that \u201cmonths before their unsuccessful attempt to bomb the entertainment district in London and the airport in Glasgow, some of the terror suspects were thinking about coming to the U.S.\u201d The FBI confirmed that two of the suspects had contacted an agency about practicing medicine in this country. <\/p>\n\n

The London and Glasgow terror attacks failed to inflict serious casualties, and the Fourth of July passed without incident in the United States. But what Terry Moran called \u201cthe doctors\u2019 plot\u201d (ABC ran the caption \u201cDr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde\u201d during his report) was enough of a man-bites-dog story to lead the coverage last week. According to PEJ\u2019s News Coverage Index, the subject filled 14% of the newshole in the period from July 1-6. <\/span>It was also the No. 1 story in the newspaper (12%), online (22%) and network news (19%) sectors. (The previous week, it had been the fourth-biggest story at 5%. <\/span>But only the June 29 discovery of the two car bombs occurred early enough to be counted in that Index.) <\/p>\n\n

The political firestorm that erupted over President Bush\u2019s July 2 commutation of Lewis \u201cScooter\u201d Libby\u2019s 30-month sentence in the Valerie Plame case was the second-biggest story last week (at 11%). And the 2008 Presidential race was punctuated by one of those yardsticks that attracts plenty of media attention, even if it may be a forgotten statistic when the votes come start to come in months from now. Driven by the release of second-quarter 2007 fundraising numbers, the campaign was third last week, generating 8% of the overall coverage. <\/p>\n\n

The immigration debate\u2014the lead story at 12% in last week\u2019s Index\u2014slipped to fourth (4%) as the fallout from the bill\u2019s June 28 demise waned. The fifth-biggest story (at 3%) was a potpourri of July Fourth-related events that included fireworks accidents and a three cent rise in the cost of beer. Not included was the big upset at the July 4 Coney Island hot dog-eating contest where American Joey Chestnut devoured 66 dogs in 12 minutes to beat the previously invincible Japanese champ Takeru Kobayashi. That stunning display of epicurean athleticism attracted only a minimal amount of coverage. <\/p>\n\n

PEJ\u2019s News Coverage Index is a study of the news agenda of 48 different outlets from five sectors of the media. (See a List of Outlets.)<\/span><\/a> It is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media are covering, the trajectories of major stories and differences among news platforms. (See Our Methodology.)<\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

The President\u2019s decision to commute \u201cScooter\u201d Libby\u2019s sentence for obstruction of justice and perjury in the case involving the outing of CIA operative Valerie <\/span>Plame did not generate quite as much coverage as Libby\u2019s conviction in early March. (The conviction was the top story that week at 13%.) But the President\u2019s action did ignite a heated debate in political and media circles. <\/span>It was the top story last week in the two media sectors (cable news at 20% and radio at 11%) that are home to the talk shows. <\/p>\n\n

On the July 5 edition of MSNBC\u2019s \u201cHardball,\u201d host Chris Matthews aired a heavyweight battle of sound bites. Interviewed on a radio program, former President Bill Clinton\u2014whose 1998 impeachment was based on charges of obstruction and perjury\u2014lashed out at the Bush administration. \u201cThey believe that they should be able to do what they want to do and the law is a minor obstacle,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n

White House spokesman Tony Snow responded partly in Yiddish by asserting that \u201cI don\u2019t know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

On the same night on the Fox News Channel\u2019s \u201cHannity & Colmes\u201d commentators Mark Steyn and Juan Williams got into a high-decibel debate on the subject. Supporting the President\u2019s decision, Steyn said that \u201cwhat\u2019s at issue here\u201d in the Libby conviction \u201cis the criminalization of politics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Williams, a critic of the move, responded that the case was \u201cnot about disagreeing\u2026it\u2019s about managing and manipulating intelligence\u201d in the run-up to the Iraq war. <\/p>\n\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

The other big political story last week, the 2008 presidential campaign, was fueled by the fundraising numbers. The news was good for Democratic hopeful Barack Obama, who collected more than $32 million in the quarter, outraising Hillary Clinton and setting a new fundraising record for Democrats. The news was grim for Republican contender John McCain, who raised slightly more than $11 million and began cutting staff. <\/p>\n\n

For McCain, once the presumed GOP favorite whose campaign has staggered early, the numbers seemed to fit the media narrative for him thus far. <\/p>\n\n

Thus, this first paragraph in the New York Times July 3 page-one story: \u201cThe presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who once seemed poised to be his party\u2019s nominee in 2008, acknowledged yesterday that it was in a political and financial crisis as a drop in fund-raising forced it to dismiss dozens of workers and aides and retool its strategy on where to compete.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Some observers have speculated that McCain\u2014perhaps the most vocal supporter of the Iraq troop buildup among the presidential hopefuls\u2014could benefit from a respite from bad news about the war. And though Iraq has not vanished from the headlines, coverage of the war\u2014and particularly the debate over strategy\u2014has recently tailed off. <\/p>\n\n

Last week events on the ground in Iraq amounted to the sixth-biggest story (3%) followed immediately by the policy debate (also 3%). This marks the sixth week in a row that the argument over Iraq strategy failed to make the Index\u2019s roster of top-five stories. That can be traced back to the May 24 Congressional votes to fund the war without withdrawal timetables, an event that was seen at the time as a major victory for President Bush. That stands in stark contrast to the first three months of the year when the policy debate dominated the news agenda. <\/p>\n\n

Last week, even veteran Republican Senator Pete Domenici\u2019s decision to break with Bush over Iraq\u2014a move that mirrors recent statements by GOP Senators Richard Lugar and George Voinovich\u2014failed to move the policy debate up past seventh place in the Index. <\/p>\n\n

Yet, with all sides gearing up for a potentially decisive showdown over the war that could start with this month\u2019s interim progress report on the conflict, the Washington-based battle over Iraq may once again command the media\u2019s singular attention. <\/p>\n\n

Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ <\/em> <\/p>\n\n

Note: Because of the July 4 holiday, no editions of the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, or any of MSNBC’s regular programming were available for inlcusion on that day. In addition, the 5 pm radio headlines from ABC news radio and CBS news radio on Tuesday, July 3rd, were not included in this week’s sample due to a technical error. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Bush triggered a major political brouhaha when he commuted the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby. And the campaign fundraising numbers brought good and bad tidings to various presidential contenders. 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