{"id":90615,"date":"2007-06-28T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/06\/28\/pej-talk-show-index-june-17-22-2007\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:31","slug":"pej-talk-show-index-june-17-22-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/06\/28\/pej-talk-show-index-june-17-22-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloomberg and Clinton Top the Talkers\u2019 Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n\n

The big campaign news last week was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg\u2019s announcement he was dropping his Republican affiliation, a move that sparked frenzied speculation that the billionaire centrist might launch an independent bid for the presidency. <\/p>\n\n

Media interest in Bloomberg\u2019s intentions helped make the 2008 White House race the biggest story in the general news Index, as it accounted 11% of the overall coverage last week. And the cable and radio talk hosts were even more fascinated by the presidential battle, which was the leading topic and filled 25% of talk airtime, according to PEJ\u2019s Talk Show Index for June 17-22. <\/p>\n\n

Bloomberg generated the big buzz last week. But there was a difference in how the broader mainstream media and the talk hosts handled the topic. In the general news Index, Bloomberg truly dominated\u2014he was the subject of about 45% of all the stories while about 20% of the stories were primarily about Democrat Hillary Clinton. <\/p>\n\n

In the talk show world, however\u2014where Clinton always seems to be a handy lightning rod\u2014that difference was considerably narrower. Bloomberg was a chief subject in fewer talk segments (40%) and Clinton was involved in more of them (26%). <\/p>\n\n

Sure, the \u201cwill he or won\u2019t he?\u201d Bloomberg discussion got a good going over on the talk shows. But so did the news that Clinton got booed during a June 20 appearance at the \u201cTake Back America\u201d conference where the liberal, anti-war audience had some problems with her record on the war. <\/p>\n\n

On MSNBC\u2019s \u201cCountdown,\u201d the caption read \u201cBoo Tube\u201d as liberal host Keith Olbermann opened his June 20 show with a recap of the \u201cTake Back America\u201d episode. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cSenator Hillary Clinton has made it clear she has no intention of apologizing for her 2002 vote authorizing the war in Iraq,\u201d Olbermann noted. \u201cToday, the liberal base of the Democratic Party made it clear that it has no intention of stopping asking her to do so.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

On the same night, the Fox News Channel\u2019s conservative co-host Sean Hannity quizzed an anti-war activist about Clinton\u2019s views on Iraq. Accusing the New York Senator of being \u201cpolitically expedient,\u201d Hannity asked: \u201cShe doesn\u2019t have any core values on this, does she?\u201d <\/p>\n\n

If Bloomberg and the Clinton boo birds helped drive their interest in the campaign, the talk hosts\u2019 battle against the immigration bill helped make that subject the second-most popular topic (at 12%). The case of the missing Ohio woman Jessie Davis\u2014whose boyfriend was subsequently charged with her murder\u2014was next at 8%. (The cable hosts discussed that story, but radio hosts took a pass.) The fourth-biggest talk topic was charges of White House ethical lapses (4%) launched by two liberal hosts \u2013 Olbermann and radio talker Randi Rhodes. And fallout from the intra-Palestinian conflict in the West Bank and Gaza was the fifth-biggest story at 4%. <\/p>\n\n

The Talk Show Index, released each week, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics are most frequently dissected and discussed in the media universe of talk and opinion\u2014a segment of the media that spans across both prime time cable and radio. (See About the Talk Show Index.)<\/a> PEJ\u2019s Talk Show Index includes seven prime time cable shows and five radio talk hosts and is a subset of our News Coverage Index<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

If the presidential campaign has been the dominant talk story in recent weeks\u2014it was the top topic in four of the past six weeks\u2014then the battle over immigration legislation has been a pretty close second. <\/p>\n\n

Since the May 17 announcement of a Senate compromise, a number of hosts have launched a full-fledged attack on what they have dubbed an \u201camnesty\u201d bill. That was the case as well last week, after the legislation was resurrected and sent to the Senate for one last ditch effort at passage. (That effort appears to have finally failed when the bill came out on the short end of a crucial June 28 vote to end debate.) <\/p>\n\n

Even as such vocal opponents of the measure as radio hosts Michael Savage and Sean Hannity continued to denounce it last week, more than half of all the segments devoted to the subject originated with CNN\u2019s Lou Dobbs. <\/p>\n\n

On June 22, Dobbs\u2014who has made opposition to the immigration bill the hallmark of his show\u2014aired a report on talk radio that seemed intended to rebut lawmakers\u2019 criticism of the talk hosts\u2019 role in the immigration debate (One of the more noteworthy comments came from Mississippi Senator Trent Lott who complained that \u201cTalk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.\u201d) <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s amazing,\u201d offered Dobbs at the end of the report. \u201cIt keeps coming back to who do you trust. And I\u2019m gonna go with just about anybody but an elected official in this day and age\u2026Whether you like a talk radio host or not, they have performed a very important function here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

One notable aspect of the current Talk Index is that half of its top-10 stories don\u2019t match the general news Index\u2019s top-10 story list. Such spot news stories as the Texas floods and the South Carolina inferno that claimed nine firefighters failed to make the talkers\u2019 roster along with the Senate passage of an energy bill, the fighting in Afghanistan, and the impact of the Iraq war on the U.S. homefront. <\/p>\n\n

Conversely, the White House ethical issues and the fired U.S. attorneys controversy (sixth-biggest topic at 3%) were top talk stories that didn\u2019t generate much general news coverage. The Iraq policy debate (ninth-biggest talk topic at 2%) and the fallout from the Duke lacrosse rape case (tenth-biggest at 2%) also failed to make the general news Index\u2019s list of top stories. <\/p>\n\n

One other top-10 talk topic was one uniquely suited for the ideological and argumentative talk show culture. The \u201ctalk hosts wars\u201d (eighth at 3%) conversation involved liberal radio host Ed Schultz\u2019s June 22 call for more political diversity in talk radio. <\/p>\n\n

Citing a recent report indicating that conservative talk hosts overwhelmingly dominate the airwaves, Schultz\u2014a syndicated talker who is heard on more than 100 stations\u2014declared that \u201call progressive talkers seem to be fighting over the same 100 stations\u2026And there are radio companies in this country that broadcast absolutely zero seconds of anything other than hard right-wing talk. Are they operating in the public\u2019s interest?\u201d <\/p>\n\n

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

\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

Top Ten Stories in the Talk Show Index<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

1. 2008 Campaign – 25% <\/address>\n\n
2. Immigration – 12%
<\/address>\n\n
3. Ohio Woman – 8%<\/address>\n\n
4. White House Scandals – 4% <\/address>\n\n
5. Palestinian Conflict – 4%<\/address>\n\n
6. Fired US Attorneys – 3%
<\/address>\n\n
7. Events in Iraq – 3%
<\/address>\n\n
8. Talk Show Wars – 3%<\/address>\n\n
9. Iraq Policy Debate – 2%<\/address>\n\n
10. Duke Lacrosse Scandal – 2% <\/address>\n\n\n <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Top Ten Stories in the broader News Coverage Index<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

1. 2008 Campaign – 11% <\/address>\n\n
2. Events in Iraq – 9%<\/address>\n\n
3. Palestinian Conflict – 7%
<\/address>\n\n
4. Ohio Woman – 5%<\/address>\n\n
5. Immigration – 4%<\/address>\n\n
6. Charleston Fire – 3%<\/address>\n\n
7. Energy Debate – 3%<\/address>\n\n
8. Iraq Homefront – 2%<\/address>\n\n
9. Afghanistan – 2%<\/address>\n\n
10. Texas Flooding – 2%<\/address>\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read the methodology behind the Talk Show Index. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The race for the White House was easily the most discussed story on the radio and cable talk shows last week. But the debate over the hotly contested immigration bill also bubbled over on the airwaves. And one of the top talk topics even involved a call for more political diversity along the radio dial. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"PEJ Talk Show Index June 17 - 22, 2007","sub_title":"PEJ Talk Show Index June 17 - 22, 2007","_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,"apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"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-90615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":1133,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/06\/28\/pej-talk-show-index-june-17-22-2007\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Bloomberg and Clinton Top the Talkers\u2019 Agenda","parent_id":90615},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Bloomberg and Clinton Top the Talkers\u2019 Agenda","description":"The race for the White House was easily the most discussed story on the radio and cable talk shows last week. 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