{"id":90639,"date":"2007-05-29T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-05-29T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/05\/29\/pej-news-coverage-index-may-20-25-2007\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:32","slug":"pej-news-coverage-index-may-20-25-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/05\/29\/pej-news-coverage-index-may-20-25-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Give President A Win in War Funding Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ever since President Bush\u2019s January 10 speech announcing the \u201csurge\u201d option in Iraq, the Washington-based debate over U.S. war policy has been the biggest story in the news, according to PEJ\u2019s weekly News Coverage Index. <\/p>\n\n

For most of those nearly five months, the debate has followed a basic story line\u2014a White House intent on beefing up the U.S. military presence in Iraq versus a new Congress led by Democrats trying to wind down the military role there. <\/p>\n\n

Last week, that Iraq policy debate was again the biggest story in the news, accounting for 10% of all coverage from May 20-25, according to PEJ\u2019s Index. The key event was a May 24 Congressional vote that funded the war but did not include troop withdrawal timelines. <\/p>\n\n

For much of those five months, coverage has frequently depicted a beleaguered President battling against Democrats, public opinion and even some members of his own party. But last week the coverage generally portrayed him as a clear winner in the tug of war. Many accounts stressed that it could be a temporary victory in a battle to be rejoined when General David Petraeus issues his September status report on Iraq. But for now, the verdict was clear. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cCongress Bows to Bush, OKs Iraq Funds\u201d was the headline on the Associated Press story about the vote. <\/p>\n\n

On ABC\u2019s \u201cWorld News Tonight\u201d George Stephanopoulos reported that the President had earned a \u201cvictory\u201d in the funding battle while \u201cDemocrats were denied their top goal, a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Subbing for Anderson Cooper, CNN\u2019s John King summed things up while the caption on the screen read: \u201cDemocrats Cave.\u2019\u2019 \u201cThe game of political chicken seems to be ending,\u201d said King. \u201cDemocrats in Congress who say they were elected to bring the troops home didn\u2019t have the votes to do it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Bush\u2019s political victory was just one element in a week in which the war in Iraq, the roiling Middle East, and the war against terror more generally dominated news coverage. In all, nine of the top ten biggest stories last week had some Middle East or terror connection. <\/p>\n\n

Some of these were quite direct. Aside from the policy debate, the third biggest story was events inside Iraq (9% overall, and the top story in newspapers and online) where the re-appearance of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr was a major development. The Lebanese Army\u2019s battle with radical Islamists at a refugee camp was the fourth biggest story at 6%. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran was the eighth biggest story at 3% and the impact of the Iraq war at home finished tenth at 2%. <\/p>\n\n

Three other top-10 stories had some, but less direct, connection with the Middle East and terrorism. That includes immigration (second biggest at 10%) where problems with border enforcement have raised the specter of terrorist threats. Last week\u2019s coverage of the 2008 presidential race (fifth at 6%) included reports on how various candidates voted on the Iraq funding bill. And rising gas prices (sixth at 4%) are related to our need for Middle East oil. <\/p>\n\n

The ninth biggest story (2%)\u2014a Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey of Muslim Americans\u2014found that a majority were assimilated and satisfied with their lives. But it also made news by registering Muslims\u2019 significant level of concern about how the U.S. is conducting the war on terror. <\/p>\n\n

Only one top-10 story \u2014the investigation into the fired U.S. attorneys (seventh at 4%) marked by the Congressional testimony of former Justice Department official Monica Goodling \u2014was strictly a domestic issue that was not tied in the coverage to events in the Mideast. <\/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.)<\/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.)<\/a> <\/p>\n\n

For the second straight week, the debate over immigration policy was a major story, one triggered by the May 17 announcement of a Senate agreement on a compromise bill. In some ways, opponents of the compromise appear to be considerably more passionate and engaged than supporters. That may explain why the two media sectors that provided the greatest percentage of coverage last week (cable at 14% and radio at 22%) are home to talk media hosts\u2014such as CNN\u2019s Lou Dobbs and talk radio\u2019s Rush Limbaugh\u2014who have been hammering away at the bill on a regular basis. <\/p>\n\n

After the Republican candidates dominated coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign the week of May 13-18, things returned to the more typical pattern last week. The Democratic contenders received more than twice as much coverage as their GOP rivals. A number of events\u2014including Bill Richardson\u2019s official announcement and Michelle Obama\u2019s statement that she is her husband\u2019s \u201cwife,\u201d not his chief advsior\u2014helped drive the coverage. <\/p>\n\n

So, too, did two new books about the candidate who, thus far, has attracted the most media attention\u2014\u201cA Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton\u201d by Carl Bernstein and \u201cHer Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton\u201d by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. <\/p>\n\n

In a report on the May 25 edition of PBS\u2019s \u201cNewsHour,\u201d Chris Cillizza, of Washingtonpost.com, described the impact of the new books as \u201ca lot of pebbles hitting the Clinton campaign\u201d but \u201cno boulder falling on it.\u201d Still, the reports of a pact in which both Bill and Hillary Clinton planned to be president for two terms and the details of a marriage under extreme stress generated heavy media coverage. <\/p>\n\n

On the Republican side, one story line was John McCain\u2019s heated exchange with fellow Republican Senator John Cornyn over immigration that resurrected old questions about the Arizona Senator\u2019s temper. (McCain is a supporter of the immigration bill and Cornyn is not.) <\/p>\n\n

Also two of the top-10 stories last week ended up, at least in part, being referenda on the news media themselves. The first involved heightened tension between the U.S. and Iran. (This is before the lengthy May 28 meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials over the situation in Iraq.) <\/p>\n\n

[d]<\/p>\n\n\n

Some of the subsequent coverage focused on whether ABC was wrong to reveal this secret plot against Iran. On May 23, Dan Abrams, sitting in for MSNBC\u2019s Joe Scarborough, hosted a spirited debate on the issue of journalistic freedom versus government secrecy. <\/p>\n\n

Several Republican presidential hopefuls made news by criticizing the network, including former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney who stated that he \u201cwas shocked to see the ABC News report\u2026.The reporting has the potential of jeopardizing our national security.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Another spirited outbreak of media criticism occurred over the reporting of the Pew Research Center\u2019s Muslim American survey. Seizing on the report headline, \u201cMuslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,\u201d and the 71% of Muslim Americans who believe people can get ahead in the U.S. if they work hard, a number of outlets played up some of the positive aspects of the survey. <\/p>\n\n

The USA Today May 23 front-page headline read \u201cAmerican Muslims reject extremes\u201d while the Minneapolis Star Tribune used the headline \u201cU.S. Muslims \u2018largely assimilated, happy.\u2019\u201d But that provoked the ire of some conservative commentators who accused the media of downplaying such findings as the 26% of Muslim Americans under 30 who said suicide bombing was \u201coften,\u201d \u201csometimes\u201d or \u201crarely\u201d justified. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIf you get past the biased press coverage and the headlines,\u201d asserted radio talk host Rush Limbaugh, \u201cit is clear that America has not moderated Islam or its adherents.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n\n

[the]<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big story here, which is 26% of young Muslims say that suicide bombing is justified,\u201d Kasich asserted. <\/p>\n\n

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

Note: Due to technical errors, CBS’s The Early Show from Thursday, May 24, and CBS radio news headlines from Monday morning, Tuesday evening, and Wednesday morning were not included in this week’s sample. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Capitol Hill to a refugee camp in Lebanon to ABC’s investigative team, the Mideast and the war on terror thoroughly dominated the media last week. Meanwhile, a controversy of sorts erupted over how news outlets treated the results of a new survey of Muslim-American attitudes. <\/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 News Coverage Index May 20 - 25, 2007","sub_title":"PEJ News Coverage Index May 20 - 25, 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-90639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":1340,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/05\/29\/pej-news-coverage-index-may-20-25-2007\/","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":"Media Give President A Win in War Funding Debate","parent_id":90639},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Media Give President A Win in War Funding Debate","description":"From Capitol Hill to a refugee camp in Lebanon to ABC’s investigative team, the Mideast and the war on terror thoroughly dominated the media last week. 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