{"id":90698,"date":"2007-04-16T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-04-16T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/04\/16\/pej-news-coverage-index-april-8-13-2007\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:32","slug":"pej-news-coverage-index-april-8-13-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/04\/16\/pej-news-coverage-index-april-8-13-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Imus Second Biggest Story of 2007 So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The downfall of talk show host Don Imus for racist and misogynistic comments was the second most-heavily covered story of the year to date, according to the PEJ\u2019s weekly study of the agenda of the American news media. <\/p>\n\n

From his attempted redemption on the Rev. Al Sharpton\u2019s radio show to the fallout over his firing by NBC and CBS, the controversy over Imus\u2019s insults about the Rutgers\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team filled more than a quarter of the newshole (26%) of PEJ\u2019s News Coverage Index for the week of April 8 to 13.<\/p>\n\n

Only the debate over American war policy with Iraq when the President announced his \u201csurge\u201d plan the week of January 7 to 12 got more media coverage this year. It <\/strong>filled 34% of the newshole in our index that week. <\/p>\n\n

Nothing else this year has come close to capturing the media\u2019s attention at this level. The next biggest story of the year, the controversy over the firing of U.S. Attorneys, filled 18% of the newshole the week of March 18 to 23. The takeover by Democrats of Congress reached 15% the first week of the year. Several stories, including the presidential campaign and the State of the Union speech, have gone as high as 13% in a given week. The Anna Nicole Smith story has never exceeded 10% of the total newshole.<\/p>\n\n

Last week, April 8 through 13, the second-biggest story was events on the ground in Iraq (10% of the newshole). That was followed by the Duke University lacrosse scandal (7%), the Iraq war policy debate (5%), and discussion of U.S. immigration policy (5%). <\/p>\n\n

The Imus story cut across every media sector, though it was particularly powerful on cable news. By week\u2019s end, the story had taken up nearly half of all the time on the three cable news channels (48%). <\/span>That exceeds any story on cable all year for a full week. As a source of comparison, the Anna Nicole Smith story, another cable favorite, made up 50% of cable time the two days after she died, but never exceeded 26% for a full week. The Imus story filled 39% of the radio newshole last week, and 25% of the time on network evening and morning news programs.<\/p>\n\n

Last week was also only the second time that events in Iraq itself surpassed the policy debate here at home as the focus of the coverage of the conflict. One reason was that early in the week marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein. The end of the week was dominated by the bombing of the cafeteria in the Iraqi parliament building inside the so-called \u201cGreen Zone\u201d of Baghdad, an area previously considered safe. <\/p>\n\n

Another Iraq story last week was the decision to extend deployments of U.S. troops from 12 months to 15. The Washington Post led on Thursday with the headline, \u201cStrained Army Extends Tours to 15 Months: Move is Needed for Iraq Troop Increase.\u201d <\/span>The story tended to bleed across questions of the effect on the homefront and the policy. If all three elements of the Iraq story were combined\u2014policy debate, homefront and events on the ground\u2014they made up 17% of the newshole last week, still far from the Imus controversy. <\/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> <\/span><\/p>\n\n

If the Imus story seemed to reflect a national conversation about race and misogyny, the Duke lacrosse story was framed as one about the American justice system, and to some lesser extent about media rush to judgment. As ABC\u2019s Jim Avila opened his segment on the case, he described, \u201cIt was though the scales of justice were tipped in one day. The state attorney general telling the accused they should never have been charged, and those who accused them \u2013 they should think about apologizing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The Imus mess was not a big story immediately. Imus started all this on April 4, when he referred to the Rutgers women\u2019s basketball team, which was made up mostly of African American young women as \u201cnappy headed ho\u2019s.\u201d The reference was in comparison to the Tennessee women\u2019s team Rutgers played for the national championship, which was more heavily Caucasian. Imus himself did not seem to think the comments damaging. He said on air the next day that he didn\u2019t know why people should be offended by \u201csome idiot comment meant to be amusing.\u201d By Friday, Imus had changed his tone and took time on his radio show to apologize for his \u201cinsensitive and ill-conceived remark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Yet that change of heart could not be attributed to heavy media attention those first few days. Within PEJ\u2019s news universe of 48 different news outlets, there was only a single story on Imus comment between the time he made the remarks (April 4) and the end of that Friday, April 6: a 3-minute report on CNN\u2019s Situation Room Friday evening.<\/p>\n\n

That changed on Monday April 9, when Imus appeared on the radio program hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York. Soon after the highly publicized appearance, all three of the network evening newscasts reported on Imus\u2019s saga, with both NBC\u2019s Nightly News and CBS\u2019s Evening News choosing to lead with the Imus controversy. The same night on cable, CNN\u2019s Paula Zahn Now, Fox News\u2019s Hannity and Colmes, and MSNBC\u2019s Scarborough Country all devoted practically their entire first 30 minutes to the Imus controversy.<\/p>\n\n

Several key ingredients seemed to combine to make the Imus story something that seized the media imagination. <\/p>\n\n

First, the story had new substantive developments each day of the week\u2014several that came with TV visuals. The confrontation with Sharpton was the first of these. What ABC\u2019s Dan Harris described as Imus\u2019s \u201ccontrition-mission\u201d\u2014Imus himself said, \u201cOur agenda is to try and be funny, and sometimes we go too far\u201d\u2014turned bad for the talk show host after Sharpton continued to be tough. At one point Imus exclaimed, \u201cI can\u2019t get anyplace with you people.\u201d (Imus then explained that he was referring specifically to Sharpton and those on his show, not any larger group.)<\/p>\n\n

In the coverage that followed, several news organizations picked up on the moment that Sharpton brought out his daughter, a recent graduate of Temple University, and told Imus, \u201cShe in not a nappy-headed ho; she\u2019s my daughter.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n

The following day, Tuesday, April 10, the Rutgers women\u2019s team weighed in with a widely publicized press conference. \u201cOur moment here was taken away, our moment to celebrate our success,\u201d sophomore Heather Zurich told the cameras. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

A day later, several major advertisers such as American Express and General Motors announced they would no longer sponsor the Imus program. Late in the day, NBC announced it would drop the television simulcast of Imus\u2019s show entirely on its cable channel MSNBC. <\/span>On Thursday, CBS announced it was cancelling Imus\u2019s radio program. <\/p>\n\n

The second factor driving the Imus story was that his program had prominent celebrity guests from the worlds of media and politics, many of whom felt obliged to weigh in. As Newsweek\u2019s Howard Fineman put it on Imus\u2019s Monday April 9 show, while urging him to meet with the Rutgers team, \u201cYou know, all of us who do your show, you know, we\u2019re part of the gang. And we rely on you the way you rely on us. So, you know, you\u2019re taking all of us with you when you go out there to meet with them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The list of Imus regulars who felt compelled to comment in included Tom Oliphant of the Boston Globe (he expressed \u201csolidarity\u201d), NBC anchor Brian Williams on his blog (who admitted to a conflict of interest), Presidential Candidate John McCain (who called for \u201credemption\u201d<\/span>) and CBS\u2019s Bob Schieffer (\u201cIf it were anyone else, I wouldn\u2019t have anything to do with them. But I\u2019m not going to sever a relationship with someone who has apologized for what he said. He\u2019s my friend.\u201d<\/span>) <\/p>\n\n

Soon others were weighing in as well, from Barack Obama on ABC News (\u201cHe didn\u2019t just cross the line, he fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America\u201d), to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Tom Delay and Whoopi Goldberg. Even President Bush offered up when his spokeswoman Dana Perino said, \u201cThe president believed that the apology was the absolute right thing to do\u2026And beyond that, I think that his employer is going to have to make a decision about any action that they take based on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

There was also history here\u2014a record of comments by Imus about race and gender. Imus had once referred to PBS\u2019s Gwen Ifill, also African American, as a \u201ccleaning lady,\u201d and New York Times columnist William Rhoden, also Black, as a \u201cquota hire.\u201d <\/span>Imus had also made repeated references to Arabs as \u201cragheads\u201d and some women as \u201cskanks.\u201d CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes ran a 10-year-old profile on Imus that even then noted the offensive nature of some of his humor.<\/p>\n\n

The Imus story also seemed to connect at least in the press coverage with larger social themes about race, gender, the nature of civil discourse in America, the question of whether it was appropriate for different ethnic groups to talk about themselves internally in ways that were not acceptable generally, and whether there were double standards because of the discourse in comedy and rap music.<\/p>\n\n

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

On MSNBC\u2019s Scarborough Country, guest John Ridley argued, \u201cYou can flip over to MTV or BET and see rap music videos made by black people objectifying black women as video ho\u2019s.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Finally, the Imus story was also simple to understand. A viewer, listener or reader could grasp the controversy and have a strong opinion after less than a minute of hearing Imus\u2019s initial remark and one of his several attempts at apologizing. <\/p>\n\n

The relative compactness of the Imus story made it perfect for a media culture quick to move from facts to talk, and for members of the media to express judgments about the situation and its impact on media as a whole. <\/p>\n\n

In announcing his decision to drop Imus, NBC News President Steve Capus suggested that conversation had even influenced the network. \u201cI think there has been some very interesting conversation going on in this country about what\u2019s appropriate, about race relations, and I hope that conversation goes forward\u2026.And when you start looking at all of the body of work and everything that was said all through the years, at some point you have to say, \u2018enough is enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n

And as the week ended, the conversation had turned to whether Imus was a victim of political correctness or whether other media people should lose their jobs. <\/p>\n\n

[Cuban\u2019s television network]<\/p>\n\n\n

[O\u2019Donnell]<\/p>\n\n\n

Tom Rosenstiel, Paul Hitlin, and Hong Ji of PEJ <\/em><\/p>\n\n

Note: Due to a technical error, Friday’s edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press was not included in this week’s sample. <\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h6>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a week that marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein and the end of the Duke lacrosse scandal, the remarks of a cable and radio talk show host dominated the news media. 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