{"id":90742,"date":"2007-04-04T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/04\/04\/anna-iraq-and-presidential-politics\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:33","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:33","slug":"anna-iraq-and-presidential-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/04\/04\/anna-iraq-and-presidential-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna, Iraq, and Presidential Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overall, that extensive morning show and cable output is largely responsible for the fact that Smith\u2019s death was the third biggest story, accounting for 8% of all the news coverage studied by PEJ in that slightly more than three-week period. It missed being No. 1 by the narrowest of margins.<\/p>\n\n

The Iraq policy debate, which included a crucial House vote against the President\u2019s surge policy, accounted for 9% of the overall coverage. The presidential race, which featured campaign announcements from Barack Obama, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, also generated 9%. <\/p>\n\n

Far further down the list during this period\u2014attracting less than half the coverage of Anna Nicole\u2014were such potentially far-reaching events as the nuclear deal with North Korea, renewed fighting in Afghanistan, the Scooter Libby trial, and the February stock market plunge.<\/p>\n\n

Those overall numbers, though, in many ways gloss over the profound differences in media sectors and don\u2019t offer much insight into where the coverage was coming from. <\/p>\n\n

For those who turned to radio, the Internet or newspaper front pages, the Anna Nicole story was a much smaller event, not even reaching five percent of the newshole in any of those media (radio and online were tied at 4%, and it was a mere 1% for the papers).<\/p>\n\n

Anna Nicole Smith Coverage: By Medium<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Feb 8 \u2013 March 2, 2007<\/p>\n\n

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

\"PEJ\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
click here<\/a> to design your own chart<\/em><\/div>\n\n

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

Anna Nicole Smith Coverage: Network Morning News Shows <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Total Coverage by Network, Feb 8 \u2013 March 2, 2007 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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

\"PEJ\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

click here <\/a>to design your own chart<\/em><\/p>\n\n

It was on ubiquitous cable TV news channels that the full force of the Anna Nicole story took hold, where it seemed reminiscent of such pre-9\/11 marathons as the deaths of Princess Di and JFK Jr. It consumed 22% of the airtime on the cable news programs examined in this study making it far and away the biggest cable story in that period.<\/p>\n\n

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

Within the cable news genre, Smith was particularly a Fox News Channel phenomenon. In the programs studied, that network devoted almost one-third of its airtime (32%) to the Smith story in all its permutations. MSNBC came next at 21%. CNN stood out for its lack of coverage\u2014just 14% of airtime studied, less than half that of Fox. And that gap might have been larger had Van Susteren and King both been factored in.<\/p>\n\n

Anna Nicole Smith Coverage: Cable News<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Total Coverage by Channel, Feb 8 \u2013 March 2, 2007<\/p>\n\n

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

\"PEJ\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

click here<\/a> to design your own chart<\/em><\/p>\n\n

(It is worth noting that after disappearing from the media radar screen for several weeks, the Smith story spiked again after the March 26 autopsy report concluding she died of an accidental drug overdose. That was the tenth biggest overall story in the week of March 25-30. And not surprisingly, cable\u2014at 5% of the newshole\u2014gave it the most coverage.)<\/p>\n\n

On his February 8 show, Fox News host Bill O\u2019Reilly acknowledged he wasn\u2019t sure Smith merited all this interest. \u201cI\u2019m looking at her,\u201d he said, \u201cand seeing a media creation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

CNN\u2019s Wolf Blitzer offered a rationale for the coverage on the February 9 edition of \u201cSituation Room\u201d after his sidekick Jack Cafferty had attacked the media for treating the Smith story like \u201ctabloid gold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI know a lot of people are complaining about that,\u201d said Blitzer. \u201cBut a lot of people are also watching.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

If Smith\u2019s celebrity was a media creation, the media\u2019s fixation on her death can largely be attributed to cable news\u2019s ravenous appetite for the story.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\n
\n

1.<\/strong> For the Weekly News Index, the Project studies the 1st<\/sup> half hour of the morning news programs, the half hour research has shown to be most focused on news events of the day.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2.<\/strong> The PEJ News Index does not include Larry King Live or Greta Van Susteren\u2019s \u201cOn the Record\u201d because they are not general interest news programs. For this special report, we examined transcripts of those shows.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Overall, that extensive morning show and cable output is largely responsible for the fact that Smith\u2019s death was the third biggest story, accounting for 8% of all the news coverage studied by PEJ in that slightly more than three-week period. It missed being No. 1 by the narrowest of margins. The Iraq policy debate, which 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