{"id":90754,"date":"2007-05-31T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-05-31T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/05\/31\/pej-talk-show-index-may-20-25-2007\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:35","slug":"pej-talk-show-index-may-20-25-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/05\/31\/pej-talk-show-index-may-20-25-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk Hosts Score the Big Fights"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n\n

One of the things that the talk show culture seems to appreciate is a good fight\u2014particularly one with ideological implications. <\/p>\n\n

Last week, two of the top-10 stories on the cable and radio talk shows involved high-profile dustups, according to PEJ\u2019s Talk Show Index for May 20\u201425. The shoutfest on ABC\u2019s \u201cThe View\u201d between Rosie O\u2019Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck turned out to be the fourth biggest story (filling 5% of the airtime). Of lower volume but arguably more significance, the fallout from former President Jimmy Carter\u2019s assertion that George W. Bush\u2019s administration was \u201cthe worst in history\u201d ended up he 7th most popular topic (3%).\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Neither of those incidents, by contrast, were major events in PEJ\u2019s general News Coverage Index, finishing well out of the top-10 story list. But they both had a key element that apparently proved irresistible to some of the ideologically driven talk shows. They pitted a liberal (O\u2019Donnell and Carter) against a conservative (Hasselbeck and Bush). <\/p>\n\n

In the nasty May 23 \u201cView\u201d battle, O\u2019Donnell\u2014an outspoken critic of the Iraq war\u2014felt her co-star had not adequately defended her from allegations that O\u2019Donnell had equated U.S. troops in Iraq with terrorists. Hasselbeck fought back. The talk referees stepped in quickly with their score cards. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cRosie O\u2019Donnell\u2026is an ill-informed bitter woman who was allowed by ABC-Disney to parade her absurd view of the world in front of \u2018The View\u2019 audience,\u201d declared Bill O\u2019Reilly on his Fox News Channel show. <\/p>\n\n

While the \u201cRocky\u201d theme song played in the background, MSNBC\u2019s Dan Abrams described the fight as a \u201cpay-per-view Smackdown\u201d between O\u2019Donnell and \u201cher conservative arch-enemy\u201d Hasselbeck. \u201cThe winner in a split decision,\u201d Abram declared, \u201cElisabeth.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The Carter-Bush tiff began when the former President was quoted in the May 19 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette calling Bush\u2019s tenure \u201cthe worst in history\u201d in global affairs. A Bush spokesman responded by calling Carter \u201cincreasingly irrelevant.\u201d Carter later acknowledged his words were either \u201ccareless or misinterpreted.\u201d But the gauntlet had been tossed and the talk shows weighed in. <\/p>\n\n

On MSNBC\u2019s \u201cCountdown\u201d Newsweek\u2019s Jonathan Alter said reaction to this spat was \u201cone of those Red State-Blue State things\u201d\u2014meaning that Bush supporters would object to Carter\u2019s words while critics would applaud. But Alter did criticize Carter for retreating, asserting that having uttered the \u201cworst in history\u201d remark, \u201che just should have stuck with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

[former presidents]<\/p>\n\n\n

There were other kinds of battles\u2014less personal and direct\u2014that topped the talk show roster last week. The passions stirred by the new compromise immigration measure helped make that subject the most popular talk topic, filling 24% of the time in PEJ\u2019s index. (It was, incidentally, the second biggest story in the news media generally last week, at 10%). That was followed by the debate over Iraq policy (15%), and the 2008 contest for the White House (13%). <\/p>\n\n

The fifth biggest story (5%), a survey of the attitudes of Muslim Americans by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (a sister organization of PEJ), was of particular interest to some conservative radio hosts. <\/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

For the second week in a row, opponents of the compromise immigration measure used the talk show microphones to assail that agreement from a variety of angles. More and more, some hosts appear to be trying to launch a full blown airwave crusade to stop the legislation. <\/p>\n\n

About half of all talk segments on the immigration debate last week were aired on a single program, Lou Dobbs\u2019s CNN show. Dobbs, the most vocal of all the hosts on the immigration issue, tends to describe the compromise plan with the politically loaded term\u2014\u201camnesty.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Much of the conversation about Iraq policy revolved around the crucial May 24 Congressional vote that funded the war but did not include withdrawal timelines. That was widely portrayed in the media as a political victory\u2014perhaps temporary\u2014for the President. And the sense of disappointment from liberal talkers was palpable. <\/p>\n\n

In a scathing commentary, MSNBC\u2019s Keith Olbermann accused the Democrats in Congress of \u201cbetrayal\u201d and \u201csurrender\u201d to the White House. \u201cThe Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans,\u201d he declared. <\/p>\n\n

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

One issue that particularly seemed to galvanize conservatives was the release of a Pew Research Center survey headlined \u201cMuslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream.\u201d A number of the findings indicated that many Muslims in this country are assimilated and moderate. But some hosts seized on the fact that 26% of Muslim Americans under 30 said suicide bombing was \u201coften,\u201d \u201csometimes\u201d or \u201crarely\u201d justified to portray the results as ominous. <\/p>\n\n

Criticizing much of the mainstream media for playing up the more reassuring aspects of the poll, Rush Limbaugh declared on his May 23 show that \u201cIslam has made American Muslim residents more extreme\u2026.Wealth and education and opportunity and freedom have done nothing to moderate them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

On his radio program that same day, Michael Savage in discussing the survey asserted that \u201cwe have a time bomb ticking in the United States of America\u2014young Muslims. Twenty-six percent of them back killings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Thus Savage phrased his question for listeners this way: \u201cWhat should the government do to protect us from the 26% of Muslim youth who approve of suicide bombings?\u201d <\/p>\n\n

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

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

1. Immigration – 24% <\/address>\n\n
2. Iraq Policy Debate – 15%
<\/address>\n\n
3. 2008 Campaign – 13%<\/address>\n\n
4. Rosie O’Donnell – 5% <\/address>\n\n
5. Pew Research Report on Muslim Americans – 5%<\/address>\n\n
6. Fired US Attorney Scandal – 4%
<\/address>\n\n
7. Jimmy Carter’s Comments about Bush – 3%
<\/address>\n\n
8. Iran – 3%<\/address>\n\n
9. Gas\/Oil Prices – 2%<\/address>\n\n
10. Events in Iraq – 2% <\/address>\n\n\n <\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

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

1. Iraq Policy Debate – 10% <\/address>\n\n
2. Immigration – 10%<\/address>\n\n
3. Events in Iraq – 9%
<\/address>\n\n
4. Lebanon Violence – 6%<\/address>\n\n
5. 2008 Campaign – 6%<\/address>\n\n
6. Gas\/Oil Prices – 4%<\/address>\n\n
7. Fired US Attorney Scandal – 4%<\/address>\n\n
8. Iran – 3%<\/address>\n\n
9. Pew Research Report on Muslim Americans – 2%<\/address>\n\n
10. Iraq Homefront – 2%<\/address>\n\n

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

The debates over immigration policy and Iraq war strategy were the most popular topics on cable and radio talk shows last week. The 2008 presidential race also attracted lots of attention, again. But two nasty political tiffs got on the talkers’ radar screen as well.<\/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 May 20 - 25, 2007","sub_title":"PEJ Talk Show 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-90754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":1054,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/05\/31\/pej-talk-show-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":"Talk Hosts Score the Big Fights","parent_id":90754},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Talk Hosts Score the Big Fights","description":"The debates over immigration policy and Iraq war strategy were the most popular topics on cable and radio talk shows last week. The 2008 presidential race also attracted lots of attention, again. But two nasty political tiffs got on the talkers’ radar screen as well.
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