{"id":90776,"date":"2007-04-04T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/04\/04\/trajectory-of-a-melodrama\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:35","slug":"trajectory-of-a-melodrama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/04\/04\/trajectory-of-a-melodrama\/","title":{"rendered":"Trajectory of a Melodrama"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the first few frantic days, the Smith drama\u2014and the accompanying media attention\u2014took something of a roller coaster ride. After filling nearly one-third of the overall newshole on February 8 and 9, it accounted for only 6% of the coverage in the week of February 11-16. In no media sector other than cable\u2014where 20% of the airtime was still consumed by Smith\u2014did coverage even reach 5% of the newshole that week. <\/p>\n\n

Still, the outlets most fascinated continued to pay close attention. Fully one-third of Fox News\u2019s airtime was given over to Smith. And she accounted for 18% of the content on \u201cThe Early Show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It was during this second week that the battle for control of Smith\u2019s remains heated up between her mother Virgie Arthur and Howard K. Stern, Smith\u2019s lawyer, companion and professed father of her infant daughter, Dannielynn. But perhaps the most newsworthy development was something that would not really capture the media\u2019s imagination until the following week. <\/p>\n\n

On February 14, six days after Smith\u2019s death, a Broward County judge deferred a ruling about where Smith would be buried. In a flamboyant fashion that would soon become familiar to many Americans, Judge Larry Seidlin declared of Smith\u2019s remains: \u201cThe body belongs to me now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Anna Nicole Smith Coverage over Time<\/h3>\n\n

All Media, Cable News and Network Morning News<\/p>\n\n

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

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

The week of February 18-23 was marked by a mini-media tour from Smith\u2019s friend Jackie Hatten, who pointed the finger of blame at Stern for the tragedy that befell the model\/reality star. But the already strange proceedings were dominated by televised coverage of the \u201cmedia circus\u201d inside Judge Seidlin\u2019s Florida courtroom. The focal point was Seidlin, an eccentric man given to talking about himself, lecturing the parties, and delivering messages like \u201cmoney is the root of all evil.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The crowning moment came as Seidlin audibly sobbed while awarding custody of Smith\u2019s body to the guardian for her infant daughter on February 22. Suspicions about his behavior were only exacerbated by reports that he was hoping to become the male version of \u201cJudge Judy\u201d with his own TV show. <\/p>\n\n

In this February 18-23 period, attention to the Smith story spiked again, accounting for 10% of the overall news coverage. By comparison, problems with medical care at Walter Reed, a story ignited by a February 18-19 Washington Post series, received less than half as much coverage (3%). That was true even in a week when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited the Army hospital and promised that people would be \u201cheld responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

More than a quarter of cable\u2019s airtime (26%) from February 18-23 was devoted to the case, with Fox News (41%) and MSNBC (31%) following the events most closely. Conversely, CNN\u2019s coverage that week dropped down to 8%. The morning shows ratcheted their coverage back up to 19% and this time it was\u201d Today\u201d which spent 26% of its time on the story, leading the way. <\/p>\n\n

The final week of the Smith mega-story saw some late legal skirmishing by Smith\u2019s mother to try and get her body moved to Texas. But after a memorial service, she was finally buried in the Bahamas, next to her son, on March 2.<\/p>\n\n

Overall coverage from February 25-March 2, at 4%, was the lowest of any week since Smith\u2019s death. It was the eighth biggest story of the week, and in no sector did it even reach 10% of the newshole. Even in cable, a string of deadly tornados supplanted the Smith case as the number one story that week. <\/p>\n\n

Still, the burial and continuing court battles did consume 9% of the cable newshole that week, including 16% on Fox News, 10% on MSNBC, and only 1% on CNN. <\/p>\n\n

The numbers were eerily similar for the morning shows, where Smith also accounted for 9% of the coverage. Again \u201cThe Early Show\u201d was most interested at (16%) with \u201cToday\u201d second (10%) and \u201cGood Morning America\u201d a very distant third at 2%. <\/p>\n\n

The basic coverage patterns, it seems, held up throughout the 23 days of this death-to- burial saga.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the first few frantic days, the Smith drama\u2014and the accompanying media attention\u2014took something of a roller coaster ride. After filling nearly one-third of the overall newshole on February 8 and 9, it accounted for only 6% of the coverage in the week of February 11-16. In no media sector other than cable\u2014where 20% of 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