{"id":90812,"date":"2007-02-14T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2007-02-14T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/02\/14\/pej-talk-show-index-feb-4-9-2007\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:35","slug":"pej-talk-show-index-feb-4-9-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/02\/14\/pej-talk-show-index-feb-4-9-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk Hosts Feed the Anna Nicole Frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n\n

On his February 8 Fox News Channel show, Bill O\u2019Reilly professed to being befuddled by the fuss over the death of Playmate\/heiress Anna Nicole Smith.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI have to be honest, I have no interest in her,\u201d said the No. 1 cable host, matter-of- factly. \u201cI\u2019m looking at her and seeing a media creation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

If Smith\u2019s life was a media creation, consider her death. The sad tale of Smith\u2019s demise not only gripped the media overall. It fascinated the talk shows culture even more, according to the latest PEJ Talk Show Index.<\/p>\n\n

O\u2019Reilly himself, after dismissing the story, devoted part of two nights to it.<\/p>\n\n

Smith\u2019s death was the third hottest subject on cable and radio talk shows in the week of <\/span>February 4-9 (making up 15% of all talk time), edged out by the debate over Iraq (19%) and the 2008 campaign (18%). But that actually understates the Anna Nicole-mania. <\/p>\n\n

In the two days immediately following her death (February 8 and 9) Smith actually accounted for 37% of the talk show conversation. In that period, the Iraq debate (14%) and the White House race (9%) were almost afterthoughts.<\/p>\n\n

Over the past five weeks, this Index has consistently revealed that cable and radio talk hosts amplify the few subjects that generate the most news coverage of the week. In the Smith case, that remained true. The 15% spent on Smith was almost twice the amount (9%) that the media overall devoted to the subject. <\/p>\n\n

In the talk universe, Smith\u2019s demise primarily attracted cable TV hosts, who devoted about three times as much time to the subject as their radio counterparts. More likely to have guests than the radio talkers, the cable guys interviewed a succession of experts about the unresolved tangle of legal, monetary and DNA issues.<\/p>\n\n

On radio, however, the lack of an obvious ideological angle seemed to make Smith somewhat less inviting. <\/p>\n\n

When those radio hosts did weigh in, a favorite theme was the excessive coverage itself. On that score, indeed, the liberals and the conservatives on radio finally found something they could agree on.<\/p>\n\n

“They\u2019re back to the pink and white dress\u2014the same stock footage,\u201d noted liberal host Randi Rhodes disapprovingly while watching CNN\u2019s coverage. \u201cIt\u2019s creepy. It\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s the front page of the New York Post.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAnother drugged-out starlet collapses and dies and all the news of the world stops. Frankly, I\u2019m sick of the news,\u201d raged conservative host Michael Savage. To protest the media\u2019s Anna Nicole fixation, Savage began reading from \u201cOnce Upon a Time in the Catskills\u201d a memoir from a fellow named Phil Ratzer about the summer of 1958.<\/p>\n\n

The Talk Show Index, released each Friday, 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.)<\/span><\/strong><\/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<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

It is possible that Smith\u2019s death may have eaten away at some of the talk time that normally would have been spent on Iraq last week. Although the debate over war strategy was the biggest subject for the fifth straight week, it failed to fill 20% of the talk menu for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

The early-starting 2008 Presidential campaign remained the second-biggest topic thanks to Rudy Giuliani\u2019s February 5 statement of candidacy. This was also the first time in a month that a Republican candidate generated more attention than the Democrats on the talk airwaves. The subject was heavily focused on whether the former New York mayor is too liberal for the GOP\u2019s core constituency.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Two other hot-button political issues attracted more attention on the talk shows (the \u201cScooter\u201d Libby trial at 7% and the Nancy Pelosi plane controversy at 4%) than they did in the overall news Index.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The Libby trial made the list because it was a favorite subject of MSNBC\u2019s Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. Two likely reasons for their interest? NBC colleague Tim Russert was a key prosecution witness and Matthews himself became a sidebar to the trial.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

On the February 7 edition of \u201cHardball,\u201d Matthews reported that Russert\u2019s testimony contradicted one of Libby\u2019s key defense assertions\u2014that he had learned about of CIA operative Valerie Plame\u2019s identity from the journalist. Then turning to a more personal subject, Matthews explained that the trial also revealed \u201cwhy Scooter called Tim Russert to complain about me.\u201d (Evidence surfaced at the trial that Libby was advised to call Russert to complain about Matthews because Russert didn’t like the “Hardball” host. Responding on Don Imus’s radio show, Russert declared his affection for Matthews.) <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Liberals and conservatives did find something to disagree about in the debate over the request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi use a government airplane large enough to fly non-stop to her home in California. The story was a bigger one on radio than on cable or the media overall. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

With the strains of the Peter, Paul and Mary hit \u201cLeaving on a Jet Plane\u201d playing in the background, conservative radio host Sean Hannity criticized Pelosi for wanting \u201ca gas guzzling presidential-sized aircraft.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n

Liberal talker Ed Schultz took the opposing view. \u201cThis is basically a story about chauvinism,\u201d he said, dismissing Pelosi\u2019s critics.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

One story that generated only modest buzz in the talk culture (4%) was the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak for the attempted murder of a love triangle rival. Other than wondering how she passed NASA muster, there apparently wasn\u2019t much for the talk hosts to say.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But that certainly wasn\u2019t the case when it came to the other big scandal story of the week. As he struggled to make sense of the sordid Smith saga, Bill O\u2019Reilly called on none other than Geraldo Rivera to put the coverage in context. Rivera, a former daytime talk host and one of the godfathers of the tabloid media culture, struggled as he tried to define the intangibles that made her worthy of such feverish attention.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Celebrities such as Smith \u201cmay be living train wrecks,\u201d Rivera offered. \u201cBut they are endearing in some strange, and maybe indefinable\u201d way. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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

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

1. Iraq Policy Debate – 19% <\/address>\n\n
2. 2008 Campaign – 18%
<\/address>\n\n
3. Anna Nicole Smith Dies – 15%<\/address>\n\n
4. Libby Trial – 7% <\/address>\n\n
5. Pelosi Plane Controversy – 4%<\/address>\n\n
6. Astronaut Scandal – 4%
<\/address>\n\n
7. Super Bowl – 4%
<\/address>\n\n
8. Immigration – 4%<\/address>\n\n
9. Iran – 2%<\/address>\n\n
10. Iraq War Homefront – 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 – 12% <\/address>\n\n
2. Events in Iraq – 10%<\/address>\n\n
3. Anna Nicole Smith Dies – 9%
<\/address>\n\n
4. Campaign 2008 – 8%<\/address>\n\n
5. Astronaut Scandal – 6%<\/address>\n\n
6. Severe Weather – 3%<\/address>\n\n
7. Super Bowl – 3%<\/address>\n\n
8. Libby Trial – 3%<\/address>\n\n
9. Bush’s Budget Proposal – 3%<\/address>\n\n
10. Iran – 2%<\/address>\n\n

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

There was plenty of conversation about Rudy Giuliani and Scooter Libby on the radio and cable talk shows last week. And the debate over Iraq continued to be the biggest topic. But the mysterious death of a blonde bombshell pushed everything else to the sidelines, as the talkers took up time wondering about her appeal.<\/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 Feb. 4 - 9, 2007","sub_title":"PEJ Talk Show Index Feb. 4 - 9, 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-90812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":1133,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2007\/02\/14\/pej-talk-show-index-feb-4-9-2007\/","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 Feed the Anna Nicole Frenzy","parent_id":90812},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Talk Hosts Feed the Anna Nicole Frenzy","description":"There was plenty of conversation about Rudy Giuliani and Scooter Libby on the radio and cable talk shows last week. And the debate over Iraq continued to be the biggest topic. But the mysterious death of a blonde bombshell pushed everything else to the sidelines, as the talkers took up time wondering about her appeal.","og_title":"Talk Hosts Feed the Anna Nicole Frenzy","og_description":"There was plenty of conversation about Rudy Giuliani and Scooter Libby on the radio and cable talk shows last week. And the debate over Iraq continued to be the biggest topic. But the mysterious death of a blonde bombshell pushed everything else to the sidelines, as the talkers took up time wondering about her appeal.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"1 image is missing alt text.","data":{"count":1}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 28 paragraphs.","data":{"count":28}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 3 internal links.","data":{"count":3}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130642,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90812\/revisions\/130642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=90812"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=90812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}