It was another week feeding into another month, and another bought of campaign 2008 tunnel vision on cable TV, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism news coverage chart for 4/28/08 through 5/4/08. Admittedly, the endless battle between Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is a compelling and important story, and the last day of this reporting cycle is but two days ahead of two major primaries.
The media in general gave the ongoing saga a hefty 38% of available time and space – an allocation which cable almost doubled with 70%-worth of focus.
The US economy once again snagged second place, the war in Iraq was all but invisible, and a number of one-timers (weather, disaster, the Palfrey suicide) competed for a spot on the charts.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net. TV | Cable TV | Radio |
| 2008 campaign | 38% | 22% | 22% | 27% | 70% | 44% |
| US economy | 10% | 11% | 13% | 13% | 4% | 10% |
| Iraq events | 3% | 2% | 8% | 2% | x | 4% |
| Gas/oil prices | 3% | 4% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 4% |
| World food shortage | 2% | 3% | x | 5% | x | 2% |
| Immigration | 2% | x | x | x | 5% | x |
| Palfrey suicide | 2% | x | 5% | x | 2% | x |
| VA tornadoes | 2% | x | 4% | 3% | 1% | x |
| Energy debate | 1% | 1% | 3% | x | x | 4% |
| Supreme Court | 1% | 3% | x | 2% | 1% | 1% |
| China | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Microsoft/Yahoo | x | 2% | 2% | x | x | x |
| Health care debate | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Austrian house/hostages | x | x | 7% | x | x | x |
| China train crash | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| KS tornadoes | x | x | x | 4% | x | x |
| AR/MO storms | x | x | x | 2% | 2% | x |
| Afghanistan | x | x | x | 2% | 1% | x |
| TX polygamy raid | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Global warming | x | x | x | x | x | 2% |
| Iraq homefront | x | x | x | x | x | 1% |
| Miley Cyrus photos | x | x | x | x | x | 1% |
