During the week of 12/15/08-12/21/08, news directors actually had to pick and choose from a number of important story lines, resulting in the most balanced coverage week we’ve seen since the presidential primaries began.
According to the Project for Excellence study, the coverage had variety, and at the same time it was relatively focused. There were not all that many subterranean threads that received a lot of attention in one medium while being ignored elsewhere.
Politics, finance, scandal, weather – there was room for a little bit of everything.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net.TV | CATV | Radio |
| Financial crisis | 15% | 24% | 10% | 15% | 8% | 17% |
| New Obama administration | 14% | 17% | 16% | 7% | 15% | 14% |
| Blagojevich scandal | 12% | 3% | 13% | 8% | 24% | 9% |
| US auto industry | 9% | 3% | 13% | 6% | 10% | 14% |
| Madoff banking scam | 8% | 7% | 5% | 10% | 7% | 10% |
| New 111th Congress | 5% | 5% | 4% | 7% | 6% | 3% |
| Bush’s trip to the Mideast | 4% | 3% | 5% | 4% | 5% | 3% |
| Severe winter weather | 4% | 3% | 4% | 7% | x | 3% |
| Caylee Anthony case | 2% | x | x | x | 5% | x |
| Holiday season | 2% | 3% | x | 2% | x | x |
| Domestic terrorism | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Gas/oil prices | x | x | 4% | x | x | x |
| Events in Iraq | x | x | 4% | x | x | x |
| Afghanistan | x | x | x | 2% | x | 4% |
| Bush’s last days in WH | x | x | x | x | 4% | x |
| Iraq policy debate | x | x | x | x | 2% | x |
| Presidential election results | x | x | x | x | x | 5% |
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Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
