The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, who if confirmed would be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court, managed to oust the economic crisis from the top of the journalistic to do list.
In fact, North Korea’s renewed flirtations with nuclear technology also ousted economics, relegating it to an unaccustomed third place showing in the Project for Excellence in Journalism tally for 5/25/09-5/31/09.
The auto industry’s woes, newsworthy as they were, only managed a fourth place showing. Radio newsers went off an a tangent during the week, with no less than six topics on the top ten list that didn’t show up at all on the other four media.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net.TV | CATV | Radio |
| Sotomayor SCOTUS nomination | 24% | 16% | 15% | 19% | 35% | 35% |
| North Korea nukes | 12% | 8% | 17% | 13% | 12% | 5% |
| Economic crisis | 9% | 14% | 7% | 9% | 7% | 9% |
| US auto industry | 7% | 7% | 12% | 9% | 4% | x |
| Same sex marriage debate | 5% | 4% | 7% | 3% | 5% | 5% |
| Domestic terrorism | 3% | x | 5% | x | 6% | x |
| Memorial Day | 3% | 5% | 3% | 3% | x | x |
| Pakistan | 2% | x | 5% | x | x | x |
| Cyberspace issues | 2% | 3% | x | 3% | 1% | x |
| Mission persons | 2% | x | x | 4% | 4% | x |
| Iraq homefront | x | 3% | x | 2% | x | x |
| Events in Iraq | x | 3% | x | x | x | x |
| Education system | x | 3% | 2% | x | x | x |
| Phil Spector trial | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| Teen refuses chemo | x | x | x | 3% | x | x |
| Blagojevich scandal | x | x | x | x | 4% | x |
| Afghanistan | x | x | x | x | 2% | x |
| China | x | x | x | x | x | 4% |
| WH Correspondents Dinner | x | x | x | x | x | 4% |
| Specter switches parties | x | x | x | x | x | 3% |
| Gas/oil prices | x | x | x | x | x | 3% |
| Health care debate | x | x | x | x | x | 3% |
| Irsael/Palenstine conflict | x | x | x | x | x | 2% |
