“The Pastor’s Press Tour is the Week’s Big Newsmaker” Journalism.org:
Last week—as [Jeremiah] Wright re-emerged into full public view to speak to PBS’ Bill Moyers, the NAACP and the National Press Club—the controversy he generated made more news than both Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Clinton was a significant or dominant factor in 41% of the campaign stories and McCain registered in 14% of them. Meanwhile the relationship between Wright and his former parishioner Obama accounted for 42% of the week’s campaign coverage. Obama, who moved to decisively denounce Wright last week, was the significant or dominant newsmaker in 69% of the stories, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index for April 28-May 4.
These coverage numbers are strikingly similar to those from March 17-23 when Wright’s inflammatory statements about race and the U.S. triggered the first Obama damage control effort . . . .
Comment: I haven’t blogged a word about Obama and his former pastor, and I don’t plan to start now. This post isn’t about them, but the news coverage of their relationship and their split. Obviously, it was excessive. What the hell, Wright gave good sound bites. By “good” I mean “juicy.” The media do love that so. That’s another way of saying that the average news consumer loves it because Big Media pays attention to what grabs eyes and ears. That’s how it got to be Big Media.
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