In 2007, Fox News Featured Most Celebrity Coverage, Fewest Stories On Iraq War
In 2007, Fox News Featured Most Celebrity Coverage, Fewest Stories On Iraq War
Yesterday, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) put out its annual report on the “State of the News Media.” While the 2008 presidential campaign and the debate over Iraq were overwhelmingly the top subjects of cable news, the networks still devoted a substantial amount of coverage to celebrity affairs. For example, the death of Anna Nicole Smith received more coverage than the Valerie Plame scandal, the U.S. attorney purge, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Fox News led the cable networks in the most amount of celebrity coverage and the least amount of Iraq war coverage. PEJ notes:
MSNBC, at least in terms of time spent, was indeed the place for politics in 2007 — by nearly double over its rivals in the percentage of time studied (28% vs. 12% on CNN and 15% on Fox News). Fox, in turn, spent less time on the war in Iraq than the others (10% vs. 18% on MSNBC and 16% on CNN). And it was more oriented to crime, celebrity and the media than its rivals (28% vs. 19% on MSNBC and 16% on CNN).
A look at the Iraq coverage of CNN, Fox, and MSNBC:
As ThinkProgress reported in March 2007, three weeks after Anna Nicole’s death, Fox News and MSNBC still devoted more time to the late celebrity than to the Walter Reed scandal. Fox gave Anna Nicole roughly 12 times more coverage.
Fox may not be ashamed of PEJ’s latest findings. Last year, Fox News’s John Gibson defended his celebrity coverage by accusing reporters — such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper — of “news-guy snobbery.” Gibson claimed that people were “a little weary” of war coverage” and wanted “a little something else.”
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They just couldn’t leave Britney alone….
March 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pmGibson claimed that people were “a little weary” of war coverage” and wanted “a little something else.”
As is typical of all you GOP/Chimpy leg humping stooges , you are so correct , you don’t have a job any longer ………
March 18th, 2008 at 5:04 pmPretty pretty, shiny shiny
March 18th, 2008 at 5:05 pmIn 2007, Fox News Featured Most Celebrity Coverage, Fewest Stories On Iraq War
Bedbugs.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:06 pm….bedbugs… pajama people….. bedbugs…. pajama people…
March 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pmand tonight fox will spend even more time denying and attempting to discredit this study… and even less time on news from Iraq.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pmno wonder the trolls are so dumb. They’re living on the intellectual equivlant of cotton candy and poptarts.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:13 pmFox…where GG gets his news.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:13 pmWell they’re just following Dick and Lil Shrub’s lead.
NO COFFINS DRAPED IN FLAGS. NO RESPECT FOR THE WAR DEAD.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:15 pmAnd this is EXACTLY why their ratings are so “high”. They refuse to report real news and stick to fluff and pandering.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:17 pmFaux snooze=entertainment.No big secret here. Most people in this country are SHEEP!SHEEPLE!
March 18th, 2008 at 5:20 pmDang,S.M. are you starting to come around to reality?? Leaving bizzaro world behind?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:22 pmYou should see the word doctor yourself, jdc…..
March 18th, 2008 at 5:34 pmGive SM some props — he’s trying.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:35 pmjdc had to repeat that so we could see his stupidity twice as much. Thanks jd. Maybe his owners cut his pay to 5 cents a post so he’s trying to break even?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:47 pmralph the wonder llama Says:
Give SM some props — he’s trying.
Eyes wide open SM…….beer chugs.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:54 pm.
Why does FOXPRAVDA hate the war?
I thought they loved it? You would think they would be all over the war like MSNBS is all over American Idol.
.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:58 pmWhen your key demographic has either ADHD or Alzheimer’s, your editorial trending is bound to appear kinda kooky.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:58 pmYou know, I’ve never yet heard of a group (although I’m sure it is out there somewhere) where the people are clammoring for more on Britney.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:08 pmFirst Draft had a wonderful article where the author, talking about morning TV “News” shows, said that the content was so inane that they forgot what they previously knew about the topic.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:09 pmIf Gibson and Faux viewers are “a little weary” of this war imagine how our soldiers feel.
Maybe “a lot weary”?
No clue. None.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:19 pmHence, the bedbugs.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:23 pmAs the boys at Enron knew..and Tyco and Exxon and Haliburton and Countrywide and the Carlye Group and KBR and JP Morgan and all the rest ad naseum know;
March 18th, 2008 at 6:30 pmA dumb and uninformed American citizen is a more easily fleeced American citizen
Well, dayum!! Cain’t expect Amurkans to sit still for that depressing war crap - American Idol is on!!!!
March 18th, 2008 at 6:38 pmIt would seem that Fox believes that if Fox does not report it, then it is not news. One would like to think that perhaps this is the reason why Fox has not reported on the Winter Soldiers Testimony. But then one wonders what the excuse is of the other so-called liberal networks for not reporting on this extremely newsworthy event. The motto of all the corporate networks seems to be-out of sight, out of mind.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:05 pmOn FOX News…no good news (on Iraq, Bush, the GOP agenda as a whole) is bad news. But bad news on celebrities will bring ratings, cash and the car wreck-type viewers Billo and Roger luv in like sheep in a snowstorm. And now that they have Darth Rove giving them McCain’s gameplan, they can pull all the dirty tricks they want on Barack and Hillary.
Then again…FNC hearts the rate cuts and the trickle-down economy. But Glenn Beck is the crazed stalker with the murderous obsession with the financial sector. So Roger needs to act like a baseball general manager and engineer a trade with Hateful-Opinionated News before the trade deadline passes.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:13 pmFox is obsessed with Brit and all the other smut. That’s why I visit their website. They know how to get ratings over there.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:30 pmI think it is probably only 1/3 of 2007’s coverage today.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:56 pmTrolls get their “news” from “Limburger” and other stars of hate journalism.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:30 amYou mean there is a war going on?? I thought it was “Accomplished” years ago!!
March 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm