News Interest vs. News Coverage Iraq 23 Walter Reed
The controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys is not attracting strong public interest in spite of intense media coverage of the story. In fact, the story evokes a typical response from the public when compared with news interest in past Washington scandals. Amid calls for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation, the news media’s coverage of the story outstripped public interest. Most Americans remained focused on the Iraq war and the problems facing returning soldiers.
Overall, 19% of the public paid very close attention to news about the fired U.S. attorneys and 8% said this was the single news story they followed more closely than any other. The news media devoted 16% of its coverage overall to the firings – an eight-fold increase over the week of March 5 – making it the most covered story of the week. Public interest increased as well though at a lower rate. Democrats followed the U.S. attorneys story more closely than Republicans (23% vs. 15%, respectively, followed it very closely).This story did generate more public interest than the recent verdict in the Scooter Libby trial – one of last week’s most covered news stories. Only 13% followed that story very closely.
While the news media focused on how Gonzales and the White House were connected to the U.S. attorney firings, the public remained intensely focused on the Iraq War. Fully 34% said they followed news about the situation in Iraq very closely and 23% listed Iraq as the story they followed most closely last week. Nearly as many (31%) followed news about conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and more general stories about problems with medical care for wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. Some 17% said this was the story they followed most closely. Coverage of this story fell off somewhat from the previous week— 4% of coverage in all media sectors was devoted to this story last week vs. 6% the week of March 5.
News Interest vs. News Coverage  | Week of March 12  | Iraq 23  | Walter Reed  | 2008 Campaign  | US attorneys  | 16  | Stock market  | Bush trip  | Interest: percent who followed this story most closely  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 