Measuring News Interest Week of February 2-8 41 Stimulus debate 41 47
Former Sen. Tom Daschle’s decision to withdraw from consideration to be President Obama’s secretary for health and human services over a tax controversy attracted the very close interest of one-in-four Americans. For 5% of the public, this was their top story of the week.
The elections in Iraq received considerably less interest from the American public than the first time Iraqis went to the polls in February, 2005. Just 7% say they followed the Iraqi elections very closely last week, while a 40% plurality say they did not follow these elections closely at all. That compares with a significantly greater percentage – 27% – that followed the Iraqi elections very closely in early 2005. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s content analysis, just 2% of news coverage was devoted to the Iraqi elections last week.
Measuring News Interest  | Week of February 2-8  | 41  | Stimulus debate 41 47  | 44  | Unemp loyment  | 16  | 23  | Octuplets  | 10  | 25  | Tom Daschle  | 5 17 5  | Michael Phelps  | Iragi elections  | Percent who followed this story very closely  | Percent who named story as their most closely followed 