News Interest vs. News Coverage
News about problems with the medical care of wounded Iraq war veterans drew the public’s attention last week. More than three-in-ten Americans (31%) paid very close attention to news about conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and more general reports about how soldiers returning from Iraq are being cared for. And 20% said this was the story they followed most closely, making it the second most closely followed news story of the week. The situation in Iraq continued to be the dominant news story both in terms of interest and coverage. Even the announcement of a verdict in the Scooter Libby trial failed to generate much public interest, in spite of the news media’s intense focus on the story.
Only 13% of the public followed the Libby verdict very closely and 7% named it as the story they followed most closely last week. Interest was up only moderately from January and February, when the trial was ongoing. In terms of news coverage, the Libby story made up 13% of the overall newshole for the week putting it ahead of the presidential campaign and the Walter Reed story. It was the top story on cable television with 18% of cable news devoted to the verdict.
In other top stories, the public continued to pay fairly close attention to news about the 2008 presidential campaign. Nearly one-quarter of the public followed this story very closely, and 13% said it was their top story of the week. Nine percent of news coverage for the week was devoted to the campaign. News about the recent Mega Millions lottery jackpot was followed very closely by 9% of the public, 3% listed this as the story they followed most closely (1% of the week’s news was devoted to this story).
News Interest vs. News Coverage  | Week of March 5  | 27  | Iraq  | 15  | Walter Reed 20  | 6  | 2008 Campaign  | 13  | 9  | Libby verdict  | 13  | Lottery jackpot  | US Attorneys  | Interest: percent who followed this story most closely  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 