The rescue of the 33 miners in Chile nearly overtook the 2010 midterm elections in terms of media coverage, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index.
The rescue operation took up 21% of the total newshole for the week, with the elections taking up 28%. The number three story was the economy at 12%, followed by Afghanistan (4%) and gays in the military (3%).
The Chilean mine rescue actually received more attention than the elections on the network newscasts, taking up 27% of their newshole. And although the cable news channels spent 33% of their newshole last week covering the operation, it still wasn’t quite enough to top the time spent on their election coverage.
The top six “newsmakers” for the week were all elected officials or candidates for office, with president Obama once again on top. The candidates from Nevada and Delaware made the list, as did Carl Paladino, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York.