PEJ: Economy the Top Story Last Week, But News Corp. Hacking Scandal Secures Silver Medal (Updated)

By Alex Weprin 

Stories surrounding the economy were the top story for the week of July 11-17, but the News Corp. hacking scandal was the number two story for the week, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index.

Among all media outlets, the scandal took up 12% of the newshole, a distant second behind the economy and debt ceiling, which took up 37% of coverage.

Among TV news outlets, the broadcast network morning shows and evening newscasts, taking up 13% of the newshole. The morning shows alone dedicated 17% of their coverage to the scandal.

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Update: PEJ has released an update focusing on cable news coverage. The new numbers show that CNN had the most Murdoch coverage, dedicating an average of just over 160 minutes a day to the hacking scandal from July 6-15. MSNBC was close behind with just over 140 minutes of coverage per day. FNC was a distant third, producing only 28 minutes per day of coverage on the scandal.

The chart is after the jump.

The top newsmaker after President Obama and his administration (nearly always number one) was News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

You can read the full analysis from PEJ, here.

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