by Mike Memoli
In an interview aired Tuesday, President Obama struck a defensive tone when asked about the forcefulness of the administration's response to the BP oil spill.
"I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf," Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer.
Does the media critic-in-chief have a point?
An analysis of news coverage compiled weekly by the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) shows that it was well over two weeks before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion emerged as the leading story across all platforms. Only in the past two weeks was it a dominant story.
To say cable news personalities were not paying attention to the disaster may be a stretch, however.
"It's been a story that certainly has generated a significant coverage," said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of PEJ. But "now there's been a quantum leap" in coverage, particularly on cable news, he added.
In the week of the explosion, April 19-25, the story occupied just 5 percent of the so-called "newshole," the space devoted to each subject on radio and TV as well as in print and online. The economy -- led by coverage of an SEC filing against Goldman Sachs -- and even the Iceland volcano got more air time and column inches.
The following week, the first full week measured, the economy again was the lead story. Coverage of the rig explosion and oil leak was next, but tied with the immigration debate, spurred by the Arizona enforcement law. At week's end, President Obama had made his first trip to the Gulf coast.
For the week of May 3-9, the rig explosion accounted for 20 percent of the newshole - ranking second just behind coverage of the Times Square bomb plot. It was covered more heavily in newspapers, on radio and online, though, where it was the top story.
Only a week later was it the leading story in terms of news coverage. PEJ's analysis was that coverage of the story spiked because of Congressional hearings that featured oil industry executives, and centered on who was responsible for the rig explosion; only late in the week did the unfolding environmental disaster become a larger part of the discussion.
Politics competed for attention the following week, May 17 to 23. Stories about Senate primaries in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Arkansas nearly surpassed the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. By this point, though, network and cable television were ramping up their focus of the environmental impact as crude began reaching the coast.
It was the following week when the oil spill become the a clear number one in terms of news coverage, doubling the previous percentage of the newshole for the week of May 24-30. By this point Obama had made a second trip to the effected region, and his administration found its dealing more with questions about the efficacy of its response and the president's personal engagement.
The next week, from May 31 to June 6, 62 percent of cable news airtime was dedicated to the story. That coverage included an effort by the administration to begin distancing itself from BP, and an interview of Obama in which he declared himself "furious" about containment efforts.
Even though the share of coverage increased significantly in recent weeks, the level of coverage even when it was not the number one story was considered substantial.
"Any story that gets 16 percent of the newshole is a story that's making waves," Jurkowitz said.
The numbers specifically for cable news are staggering in terms of the growth in coverage. Here's the trend:
- Week 1: 9% network, 5% cable
- Week 2: 24% network, 17% cable
- Week 3: 20% network, 14% cable
- Week 4: 24% network, 20% cable
- Week 5: 25% network, 18% cable
- Week 6: 50% network, 57% cable
- Week 7: 49% network, 62% cable
Network and cable television typically can be expected to cover situations like the rig explosion given the predilection for disaster stories; that coverage tends to be short-lived, however. What has led to the consistency in coverage is the fact that there has been a steady stream of new angles to it -- from the explosion itself and the subsequent leaking of oil to efforts to contain the spill, discussions of culpability and most recently a heavy focus on the Obama administration's response.
Still, Jurkowitz said, "it has not devolved completely into a political story," though cable news may focus on that more than other subjects. "We have in some ways a slow-motion breaking story."
Comments
RIGHT WING FREE MARKET RELIGION GETS LOST IN OIL SPILL
"There has never been a challenge that the American people, with as little interference as possible by the federal government, cannot handle."
— Bobby Jindal, March 24, 2009
That was then.
This is now:
"11 people dead in an oil rig explosion, fragile marshlands damaged, perhaps irreparably, uncalculated millions (billions?) in lost revenue for the tourism and fishing industries, and a short attention span nation transfixed by a compelling image from a deep sea camera, brown gunk billowing out from a hole in the ocean floor, Things Getting Worse in real time."
"And Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, off whose coast this tragedy is centered, is singing a new song, starkly at odds with what he said last year in a speech before the Republican faithful. Now he's BEGGING for federal "interference." He wants federal money, federal supplies, wants the feds to help create barrier islands to protect Louisiana wetlands from oil."
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20100531/OPINION05/5310305/Leonard-Pitts-Free-market-religion-gets-lost-in-oil-spill
Posted by: worsethanbefore | June 10, 2010 3:57 PM
This falls election ads are going to be great:
- Cue up a big picture of the massive oil spill in the Gulf
- Cut away to pictures of the low IQ simpletons at the Republican party convention and their repeated chants of: 'Drill, Baby, Drill'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmu6uts0SGw
Posted by: That "hopey changey" thing is working out GREAT! | June 10, 2010 4:02 PM
This falls election ads are going to be great:
- Cue up a big picture of the massive oil spill in the Gulf
- Cut away to pictures of the low IQ simpletons at the DNC chanting We plugged dat hole, we gots the economy going, we destroyed healthcare...
Should be fun
Posted by: That "hopey changey" thing is working out GREAT! | June 10, 2010 4:02 PM
Posted by: Libtard | June 10, 2010 4:34 PM
Halliburton's Return: Oil Spill Puts Symbol Of Republican Cronyism And Corruption Back In The News
"For Halliburton, it's just the latest in a seemingly endless series of brushes with notoriety. During the Bush years, Halliburton was so omnipresent that its very name became synonymous with crony capitalism and the corrupt intersection between government and the military-industrial complex -- particularly when oil and/or big money were involved. The company most famously reaped huge profits by bilking the government on billion-dollar sweetheart contracts to support a war in Iraq that its former chairman, Dick Cheney, helped lead the nation into as vice president."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/11/halliburtons-return-oil-s_n_571308.html
The Grand Old Polluters to the fore again. Thanks Republicans--for electing these rich privileged white guys who don't give a damn about anything but their riches. Now go down to the Gulf and clean up the mess you made by enabling them.
Posted by: Halliburton | June 10, 2010 7:21 PM
Oh, you missed another important point!! President Obama didn't have his flag lapel pin on, nor did he remember how many States made the United States. What he didn't forget to do, was to visit, to comfort, to deploy government services down into the gulf of Mexico, in response to the mind-numbing, malfeasant conduct of British Petroleum!! That was in spite of the screeching sounds from his political opposition, the Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers, if you want to call such feeble ranks that, and their inane mantra: " Less government, more tax cuts !" !! I guess that chant went the way of, " Drill, Baby, Drill".
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | June 11, 2010 8:58 AM
Nooo. The spinmeisters of the right never stop.
Their boy Cassidy, R. La., was on Washington Journal CSpan today. Must watch to keep current on the daily tweak of their talking points:
1. (THE BP "TRUST ME" TALKING POINT) No need to include this disaster in pending legislation to expand liability of oil companies. Why? Because BP said it would pay the damages. Well, that's what the guy who rear-ends you says as he tries to leave the scene, isn't it? Exxxon said the same thing 20 years ago in Alaska, then litigated to keep from paying for 20 years.
2. (the LIABILITY CAP PITCH) No need to have unlimited liability. To do so would "impede competition" amongst drillers.... To which one might respond: who needs them if ONE SINGLE ACCIDENT produces this result?
3. (The BLAME THE VICTIM/BLAME OBAMA ruse) This is all the Government's fault because Government should have been there , urgently quivering, from day one, with a giant vacuum cleaner....
4. (The GET OFF OUR BACK mantra, slightly modified) No need for a moratorium to figure out what went wrong....Mah constituents here don't want no unemployment checks and food stamps. They wants to get back out on them rigs and keep on drillin.....
Rep Cassidy coyly said "I've only been in Washington 15 months..." but clearly he's no ingenue. His performance this morning signaled, a star is born. He has a secure place on the oil companies' payroll.
Posted by: ornery | June 11, 2010 9:41 AM
Barry=Failure
Posted by: Libtard | June 11, 2010 9:58 AM
Once again, CSpan callers on Washington Journal shed light on the disaster.
One knowledgeable guy pointed out the use of dispersants is for the purpose of "hiding the oil". He also said a diver reported that when he looked up, he couldn't see the light. That's how much pollutant has been discharged.
From this he concluded the Gulf is dead.
He said this is what happens when BP/Halliburton were allowed to drill "on the cheap"....
We might as well change the name to the Dead Sea.
Posted by: ornery | June 11, 2010 9:59 AM
Mike, I think the initial muted response from media was more due to not understanding exactly how bad the situation was. And contrary to thin-skinned BO's implication that media is trying to make a circus out of this, it is an ongoing story because the leak is ongoing. Every day the oil spill breaks its own record of being the worst in US history, and displays the ineptitude of both BP and the Administration to do anything about it. That is news, the people want coverage of it, and the media is going to provide it.
Posted by: Herbie H. | June 11, 2010 11:42 AM
Herbie, that is a point I was trying to make:
Wall Street disaster was plotted, brewed and nurtured in the back rooms of Wall St. for many years, and then sprung on the public all at once. N. Roubini and other publiclly said it was coming, but others who knew or should have known, kept their mouths shut, then moved to play favorites in the panic bailout.
Here, by contrast, we all can watch the disaster in real time.
So it will be harder for the spinmeisters to cover up, and there may be a better sense of who was responsible.
Posted by: ornery | June 11, 2010 1:27 PM
Ornery,
And Chrissy Dodd was getting sweatheart deals to kepp the ball rolling. Barney "Brothel" Frank was saying to roll the dice with Freddie and Fannie. The democrats insisted on inserting language in Gramm-Leach-Billey Act to loosen up lending standards, which got the whole ball rolling.
Posted by: Terry | June 11, 2010 2:52 PM
ornery
I find it funny when the brain-dead liberals and their comrades in the media try to blame Bush. With 68% say this is Obama's and not Bush's. It's also funny how they tried to play down that it was a Obama appointees that approved this well and fast tracked the drilling. And by the way after a Frontline program ran showing how the housing bubble was created neither party can blame the other. But, video also shows how when the Republicans did try to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac it was Democrats calling them racist and other slanderous names. And this happened back in the years of 2003, 2005, and 2007. And we cannot forget Obama's role in the housing bubble. As a lawyer for Acorn he advised that they demonstrate at the banks and paint the picture that the banks were racist until they lower their lending standards. Something else that brain-dead liberals cannot seem to get a handle on is that some people just cannot afford a home loan and others are just too dumb to read what they are signing.
Posted by: The_Crooks_In_DC | June 11, 2010 3:31 PM
Crooks, Just fact check that line about Obama representing Acorn and telling them to pressure banks.
I don't think that ever happened. Your source?
If that one doesn't pan out, I tend to doubt the others....
Posted by: ornery | June 11, 2010 10:11 PM
We need a leader who can grab a bull horn, climb on a pile of rubble and promise to bring Bin Laden to justice, then fail to deliver 11 years later.
Posted by: bill r. | June 14, 2010 9:40 AM
Or one that can destroy the economy, health care and the environment in 1.5yrs
We need a leader who can grab a bull horn, climb on a pile of rubble and promise to bring Bin Laden to justice, then fail to deliver 11 years later.
Posted by: bill r. | June 14, 2010 9:40 AM
Posted by: Libtard | June 14, 2010 4:17 PM