The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) Presidential Campaign Coverage index for the third week of February shows that Senator Barack Obama received the most coverage of any candidate since the beginning of 2008. Senator Hillary Clinton was in second for most coverage, followed by senator John McCain the leading GOP candidate. PEJ had this to say about the Democrats' dominance of mainstream news coverage:

"With their grueling primary battle possibly heading toward the endgame, Democrats dominated campaign coverage by about 2-1 in the period last week, which stretched from the day before the Wisconsin primary to three days after the big Texas debate. Obama, who ran his post-Super Tuesday winning streak to 11 primary contests, won the race for media attention last week. By appearing as a significant or dominant factor in 57% of all campaign stories, he attracted his highest level of coverage since the Campaign Coverage Index was launched in January. And although she trailed him, by registering in 50% of last week's coverage, Clinton generated her second-highest total.

But it was Obama's impressive 17-point win in the Feb. 19 Wisconsin primary that was expected to be competitive that determined the Democrats' media narrative last week. That narrative primarily wondered whether Clinton had anything left in her arsenal to impede Obama's path to the nomination. When the commentariat generally judged their Feb. 21 debate as a draw, that was widely viewed as a tactical win for Obama. The conventional wisdom now held that Clinton had to do something dramatic to shake up the race."

The mainstream coverage of Senator McCain focused less on his candidacy and more on the allegations of an "inappropriate relationship with a lobbyist." These allegations were prompted by a story in the New York Times, a story which the Times media writer Ken Auletta thought was questionable. Auletta said on ABC News that the Times needs "to have a higher standard of proof" for such allegations. The PEJ candidate coverage index had this to say about the McCain coverage:

"Even though the Republican contest was effectively resolved on Super Tuesday, John McCain was a significant or dominant factor in 38% of last week's campaign news. It's an impressive total that he owes largely to one story--the controversial Feb. 21 New York Times story bearing the headline, "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk.""

The PEJ analysis goes on to say:

"McCain's counterattack against what he called a "smear campaign," first launched the night before the story hit print, was soon followed by criticism of the Times in the media world itself, creating a separate and unintended story line. By the end of the week, the political press was wondering whether the Times had accomplished something McCain had been previously unable to do--rally disgruntled conservatives to his side.

Not only did the Times story become a major part of the campaign narrative last week, it supercharged what had been a fairly slow news week for McCain. From Feb. 21 through Feb. 24, the GOP's presumptive nominee became the week's leading newsmaker, showing up as a significant or dominant factor in 51% of the stories compared to 43% for Clinton and 41% for Obama in that period."