The Project for Excellence in Journalism's (PEJ) Campaign Coverage Index for March 3-9 shows that while the Republican nominee has been decided, news coverage of the presidential race was once again dominated by Democrats. The report also notes that since Clinton won several key states that the national news media began to acknowledge her "resiliency:"
"Clinton turned back the clock on the media narrative for the Democrats last week. For several weeks running, the press had cast Obama as a clear frontrunner, one perhaps on the verge of finishing off his rival. Almost instantly after Texas and Ohio, that narrative returned to where it was through the decidedly mixed Feb. 5 Super Tuesday results--speculating about a hopelessly deadlocked contest decided by superdelegates.
And embedded in that in the media coverage last week was a months-old question: Was Obama "tough" enough to win a nomination fight with a determined foe. In many ways, even in a strong week for Clinton, the narrative turned on questions about Obama.
As a significant or dominant newsmaker in 60% of campaign stories, Clinton narrowly won the competition for media exposure from March 3-9, a period that began a day before the Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island primaries and ended a day after the Wyoming caucus. For Clinton--credited with engineering another comeback in this roller coaster race by aggressively attacking Obama--that was her highest level of 2008 coverage. At 58%, Obama dropped 11 points from the previous week. And in a difficult stretch of coverage, he found himself facing questions about the need to make strategic and tactical changes in his campaign."
What is also clear from the weekly campaign coverage reports from PEJ is that the coverage of issues is next to nothing. The only real issue that was raised just before the Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island primaries was NAFTA. However, the coverage mostly focused on what an Obama advisor said to a Canadian official, instead on what NAFTA has meant for workers and the US economy:
"With two weeks between primaries, the press also had more time than before to dig into some of the accusations between the candidates. By the eve of the March 4 contests, journalists were focused intently on the Illinois Senator's ties to Chicago businessman Tony Rezko, who went on trial March 3. The media also homed in on a controversy over whether an Obama advisor had assured a Canadian official that the candidate's hard line on NAFTA was largely for political consumption."
