PEJ News Coverage Index: November 29-December 5, 2010. Taxes, Debt and Leaks Dominate the Week

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PEJ News Coverage Index: November 29-December 5, 2010. Taxes, Debt and Leaks Dominate the Week

Two topics dominated the news agenda last week. Attention to the economy reached its highest level in 20 months and a major document dump cemented WikiLeaks' status as a significant newsmaker.

From November 29 to December 5, the economy accounted for 28% of the newshole studied, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That represents the most coverage devoted to the subject since the week of March 23-29, 2009 (43%), shortly after Barack Obama became president when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled his plan to clean up “toxic assets” in banks.

Three events drove last week's economic coverage—negotiations over the fate of the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, the debt commission vote on its proposal to reduce the deficit and a surprisingly gloomy jobs report late in the week.

Read the full report Taxes, Debt and Leaks Dominate the Week on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site.

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