PEJ News Coverage Index: Apr. 26 - May 2, 2010, The Goldman Sachs Grilling Drives Economic Coverage
Fueled by a Congressional showdown with Goldman Sachs executives, economic news led news coverage during a crowded week that also featured the uproar over Arizona's new immigration law and the developing ecological disaster in the Gulf Coast.
The economy garnered 24% of the newshole during the week of April 26-May 2, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That was down slightly from the week before (27%, a 13-month high for the topic), but still represented a strong showing for a story that has attracted more of the media's attention in recent weeks.
One reason for the revived media interest in economic news may be the emergence of an alleged villain in an otherwise complex narrative that had been dominated by statistics and competing policy claims. Executives of Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs, which federal regulators have accused of fraud, spent 11 hours defending themselves before a Senate committee investigating the financial meltdown.
A political struggle over the fate of a financial reform bill also fed coverage of the economy. Last week, Republicans dropped a threatened filibuster and permitted the bill to move to the Senate floor, ending weeks of acrimony and making passage more likely.
Read the full report The Goldman Sachs Grilling Drives Economic Coverage on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site.
