The BP oil spill continued to top the Project for Excellence in
Journalism's (PEJ) weekly news coverage index, but again at levels far below
the attention paid by the news media just three weeks ago. LeBron James'
exit made him the second biggest newsmaker of the week.
The BP story claimed 15% of the news hole across the 52 monitored
media outlets in five categories, print, online, network TV, cable and radio,
more than twice as much as the next biggest stories, the 2010 elections and the
economy at 7% apiece.
Cable gave the BP story the most attention, with 25% of its news
hole.
But the BP story claimed 44% of the news hole as recently as the
week ending June 20. Number three was the story of Russian spies arrested in
the U.S., followed by the war in Afghanistan.
LeBron James' decision (to exit Cleveland for Miami) was the
number nine story with 3% of the news hole, which made him the
second biggest individual newsmaker of the week behind President Obama, according
to PEJ, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Queen Elizabeth,
among others.
