According to the latest Project for Excellence in Journalism New Interest Index, 37% of respondents say there has already been too much coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign by the national news media. But that is actually down from the 40% who said the same thing about the January 2008 campaign at around the same time in the primary blitz coverage surrounding the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, the first two official tests of the candidate field.
Not surprisingly, Republicans were following the campaign much more closely than Democrats, with 40% saying they followed election news very closely, compared with 27% of Democrats and only 25% of independents.
According to PEJ, 39% said the 2012 coverage was the right amount. It was also the story most of the respondents were most interested in, with 27% saying they followed campaign news most closely, followed by 19% who said it was the economy.
Those who were most interested in the economy were getting more good news. According to the survey, 30% said they were hearing mostly bad news, which is down dramatically from the 67% who said that was the case back in August.
The survey was conducted Jan. 5-8 based on a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults.
