The "Mosque" and the Media

The proposed Islamic community center to be built a few blocks from the site of the 9-11 attacks, which has been dubbed by some in the media as the "ground zero mosque" dominated news coverage for the third week of August, receiving 15% of total news coverage (compared to 9% for the ending of the Iraq War and 7% for the economy). But it only received 3% of the coverage in newspapers, compared to 24% of radio coverage and 29% of cable news airtime. Most strikingly 45% of airtime on cable talk and opinion shows (that is, not straight news programs) was devoted to the controversy.

The weekly study from the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism studies Network TV News, newspapers, online news sites, cable news and radio news. A look at its methodology is available here.