Campaign Narrative Has Candidates on Defensive

The dominant theme of the week’s election coverage revolved around the candidates’ problems—or perceived problems—and had both Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) on the defensive. The single biggest story was McCain’s decision to shake up his top campaign staff by elevating Steve Schmidt, a close ally of Karl Rove, to a bigger operational role. That development -- covered in the context of growing concern about the direction of McCain’s campaign -- accounted for 12% of the campaign newshole studied, according to PEJ’s Campaign Coverage Index for June 30 - July 6. The most heavily covered story about Obama focused on his efforts to again assert his patriotism (8% of the newshole) in the face of stubborn rumors and speculation to the contrary. Another 6% of the coverage was devoted to whether Obama was -- on issues from gun control to Iraq -- rushing toward the political center. Or, to put it in more unflattering terminology, whether Obama was flip-flopping. Those three story lines combined accounted for more than one-quarter (26%) of all the campaign coverage last week.
http://www.journalism.org/node/11820