New Data: Weiner Scandal Covered Less Online and in Print

New Data: Weiner Scandal Covered Less Online and in Print

New Data: Weiner Scandal Covered Less Online and in Print

If you think Anthony Weiner got too much media coverage, you may just be getting your news from the wrong place, according to new data.

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I have not written about Anthony Weiner’s sext scandal, a sad little saga that has received tons of news coverage because it is considered more interesting than actual news. 

Last week, it felt like the top story in politics. But that’s not actually true.

Weiner’s plight was more like a blip in print and online media, according to new data, while the scandal drew far more time on TV and radio. Here’s a graph from Pew that tells the story:

Overall, Weiner took up 17 percent of all news coverage, but as the graph shows, coverage diverged widely depending on the medium. (The numbers are from coverage from June 6 to 12, and “Congressional scandals” refers to Weiner.)

Newspapers only spent 7 percent of their coverage on Weiner, and he didn’t get much more attention online. Meanwhile, cable spent one out of every three minutes on the beleaguered Brooklyn representative. So if you think Weiner was the big story, you might just be getting your news from the wrong place.

The entire report is available at Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

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