News Platforms & Sources

A new survey finds that Americans generally agree with the punishment radio host Don Imus received for the racist and sexist remarks he made about the Rutgers University's women basketball team. Nonetheless, there are substantial racial differences in views of Imus's punishment, and the media's coverage of the story.

Even before Don Imus got the word that MSNBC and CBS had dropped him, a quick survey of the media coverage in the week since the veteran talk host uttered his infamous April 4 racial and gender insult suggests he will face a tough battle to re-establish his reputation and viability.

Student journalists and school personnel have been known to clash on occasion over what news is fit to print. Now precedent-setting legislation wending its way through the Washington State House is intended to give students more control over and responsibility for the content of the school publication.

Americans flocked in record numbers to their favorite media sources for political news last fall. In this report, fans of newspaper, TV and online news sites tell how and why they differ.

If Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report were hoping that 2006 would offset poor advertising numbers in 2005, they will be disappointed. The year-end figures are now in and they show that the number of ad pages at the three big newsmagazines barely inched up. The magazine industry generally, indeed, is suffering something of a malaise.

How did the press cover the President’s State of the Union address? Did it emphasize his domestic policy agenda or did Iraq policy grab the headlines? Did the media focus on his appeal for another chance on Iraq or his defiance on that subject? A PEJ review of front-page headlines on the day after finds the answers.

Twice as many Americans used the internet as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002.

The impact of the internet is evident in many ways in China

Some critics have assailed Time magazine’s choice for 2006 Person of the Year in recent days, calling the editors’ selection of “You” with a mirror on the cover gimmicky. But this wasn’t the first unconventional choice for Time’s honor – or the first time a group of people was selected. PEJ takes stock of Time’s past Persons of the Year from 1927 on.

What difference has Tony Snow made since becoming President George W. Bush’s press secretary? The President has been more accessible, for one thing. Tony Snow, it turns out, also talks more than his predecessor, Scott McClellan. A PEJ analysis suggests that in his regular give-and-take with the White House journalists, White House Q&A sessions are wordier and longer with the former TV and radio talk host at the helm.