Paul Bedard at the Examiner has noticed a quick drop in coverage of the IRS scandal by broadcast news networks. It only took five weeks for coverage to go from a high 52 stories the week of May 10 to only one story this week.
The dominant story in May when ABC, CBS and NBC crawled over each other for new details and provided 96 stories on morning and evening broadcasts has fallen to just one this week on ABC’s Good Morning America, according to the Media Research Center. In some cases, it was replaced by the National Security Agency snooping scandal.
Bedard notes a study by Media Research Center showing the precipitous drop in interest from the media over a scandal that rocked the administration and, according to polls, resonated with the American people on a visceral level.
By May 24, the Big Three network anchors and reporters seemed ready to move on from the story. The release of embarrassing IRS conference training videos featuring a Star Trek spoof and employees learning how to line dance, all on the taxpayers’ dime, and congressional testimony from conservatives bullied by the IRS, failed to reignite the furious pace of stories from the first two weeks of the scandal.