Brendan Nyhan

Most-read posts of 2011

Since everyone is doing year-end lists, here are my ten most-read posts of 2011. Interestingly, two are posts that still draw significant traffic through links and Google:

1. The disappearing Tax Foundation blog post (5/16/11)

2. The problems with the Groseclose/Milyo study of media bias (12/22/05)

3. Forecasting 2012: How much does ideology matter? (11/10/11)

4. Peggy Noonan reads Obama's mind (8/23/11)

5. The continued dominance of the white quarterback (7/31/05)

6. Do early-stage candidate favorability ratings matter? (2/16/11)

7. Beware early general election trial heats (9/14/11)

8. A Thomas Friedman movie cliché retrospective (4/7/11)

9. Are the Republican presidential candidates weak? (2/15/11)

10. The use and abuse of bar graphs (5/19/11)

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New at CJR: The problems with news pegs

My new post at CJR analyzes how reporters' dependence on news pegs is hampering coverage of Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire:

Given that Gingrich has seemingly come out of nowhere to mount the first serious challenge to Mitt Romney’s frontrunner status, it seemed appropriate to expect that he would receive newfound media scrutiny. But at least in New Hampshire, the coverage has been relatively thin in the state’s two major newspapers, the Union Leader and the Concord Monitor.

With Gingrich out of state, both newspapers had an opportunity to step outside the routine of daily campaign coverage and take a deeper look at the former Speaker’s history in politics, his current campaign, and the policies he has promised to pursue as president. Instead, however, the most sustained coverage of Gingrich’s record was driven by statements made by former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu, a Romney surrogate. While Sununu's comments served as a convenient news peg, the controversy was less than illuminating.

Read the whole thing for more.

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