Who’s Still Covering Cruz?
The Daily Caller and POLITICO by far led the way with the most front page stories this weekend on the controversial Texas U.S. Senator
The duration and controversy of Ted Cruz’s marathon speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate last Tuesday and Wednesday was sure to make a large footprint – and the media certainly obliged.
But now, days after Cruz’s speech came to an end, the variation in continued coverage of the Texas U.S. Senator between media outlets is quite drastic, with some putting Cruz’s speech and the attending political (and electoral) repercussions in the rear view mirror and others continuing to cover every possible angle.
And which outlets have given Senator Cruz and his speech the longest political half life?
Smart Politics surveyed the online front pages of three-dozen news outlets on Saturday, September 28th, and found the Daily Caller and POLITICO had the most stories devoted Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz – accounting for more than 20 percent of Cruz stories among all outlets.
(Note: For general news outlets, the political home page was coded).
Late Saturday evening, the Daily Caller had 16 Cruz-related stories on its politics home page.
That was tops among the three-dozen national outlets under analysis, with POLITICO in second with 12, BuzzFeed third with nine, and Huffington Post, Roll Call, and Salon with eight each.
Daily Caller coverage of Cruz included several stories critical of the Senator’s speech:
“Al Gore charges GOP with ‘political terrorism,’ takes shot at Ted Cruz”
“‘A BIG WASTE OF TIME’: Harry Reid mocks Cruz’s speech”
“McCain criticizes Cruz IMMEDIATELY after 21-hour speech”
“Rep. Peter King: Ted Cruz is committing ‘governmental terrorism'”
“Republican BRAWL: Cruz goes head-to-head with Corker”
At POLITICO, reports focused on GOP infighting (“Cruz Again Refuses to Back Cornyn,” “25 Republicans Buck Cruz”), divided opinion within the conservative ranks (“Rich Lowrey: After Talking the Talk, Cruz Wins,” “Krauthammer Channels Cruz Speech”) as well as his 2016 standing (“Poll: Cruz Leads 2016 GOP Primary”).
Not all front page coverage of Cruz was particularly meaty, however.
In a digital age in which an only recently-elected officeholder can become a household name overnight, a number of playful Cruz-related stories also appeared on various political front pages:
“10 hot Canadian-Americans in honor of everyone’s favorite Canadian-American, Ted Cruz [SLIDESHOW]” (Daily Caller)
“‘Cruz Does Not Like Obamacare’ — A Seuss-Inspired Poem” (Huffington Post)
“Maher: Cruz reminds me of Cyrus” (POLITICO)
Other outlets still hitching a fair number of box cars to the Cruz train over the weekend were The Atlantic with seven stories on their political home page Saturday evening, CNN and the Blaze with six, and Business Insider, HotAir, National Journal, and Newsmax with five each.
However, not all news outlets are as Cruz-centered in their political reporting.
By Saturday, several outlets had already moved past the Cruz-dominated cycle – failing to mention the junior Senator from Texas in a single front-page political news story on their web sites three days after his speech: ABC News, CBS News, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Reuters, Time, US News, and USA Today.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg, FOX, National Public Radio, and the Wall Street Journal featured only one story on Cruz by Saturday evening.
Number of Political Front Page Stories on Ted Cruz, September 28, 2013
|
Outlet
|
# Stories
|
|
Daily Caller*
|
16
|
|
POLITICO
|
12
|
|
BuzzFeed*
|
9
|
|
Huffington Post*
|
8
|
|
Roll Call
|
8
|
|
Salon*
|
8
|
|
The Atlantic*
|
7
|
|
CNN*
|
6
|
|
The Blaze
|
6
|
|
Business Insider*
|
5
|
|
HotAir
|
5
|
|
National Journal
|
5
|
|
Newsmax*
|
5
|
|
National Review
|
4
|
|
Red State
|
3
|
|
Washington Times*
|
3
|
|
Yahoo!*
|
3
|
|
NBC News*
|
2
|
|
Slate
|
2
|
|
Talking Points Memo
|
2
|
|
The Hill
|
2
|
|
Town Hall
|
2
|
|
Washington Post*
|
2
|
|
Weekly Standard
|
2
|
|
Bloomberg*
|
1
|
|
FOX News*
|
1
|
|
NPR*
|
1
|
|
Wall Street Journal*
|
1
|
|
ABC News*
|
0
|
|
CBS News*
|
0
|
|
Christian Science Monitor*
|
0
|
|
New York Times*
|
0
|
|
Reuters*
|
0
|
|
Time*
|
0
|
|
US News*
|
0
|
|
USA Today*
|
0
|
|
Total
|
131
|
* Indicates the front page of the politics section of the media outlet. Table compiled by Smart Politics.
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