CONTAINING LINKS TO 58103 STORIES FROM THE NETWORKS' NIGHTLY NEWSCASTS
     TYNDALL YEAR IN REVIEW
TOP TWENTY STORIES OF 2007

minsTotalABCCBSNBC
Iraq: US-led combat continues1157370379407
Virginia Tech campus massacre244798084
Wildfires in southern California221767966
NYSE-NASDAQ market action208517680
Winter blizzards, icestorms182594777
Pakistan in political turmoil165534863
Military injuries, disabilities160575548
Real estate mass foreclosures133513546
Illegal immigration debate124473939
2008 HR Clinton campaign120414435
Military families face problems119414038
Hurricane Katrina aftermath116202571
US Attorneys fired by DoJ116334637
Tornado season112413932
Airline delays, cancelations108392643
Iran military expansion feared106323736
2008 Iowa caucuses previewed104393331
Global warming climate change103382541
2008 Giuliani campaign95302936
Oil, gasoline prices increase92422327
Total Top Twenty Stories3785123912051337
 

REPORTERS' USE OF BUREAUS
 
Foreign Dateline1856574592690
Washington DC32599969761287
Domestic Dateline7328244725792302
Non-Reporter Stories2284715805764
Total Annual coverage14727473249525043
Stories Filed by Anchors661273273115


PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TRENDS

(penultimate year)19911995199920032007
ABC27877859330
CBS7113113152396
NBC4813013055347
Total1462943391671072


IRAQ COVERAGE: FIVE YEAR TRENDS

year (three networks)20032004200520062007
Invasion, combat, surge1602135387911311157
All other Iraq storylines256017001101878731
Total Iraq Coverage41623053198120091888
Combat as % of total Iraq38%44%44%56%61%
The War in Iraq was Story of the Year by a wide margin. The networks monitored the progress of Commander in Chief George Bush's troop build-up--the so-called surge--in Iraq and the simultaneous debate on Capitol Hill about bringing troops home.
That storyline effectively ended in September when Gen David Petraeus testified to Congress that violence in Iraq was moderating and the President ordered the extra troops home. Before that testimony, the Iraq War averaged 30 minutes of coverage each week; in the year's final 15 weeks the average was a scant four minutes. Non-war coverage of Iraq continues its steady decline.
In the fall, the networks turned their attention to Campaign 2008. Next year's race for the White House attracted more coverage than the last four penultimate years combined.
Only two other international hotspots--Pakistan and Iran--appeared in the year's Top 20 besides Iraq. The networks' foreign bureaus had their lightest workload since 2001.
The War on Terrorism is cooling down even as Planet Earth, as Nobel Laureate Al Gore inconveniently warns us, is heating up. Coverage of the Environment (476 min v 302 last year) now matches that of Terrorism (483 min v 1191 last year).
The Health beat (1110 min) had its third-busiest year since 1993, when Hillary Rodham Clinton, in vain, proposed universal care. CBS (423 min v 334 in '06, 279 in '05) leads the way.
The Most Newsworthy Woman of the Year: Benazir Bhutto, assassinated during her bid to return to power in Pakistan. The Year's Most Newsworthy Man: the aforementioned Petraeus.


TOP 20 MOST USED REPORTERS (Anchors excl)

networknameassignmentmins
ABCJake TapperPolitics231
NBCDavid GregoryWhite House230
NBCAndrea MitchellState Department220
CBCDavid MartinPentagon217
CBS/ABCNancy CordesDomestic200
NBCTom CostelloDC Bureau199
CBSJim AxelrodWhite House195
ABCLisa StarkDC Bureau193
NBCRobert BazellMedicine190
ABCMartha RaddatzWhite House183
CBSSteve HartmanHuman Interest177
ABCDan HarrisDomestic176
ABCJonathan KarlPentagon175
CBSLara LoganForeign172
NBCPete WilliamsJustice172
CBSBob OrrJustice162
NBCLisa MyersInvestigative Unit162
CBSSharyl AttkissonInvestigative/Capitol160
ABCDavid MuirDomestic155
ABCBrian RossInvestigative Unit154