Shocking News Of The Day: Christine O’Donnell Is 2010’s Most Covered Candidate

Though Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell will, in all likelihood, be denied the title of senator tonight, Yahoo News reports that she’s already been won a different honorific: the designation of 2010’s Most Covered Candidate.

Michael Calderone writes that Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has discovered that in the past few months, O’Donnell “vaulted from zero national name recognition to garnering more coverage than any other 2010 candidate”—even though she’s declined to make many appearances in the national media. Specifically:

The PEJ tracks news coverage from 52 news outlets across five platforms—broadcast networks, cable news networks, online outlets, newspapers and talk radio. The nonpartisan organization looked back at all election stories from the beginning of the year through Oct. 31 and tallied those in which the 2010 candidate was the lead newsmaker, featured in more than half the story.

President Obama was most often the lead newsmaker in stories focusing on the 2010 election.

Christine O’Donnell tops 2010 midterm coverageBut O’Donnell ranked first among 2010 candidates. She was lead newsmaker in 160 stories, a remarkable number considering that most of the stories appeared in just the past two months.

To anyone who owns a computer or a television, this news shouldn’t be surprising. O’Donnell has given the media so much material that we would be shocked if Pew had named anyone else 2010’s most oft-mentioned candidate.

Click here to read the full article.