Project for Excellence in Journalism
PEJ reports that Gingrich has now become “the top campaign newsmaker after weeks of attention to Herman Cain and allegations about his personal behavior,” with half of all campaign coverage focused on him. The campaign was the week’s top story. Most of the coverage focused on Gingrich’s rise in the polls.
Some political reporters noted that few would have expected such a comeback from Gingrich, whose campaign was nearly written off months before, after weak poll numbers and staff defections. Referring to Romney’s campaign on the December 8 Early Show, CBS’s Jan Crawford noted that “They expected a serious challenger, they did not expect it to be Newt Gingrich, and you know what—who did? His campaign was written off for dead six months ago.”
Last week, PEJ reported that Twitter chatter had turned positive for Gingrich after months of negative sentiment:
People are not only talking about Gingrich more in tweets in recent weeks, they are also talking more positively. Indeed, after 25 straight weeks in which the discussion about Gingrich on Twitter was more negative than positive — usually by double-digit differentials sometimes as large as 57 points — the Twitter consensus has shifted with Gingrich’s new poll numbers. He enjoyed two clearly positive weeks in late October, though that eased to a more mixed view in November.
Related: Gingrich campaign outs candidate as person quoted as “senior aide” in Union Leader story; Union Leader publisher asks Politico’s Dylan Byers, “How old are you kid?” when Byers presses him on whether Gingrich was the source (The Huffington Post, Politico)
