Roberts Out-Hits Sheehan

Sheehan's publicity yesterday came from going on the road. Slipping below 100 hits on Nexis is indicative of both the staleness of the story, and newspapers' need to dedicate space for their Katrina coverage. The stories are pretty much balanced between positive-enough reports on her doings and editorials, letters and columns critical of her.

And, for the first time since starting this, John Roberts coverage out-Nexis'd Sheehan, 102 to 94, capping a trend that's been moving in that direction.

Sept. 1: 94 hits
Aug. 31: 121 hits (Leaving Camp Casey)
Aug. 30.: 136 hits
Aug. 29: 186 hits
Aug. 28: 132 hits
Aug. 27: 96 hits
Aug. 26: 183 hits
Aug. 25: 220 hits
Aug. 24: 208 hits (She's back)
Aug. 23: 249 hits
Aug. 22: 202 hits
Aug. 21: 120 hits
Aug. 20: 103 hits
Aug. 19: 232 hits
Aug. 18: 306 hits
Aug. 17: 295 hits (Off to California)
Aug. 16: 215 hits
Aug. 15: 136 hits
Aug. 14: 93 hits
Aug. 13: 107 hits
Aug. 12: 167 hits
Aug. 11: 113 hits
Aug. 10: 46 hits
Aug. 09: 32 hits
Aug. 08: 36 hits
Aug. 07: 39 hits
Aug. 06: 7 hits (6 AP, 1 CBS, natch)
Aug. 05: 3 hits (all Dallas Morning News, pre-arrival)
Aug. 04: 0 hits

And here's an update in the Sheehan/Roberts comparo:

Aug. 26 -- Sheehan: 94 ...... Roberts: 102

Note: Nexis does not provide a complete count. Video Monitoring Service had tracked over 20,000 Sheehan mentionsby Aug. 17. Nexis is, however, a good indicator of how heaviliy the media is covering a story, and it focuses more on larger papers and network shows that more people read and view. CBS News hits deleted from Sheehan/Roberts count because they mention correspondent John Roberts, not the Supreme Court nominee.