This doesn’t suprise me at all.

•The average length of a single story devoted primarily to elections was roughly
76 seconds. By contrast, a similar national study conducted by the UW
NewsLab during the 2002 mid-term election found the average story ran 89
seconds.

• 41 percent of the election stories were aired in the final week before Election
Day.

• There was a political ad “echo effect:” Over one in ten election stories
mentioned, pictured, or focused on a specific campaign ad.

• Gubernatorial coverage consumed over a quarter of the airtime (26 percent)
devoted to election stories overall.

snip
sorry about the sloppy formatting, I can’t seem to make it straight.
Typical 30 Minute Broadcast Breakdown

Category 10.7.06 – 11.6.06
Total Advertising 9 min 46 sec
*Political Advertising 4 min 24 sec
*Avg. Number of Political Ads 8.81

Sports and weather 6 min 58 sec
Crime 2 min 20 sec
Other 2 min 13 sec
Local interest 1 min 54 sec
Teasers, bumpers, intros 1 min 51 sec
Election coverage 1 min 43 sec
Non-campaign gov’t news 1 min 2 sec
Business, economy 47 sec
Health 45 sec
Foreign policy 27 sec
Unintentional injury 14 sec

It’s a study of Midwestern markets, but I’m fairly sure the numbers are about the same in the rest of the nation. When we wonder why people could support the war, or voted in favor of politicians who support policies that directly hurt those voting for them, this is the reason. People who don’t have time, or the know how, to follow the issues as blog readers do are abused by the supposedly free and informative press. Don’t hand me any crap about how important news “won’t sell,” it’s the job of TV producers to make anything “sexy” and the job of TV ad account managers to sell time to advertisers. That same class of people can make ads for tires and adult diapers seem exciting.

Media reform. Media reform. Media reform.