How did the media react to Bonds’ Blast?

The Project for Excellence in Journalism examined the coverage in the 43 daily newspapers based in cities that host major league baseball franchises to see how the papers covered Barry Bonds’ record-breaking home run. PEJ looked for the most frequently used words in the coverage, some 106 stories, columns and sidebars.

The conclusion was that the achievement did not seem to signal a more admiring reevaluation of baseball's newest king.

Indeed, after the names of Henry Aaron, the man Bonds surpassed (whose name appeared 672 times), and Mike Bacsik, the pitcher who served up home run #756 (whose name appeared 246 times), the most common words in the 106 stories PEJ examined were “steroids” and “performance enhancing drugs.” Both appeared 215 times.

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism