After an initial spate of coverage, the state-run media have largely gone silent on the issue of poorly built schools.
After weeks of dispiriting news out of Iraq, including discovery of the bodies of four other Halliburton employees in a shallow grave, Mr. Hamill's rescue was met by a national sigh of relief and a spate of giddy television coverage.
"When we turn on the lights there," said one top Democrat, "watch out!" There is no question that the Gore team is pumped and basking in a spate of positive media coverage.
A century ago, at age 24, Miss Scheel was the subject of a spate of news media coverage after the "medical examiner of the 400 'co-eds' " at her college, Cornell University, described her as the epitome of "perfect health," according to a 1912 New York Times article.
Another example: a bug in Android's default SMS app which sent text messages to incorrect recipients festered for six months until a spate of high-profile coverage finally forced them to fix it.
Over time, however, voters in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary have wielded an enormous influence over the larger race for the presidential nominations, with the winners of each anointed with "momentum," and thus a more favorable spate of coverage.
And the new economy has spawned a spate of magazines specializing in coverage of technology, e-commerce and the Internet, the so-called Seven Dots: Business 2.0, eCompany Now, Fast Company, The Industry Standard, Red Herring, Upside and Wired.
Mervin R. Whipple, whose elaborate free display earned him the nickname "Mr. Christmas," said he sold his entire collection of animated Santas, reindeer, cartoon characters and elves to a Massachusetts businessman who had read about Mr. Whipple's desire to sell it during a spate of holiday season news coverage.
Other stars doing red-carpet duty this week include Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz for the new Pirates of the Caribbean episode, Tilda Swinton and the magnificently potato-faced John C Reilly for We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Jane Fonda, prompting a spate of "Is she really 73?" coverage.
After a spate of bad press, including national coverage in The Washington Post, Randolph County officials hastily voted down the plan.
