With 63 percent of Americans saying they followed last week’s events out of Boston “very closely,” the marathon bombings rank as one of the highest interest news stories of the past decade, according to findings from Pew Research Center released on Tuesday.
In fact, the Boston bombings were the most closely watched news story since the 2008 financial crisis. Seventy percent of Americans interviewed in September of that year said they were following economic news “very closely.”
The level of attention generated by the marathon attack is equal to the Iraq War in 2003 and slightly more than the 2012 presidential election. Moreover, the bombings drew more from Americans than any terrorist attack since 9/11. In September of 2001, a whopping 78 percent of Americans said they were following that story “very closely,” according to Pew.
