A new report is revealing what story received the most “engaged minutes” in 2021.
On Jan. 3, 2021, the Post published a story detailing former President Donald Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), where he pressed the election official to “find” enough votes to overcome Biden’s lead in the state, according to Chartbeat.
The story, titled “‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor,” received the most “total engaged minutes this year,” according to Chartbeat.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” Trump told Raffensperger. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.”
However, Raffensperger pushed back, “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump said at a later point during the call.
He added, “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
President Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win the state in a presidential election since 1992 with a margin of 11,779 votes.
The next story on the list was published by Stat comparing the different COVID-19 vaccines, followed by a Politico story about National Guardsmen being ordered to vacate the U.S. Capitol and Congressional buildings after they had been sent to guard the complex following the Jan. 6 riot.
The fifth most engaging story was about Trump’s reported response to being blocked by Twitter.
A drum roll for the most engaging story of 2021….
— Chartbeat (@Chartbeat) December 22, 2021
No. 1: The Washington Post | ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’ https://t.co/OZBhHL9dT6
See the full list at https://t.co/dL1hRFXuLb#2021EngagingStories pic.twitter.com/jkUiRfNPLE
Chartbeat, a site used by publishers to track web traffic, said it “evaluated more than 33 million pieces of content, totalling 368 billion minutes of Engaged Time, which is the total amount of time visitors spent actively reading pages across our network.”
“Stories reflect the variety of coverage we saw this past year,” it added.
