Rasmussen finds that the average American remains more interested in irrelevant trials and the latest controversial “teen mom,” then the cover-up in Benghazi.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of Likely U.S. Voters rate the administration’s explanation of the events surrounding the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens as good or excellent. Forty-one percent (41%) think the administration has done a poor job explaining things. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
It’s difficult for the hearings to make much impact when they took place on a single day rather than shorter hearings across a week, and when the networks bail out of covering them to put the Jodi Arias verdict on the air. As I wrote toward the end of the day-long hearings last week:
Juxtaposition on my screens in my blogging lair: Streaming video from the Benghazi hearing, which is an investigation into what may be a massive cover-up at the highest levels of our government, and the verdict from the Jodi Arias trial on the cable nets. Thousands are waiting outside the courtroom for the verdict to be read, just standing around, even though the verdict tells us nothing about the credibility of our government or its ability to defend US interests around the world. The networks aren’t even carrying the Benghazi hearing at this point, despite the fact that the allegations aired in it are so disturbing. This is the power of the media and what it chooses to emphasize and downplay, on full display.
Those thousands were there because the media had hyped that trial and made the reading of its verdict a Moment. Many of those thousands, along with millions more Americans, might care more about Benghazi if the alleged news media gave the story proper attention and treatment. Eight months in, they’re finally starting to. Progress, I guess.
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