Pew: Wide Majority Tuned Out Last Week’s Benghazi Hearing

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM


TOM KLUDT 3:58 PM EDT, MONDAY MAY 13, 2013

Congressional Republicans promised explosive revelations in last week's hearing on the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, but the vast majority of the public wasn't paying attention.

The latest findings from Pew Research Center released on Monday found that only 44 percent of Americans were following the hearing "very" or "fairly" closely. By contrast, 56 percent said they followed the hearing either "not too closely" or "not at all." Those numbers are largely unchanged from Pew's findings on the question in January, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified on Benghazi. In October, a month removed from the attack, Pew found that 61 percent of Americans were following the story at least fairly closely.

While Americans are united by their lack of interest in the story, they are divided on two questions dominating the debate. Thirty-seven percent said the Obama administration has been honest about Benghazi, while 40 percent said the administration has been dishonest and 23 percent indicated that they do not know. Meanwhile, 36 percent believe Republicans have gone too far with the hearings, compared with 34 percent who believe they have handled the investigation appropriately and 30 percent who said they don't know.

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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/pew-wide-majority-tuned-out-last-weeks-benghazi

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[Comrade Grumpy]

1. The administration fucked this up at the beginning, but I think people understand...

...that the House Republicans are on a witch hunt.

I couldn't believe my ears that Sunday morning Susan Rice did her talking points talk show tour. Everybody knew by then--five days after the attack--that it was an attack, and not just a mob action.

There are more interesting unanswered questions about Benghazi: What was that CIA station up to? (Shipping arms to Syrian rebels?) And why hasn't the US responded in typical fashion--by droning or bombing somebody?

[sharp_stick]

2. You should have seen the ranting on the local news

facebook page. It was really pathetic. Every time they would post a local news story or anything else for that matter the comments feed started to fill up with "WHAT ABOUT BENGHAZI?" "WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING OBAMA AND CLINTON?".

They do not like the fact that the latest manufactured outrage just isn't taking hold the way Roger Ailes promised it would.

[Berlum]

3. Americans know what to expect: Republican lies & spin

After over two freakin decades of Republican whining and BS about everything, Americans by and large tune out their catapult of crap.

[cemaphonic]

4. Even Romney knew that Benghazi was a total dud.

He went with it anyway, because what else did he have, foreign policy-wise? But he definitely didn't have the energy he had when attacking Obama on the economy. Yet here Congress is, still trying to wring out whatever bit of juice they can instead of doing something productive.

Embassies get attacked under every president, and the foreign service are professionals who know the dangers going in.