Poll: attention given to current ‘scandals’ historically low

Politico: A majority of Americans are following both the controversy over the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi and the brewing IRS scandal - but at levels below historic averages, according to a new poll.

Fifty-four percent said they are closely following the story of how the IRS unfairly targeted conservative groups, according to the Gallup survey on Thursday, and 53 percent are closely following Benghazi. For both stories, 22 percent were following “not too closely” and 24 weren’t following at all.

“The level of attention being paid to each is below the average 60 percent of Americans who have closely followed more than 200 news stories Gallup has measured over the past several decades,” Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport wrote in an analysis of the poll.

Yes, majorities are following these two stories, but if they were TV shows, they’d be flirting with cancellation. I’d like to see a survey done where respondents are asked to explain what they big scandal was with Benghazi. I’d be willing to bet that the average person’s answer would be, “I don’t know. They covered stuff up or something.” After all, Republicans have been failing to answer that question for months.

Ed Kilgore looks at the numbers and concludes that these are especially bad numbers for backers of a Benghazi scandal.

“Interestingly enough, the IRS story was drawing just as much interest as Benghazi!, even though it’s spanking new while Benghazi! has been huffing and puffing along for many months,” he writes. “This reinforces the impression that Benghazi! was pretty much a spent bullet until the other ‘scandals’ were linked to it to produce a ‘crisis,’ at least within the Beltway. With the latest deflating evidence that Republican ‘news sources’ deliberately mischaracterized the internal emails leading up to the famous ‘talking points’ on Benghazi!, you have to wonder that if the torches being carried for this particular witch-hunt will again start to flicker and even expire when summer arrives and public interest in noise from Washington inevitably flag.”

[photo by cervus]