Sacramento Bee: People don't care about Plamegate

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13962738p-14796833c.html

By Armando Acuña -- The Public Editor

For many months, the national press and the Internet have obsessed over a federal investigation into who outed a CIA operative named Valerie Plame after her husband, a former ambassador, publicly undermined a weapons claim made by President Bush for waging war on Iraq.

... For months I have waited for The Bee's readers to weigh in, to offer their insights and analysis, to make accusations, to simply raise questions and indulge their curiosity as they do over just about anything in the news.

I'm still waiting.

In what amounts to group disconnect, readers simply don't seem to care. This story has no traction for them.

... In the last six months, I have received fewer than five e-mails on the subject, though more have written letters to the editor.

Perhaps her paper hasn't done a good enough job covering the issue. We can't help her do her job. :eyes:

It's not that the American people don't CARE. It's that they don't KNOW. The press has failed it's public, which it is now blaming for that failure.

If people knew the facts they'd be lighting torches and marching on DC, imo.

Everytime I try to bring it up at work, or in the elevator in our building, at the bus stop, with friends etc., I get the thousand-yard stare. At first, I thought they just weren't familiar with the facts of the case, but I was wrong. They just had no interest.

I don't know what else to do--you can't force people to give a damn...

it isn't a big deal by those guilty of the crime and the press, they don't know enough to get concerned. Email them and tell them their work on minimizing what it's about through disinformation is working.

doesn't Amando remember how the boy king's ratings took a big hit when Libby was indited? That's the plame story numb nuts - Jesus is there a test to have to fail to become a reporter nowadays?

http://pollingreport.com/WHprobe.htm


Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Nov. 3-6, 2005. N=1,201 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.5 (for all adults).

"Last week a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity indicted the Vice President's adviser Lewis Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. ... How important an issue do you think this whole situation is to the nation . . . ?"

44% Great Importance


ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 2005. N=1,202 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. Fieldwork by TNS.

"As you may know, a federal grand jury has indicted Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the case in which the identity of an undercover CIA agent was disclosed to news reporters. Libby has resigned his White House position. In your opinion, do you think the charge against Libby represents a serious crime, or a minor or technical one?"

70% Serious

"I have received fewer than five e-mails on the subject, THOUGH MORE HAVE WRITTEN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR."

The conservative Bakersfield Californian alone prints 3 or 4 letters a week where Plamegate is mentioned. The L.A. Times many more.