Front page of today's New York Post:
Benghazi didn't make the front page of Murdoch's flagship U.S. tabloid -- not even up in the corner as a secondary headline. On the Post site as I type, Benghazi is the twelfth story under "Latest News," ranked below "Don't be a blockhead! Charlie Brown voice actor sentenced" and a story about a Staten Island barber who "allegedly killed his stylist co-worker during an argument over some broken clippers." Needless to say, Jodi Arias and (especially) the Cleveland story get the most play.
TBogg's take on all this:
Todays conspiracy theory: Obama released Amanda Berry from his FEMA rape house in order to overshadow the Benghazi hearing.
— TBogg (@tbogg) May 8, 2013
Well, the editors of New York Post knows their readers, and this Murdoch crusade doesn't appeal to them. Tabloid rules trump the right-wing narrative in this case -- as a rule, for tabloid readers and editors, the perpetrators of violent acts are the real objects of reader rage. The Benghazi hearings basically let the actual killers off the hook. Usually, that's what right-wingers complain that liberals do. Focus on the actual killers and the Post will pay attention. By contrast, this is like blaming society.
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...ALTHOUGH: Tabloids certainly have blamed the authorities in the past -- crimes that took place when David Dinkins was mayor were the mayor's fault (though that wasn't the case during the mayoralties of Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch). I think, in general, macho men like Bush/Cheney in foreign policy and Giuliani on crime, especially post Louima/Diallo, have discredited the tougher-is-always-better thesis, even for the Post and its readers.
