Media More Interested in Foley Story than Public

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It should surprise no one that the media are more interested in the Foley scandal than the American public is. Even the "coverup," the media fallback point if the actual scandal isn't salacious enough, does not outrage Americans as much as it outrages media figures who denounce the Republican leadership. Reports CNN:

Only about a quarter of Americans say the scandal over former Rep. Mark Foley will be "extremely important" in how they vote in November's congressional elections, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.

That figure falls far below issues such as Iraq, terrorism and the economy.

The Foley scandal ranked fifth on a list of five topics in a poll conducted Friday through Sunday by Opinion Research Corp. (Read the complete poll results -- PDF)

Iraq and the threat of terrorism topped the list, with 43 percent of the 1,012 adults polled saying each would be extremely important to their November 7 vote, compared with 33 percent for the economy.

The issue of North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test last week, was extremely important to 32 percent of those polled, while 27 percent cited the Foley scandal.

The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Twenty percent said they were angry over how lawmakers handled the Foley matter, while 57 percent said they were dissatisfied and 19 percent said they were satisfied.

Foley abruptly resigned September 29 as details emerged of sexually explicit instant messages he sent to teens who had served as congressional pages.