Soothing Scapegoats.

So noted, nutty commentator  Glen Beck recently proposed that one of the guards that died with Ambassador Stevens Glen Doherty might have been CIA and that before his death upon seeing the situation worsening  sent an electronic message to warn allies of the deteriorating conditions.

  A diplomat and former SEAL being a spook and using the internet to get a message out? Sounds sensible right?

Not to slashdot!

No they studiously ignore Beck's main thrust, that the attack was premeditated and had nothing to do with a youtube video.  No they zero in on... things Beck Never said.

It's actually a fascinating game of telephone where slashdot reports the comments on one article here. Which itself is a paranoid exaggeration.

In sort, because Doherty sent his message via Eve Online's messaging system, Kris Ligman at  Gameranx reached this conclusion: "Glenn Beck Thinks EVE Online is a Front for the CIA."

Yes, and AT&T is an NSA front and the US Postal System is an FBI  sting operation.   And Slashdot decided to go further into the fantasy and report a sarcastic comment as gospel.

And thus you have this meme:   "Here's one that even The Onion would reject as too blatantly ridiculous: American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck believes that Sean Smith aka Vile Rat, the EVE Online diplomat who was killed earlier this month during the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, was actually a CIA agent, relaying communications to his fellow undercover agents at Something Awful."

Note that the names are different too.  And note the fluffy chat that obscures the shocking concept of  "Diplomatic staff can sometimes be spooks."

But hey, Beck would have said something crazy anyway!   And this provides a nice soothing distraction.   Romney and Beck and the rest of the Right Wing are the real ones to blame.

It's not like the State Department ignored flagrant threats, attacks, and kept a woefully under secure facility,  the FBI waited for weeks before finally giving up and never did investigate the consulate, or that the White House is actively covering up what happened.

Nope! No worries about that.  Beck said something crazy!

 I'll note that this cropped up in my my mostly liberal, low information voter test group as the first mention of the terrorist attack in Libya.  Take that for what you will.