For the record

I would like to state for the record that I think it is a sin that American media have not given the kind of attention to the nightclub bombing in Bali that they have to other things (like this idiotic Washington Sniper chatter that shouldn’t be monopolizing national news services 24/7; it would be one thing if the local stations went 24/7 with it, but there are other things going on in the rest of the country — like elections coming up in only a couple of weeks — and in the rest of the world — like Iraq and like Bali). I am friendly with a number of Australians and I mourn with them for their losses. But I’d barely know that the bombing had occurred if I got all my news from TV or radio, or even from the newspapers.
I don’t think Americans per se are self-centered to the extent that they don’t care about terrorism unless it happens on our own shores. But I do think that the major American news media aren’t interested in overseas news unless Americans are directly involved. And I find that to be a crying shame, because it makes it look like Americans don’t care, when the fact of the matter is that American news media don’t care.
Australia is one of our best and most important allies. We do them no service by ignoring their pain. Bali was very much their own 9/11 and we ought to be just as horrified today as regards their loss as they were the day the towers went down, the Pentagon burned, and Flight 93 smoldered in a farmer’s field.