In Congo, 1,000 die per day: Why isn't it a media story? (CSM)

(Is this just a result of unspoken Racism? Or is it just our stupid MSM?)

The Christian Science Monitor
Commentary > Opinion
from the June 14, 2005 edition

In Congo, 1,000 die per day: Why isn't it a media story?

By Andrew Stroehlein

BRUSSELS – It's a maxim that what people aren't talking about is always a favorite topic of conversation. But it will make your head spin when applied to the media and the most deadly conflict in the world today. Western media generally do not cover the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but a media story is currently developing around the Congo - focusing, paradoxically, on how the conflict is not a media story. I've lost count of how many journalists in the recent weeks have asked me, "Why aren't the media covering the Congo?"

With an estimated 1,000 people dying there every day as a result of hunger and disease caused by war, it is an appropriate question. But the extent of this coverage of noncoverage is reaching the absurd: print, radio, TV, Internet - they all want to know why they themselves are not writing articles and broadcasting programs about the Congo.

And it is not just me noticing this. In March, Reuters even held a seminar on "forgotten crises," at which the Congo topped the list, and on BBC World Service the other day, I heard a newscaster ask: "Shouldn't this be getting more attention?"

Indeed. What the world media are missing is one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II: 3.8 million people have died in the Congo since 1998, dwarfing not only the biggest of natural catastrophes, such as December's South Asia tsunami, but also other manmade horrors, such as Darfur.

(more at link above)

They did this with East Timor too. You have to ask yourself “Is the USA profiting from arm shipments to the Congo”? If the answer is yes than you know why.

I guess I'm still too trusting to think of that.