News alert?

Huh. I guess I didn't realize I registered for the New York Times to send me news alerts to my inbox, but since I did and they did, I now have something to write about.


News Alert: Musharraf Wins Pakistan Presidential Election
Gen. Pervez Musharraf won re-election as Pakistan's president
today, officials said. But the Supreme Court will have final
say on whether the balloting is valid.


Clearly, the editorial decision to send this out as a news alert means, "We, the editors of the international section of the New York Times, felt that this decision was so important that it needed to be sent to your inbox as a registered member of the New York Times website. So even if you don't read another news headline today, we have gone the extra step to make sure that you are informed of this information."

Thanks, New York Times.

So I clicked the link provided in the email and was brought to the main page of the Times, where the first headline reads, "Boycotts and Legal Fight Cloud Victory for Musharraf."

Pakistan's political scene exploded into an all-out war while we were too busy watching Iran and Iraq. Same thing happened in Burma. It's, at the very least, a good reminder that, just because we're not looking, it doesn't stop the rest of the world from turning. American media is so mostly uninterested in what doesn't seem to directly affect it that the American populace is allowed to ignore the politics of the rest of the world. It seems like it's less than accidental, too. The media is a many-faced monster with many agendas. It might not be that far-fetched.