US MSM Downplay Latest UN Scandal

US media aren't exactly jumping all over the story that broke late last week that UN peacekeepers were sexually abusing minors in Liberia. Here's a summary:

Chicago Tribune: 68 words
Deseret Morning News: 42 words
Houston Chronicle: 65 words, some historical perspective
Kansas City Star: 45 words
Lexington Herald Leader: 63 words
Los Angeles Times: 81 words
Miami Herald: 141 words
Philadephia Daily News: 161 words, mentions that perps are rarely prosecuted
Seattle Times: 111 words
Ventura County Star: 138 words

Missing in action: New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and that lovely paper in Minneapolis the Northern Alliance praises so highly.

The Associate Press story most of these papers appeared to edit for their "World Briefs" columns contained 310 words and provided historical perspective (other countries in which peacekeeping pedophiles operated), and the information about the difficulty prosecuting the perps.

The coverage far exceeds the early coverage of the Congo sex crimes that broke earlier this year, but it's pathetic no major US newspaper saw this news as significant enough to merit a longer story detailing all the incidents, the UN's promise to get the matter under control, and their failure to do so.

Let's play a game. Replace "UN peacekeepers in Liberia" with "US troops in Iraq." What would happen then?

See also:
New UN Sex Crimes: Liberia