Alcaray makes a good point
It is painfully true that there seem to be large areas of the planet where atrocities and disasters basically just are not "front page news." I don't know what it takes to get these stories off the back pages, or who selects what goes where. It's not just simple left-right politics. Alacaray points out some reasons, and they may be part of it. Most plausible answer in my opinion is that the media tends to act like sharks in a feeding frenzy: if the NYT sticks something on the front page, for whatever dumb reason, it becomes "real news" and suddenly everyone is all over it. Like the stupid Robert Blake story.