Misanthrope's Corner.(examining why US media gave little coverage to massacre of Nepal's royal family)(Brief Article)(Column)

Hearing that Nepal's Crown Prince Dipendra had murdered his father the king, his mother the queen, his brother the prince, his aunts the princesses, and assorted other royalty at the dinner table, the spirit of Lizzie Borden was heard to say one word.

"Damn."

Lizzie wasn't the only departed member of the sanguine elite to express envious dismay. Catherine de Medici, who thought she had thrown the dinner party to end all dinner parties on that famous St. Bartholomew's Day, showed the first blush ever known to stain her cheeks and muttered, "Now I'm no better than Martha Stewart." Crown Prince Rudolf could have kicked himself over his measly little murder-suicide-one of each-out in the sticks at Mayerling. "If only I had stayed in Vienna," he sighed, "I coulda had a V-8!" Even Roman Empress Livia felt outclassed. "It took me years to do mine piecemeal," she reflected, "but Dipendra rubbed out a whole royal family all at once."

If the ill wind of Katmandu blew anybody any good it was yours truly, because it jogged me out of my recent funk and reawakened my interest in current events. I even went so far as to buy a new TV with a nine- inch screen that fits on my desk so I could watch the news and take notes at the same time like a big-shot columnist. Not many people can say they were saved by Prince Dipendra, but I've always done things differently.

Katmandu was my idea of a story and I was ready to roll, but nobody else was. It was reported, yes, but it wasn't covered as we have come to understand coverage-no "CNN Breaking News," no "Fox Alert," no tortuous analysis, no dizzying zoom lens making a whooshing sound as it comes in on the words "The Lessons of Katmandu." Granted, there was a lot of other news to cover that week, but I still got the distinct impression that the media were doing all they could to avoid saying any more about Dipendra's bloodbath than was absolutely necessary. Why?

A news director would claim the story had no American angle, and in one sense this is true. Most Americans probably could not locate Nepal on a map, and if they ever heard of it they probably thought it was the generic name for a prescription tranquilizer. Nonetheless, the Lesson of Katmandu is so apropos that it belongs in "News You Can Use." Every aspect of the story topples some comfortable American assumption, rubs some American nerve, or complicates the usually blissful American subconscious.

The classic American touch was supplied by Prince Dipendra himself: camouflage combat fatigues, which he changed into before he began shooting. After three decades of feminism, Alpha males with Omega grievances have made the G.I. Joe look the outfit of choice at gun shows, stock-car races, and wherever testosterone simmers. We are told incessantly that we are the "only remaining superpower" and that "the world looks to America," but being the arbiters of dress-to-kill is hegemony gone ...