They've reported on them dozens of times

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/zapatista-nationa...

though strangely apparently not between 2005 and 2017.

Here are another 200 google hits from 2006 to 2016. The tags are often just used for larger features, not every news item.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:nytimes.com+zapatista&r...

That’s a pretty big gap

I thought so too, but another commenter here found that they were repeatedly reported on during that time, just not tagged as the main subject of the articles. (But maybe this change still does reflect a different level of editorial interest in them during that time.)

Why not?

The New York Times has an archive of news and background on the Zapatista with hundreds of articles: https://www.nytimes.com/topic/organization/zapatista-nationa...

Sure, but how many column inches did those articles occupy? And how does that compare to the number of column inches dedicated to consumer capitalist interests?! </chomsky>

Probably a lot more for the general topic and very little for the very specific topic. As one would expect.

The goalpost has now moved, and the new question is obviously impossible to answer.

It's also worth noting that "consumer capitalist interests" is a term I've never heard and, more importantly, neither has Chomsky, who never used the term.