Perhaps a less cynical explanation would be that no one died, but were rather wounded. (As far as I can gather, no one died; seeing as the offenders are charged with '20 counts of attempted murder'.)

It's hard to get worked up about a situation where people didn't die. I know that sounds heartless, but it's unfortunately true.

Speaking as a European, it does give me a feeling of 'happens all the time in America'. Because if this should be a 'national tragedy', then surely the USA would have tonnes of national tragedies. And isn't that the biggest tragedy?

Sounds like a corollary to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

The Boston Marathon was a national tragedy because people saw it happen live, nationwide.

The Boston Marathon was televised. People were watching it before, during and after the tragedy happened. News outlets, even outside the New England area, make a big deal about Patriot's Day every year. Therefore, eyeballs were on it nationwide, so when a tragedy happens there, the media & government have to let people know they are in control of the situation & make a big deal out of it (I personally believe it shouldn't have been declared a "national tragedy", but that's beside the point here).

To be honest, I didn't know about this incident in New Orleans until today. I didn't even know they had a Mother's Day parade.

A black person shooting other black people doesn't induce enough emotion in the American media's viewership to produce ratings.

Pretty sad really.

Because not instrumented by the US Government to rally more people to support their causes ?

Guys, this is politics, plain and simple, which is probably best left to other sites.

Because not white enough.