Peter Maass writes on why we rarely hear U.S. criticism of Teodoro Obiang, the draconian ruler of Equatorial Guinea -- when we hear so much about Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

Maass posits that it's because of U.S. oil investments in the West African nation. There's no doubt some truth to that notion. But it could also have to do with the strange ebbs and flows of the media. Britain's BBC has gone to extraordinary lengths to cover Zimbabwe, in part because it was a former British colony, which Equatorial Guinea was not.

But more importantly, perhaps, is the fact that just about every news organization in the world that covers Africa on the ground has a correspondent in South Africa.

Call it the Jerusalem effect: Sure, it's newsworthy. But there are more foreign correspondents per capita in Jerusalem than anywhere else in the world. So closer things get covered more, farther things not so much. And Equatorial Guinea is a long, long way away from the foreign press.