I just found out about something important that happened in my own state. Glenn Reynolds (who's in Tennessee) does a better job of keeping me informed than the Philadelphia Inquirer, or the New York Times, or Dan Rather, or my local news.

But here it is -- Pennsylvania news (and it should be national news) -- reported straight from Tennessee:

The town meeting was contentious at times, with 52-year-old Cedric Brown repeatedly pressing the candidate to name the foreign leaders whom Kerry has said are backing his campaign.

"I'm not going to betray a private conversation with anybody," Kerry said. As the crowd of several hundred people began to mutter and boo, Kerry said, "That's none of your business."

I thought this was a national election. If a candidate brags that foreign leaders are backing his campaign, how is that none of the public's business? Kerry's contention that his foreign endorsments are a private matter is one of the most arrogant statements I have ever seen in an election, and I think it ought to be attracting big attention in the mainstream media, not a passing mention in a local affiliate web site.

Then I learned that the local NBC affiliate left out this question from Mr. Brown:

"Were they people like the president of North Korea?" Cedric Brown, 52, shouted at Kerry during an eight-minute exchange Sunday afternoon. "I need to know that."

At the rate things are going, this election will be more about what gets reported than what's newsworthy.

But I can see why they don't want this reported. I already commented on the Tehran mullahs' enthusiasm for Kerry (which I got from BLOG IRAN), and thanks to Glenn Reynolds, I already knew about the notorious Kim Jong Il endorsement. Other than Iran and North Korea, I don't know which countries have endorsed him. (OK, I guess you could call Ramsey Clark (link) a "foreign leader" of sorts.... )

That's because it's none of my business. It's between Kerry and um, the mullahs. Or Kim Jong Il. Besides, Kerry's foreign endorsements are old news. Let's move on!

Yeah, let's move on. Let's be fair. Maybe candidates should be entitled to accept foreign endorsements in the privacy of their own elections.

UPDATE: Spoke too fast about the good old Philadelphia Inquirer! (Well, not really, because all I said was Reynolds does a better job.) They did run the above story, without the Kim Jong Il reference. And according to FortWayne.com, the White House is now asking Kerry to name his foreign supporters. (Maybe this will be somebody's business after all....) Now where's my New York Times?

MORE: COOL! To the Times' credit, they not only reported the story, they included the words about North Korea! The most telling moment in the Times story is that the questioner turned out to be -- gasp -- a Republican!

Does that mean the question was wholly out of line?

FINAL NOTE: Kerry's only foreign endorsements (barely reported anywhere) are from Tehran and North Korea.

My question remains. Why isn't it in the news?