Two days ago I woke up to the news that Air France flight 447 had gone missing over the Atlantic. Like most, my reaction was immediate, visceral. How tragic, how scary, how nightmarish for all involved.

Then the announcer said we’d get constant updates throughout the morning. As the day unfolded, all media was saturated with news. There was little news, but news sources went into great detail about every aspect of the tragedy, combing through every scrap of information, racing to be the first to report anything new, no matter how mundane.

I feel terrible sadness for the victims and families, but — to be blunt–why is this such news? Nearly 150,000 people in this world die each day, why must we such attention and grief be given to these select few?

It made me think. Over 6,000 people die of AIDS in Africa each day. What would happen if these deaths were treated to the same amount of coverage? What if reporters stopped in their tracks like they did two days ago, and sought out answers not to why a plane — one plane out of hundreds–dropped from the sky, but to why this disease kills so many. What if we got a detailed analysis with constant updates in progress from professionals on this epidemic? What if pictures of the victims and interviews from the victim’s families were splashed all over the front pages of blogs, websites, and newspapers? What if we as a community collectively mourned those losses?

The flight was a terrible tragedy. But I just don’t understand the unbalanced coverage, and why we beat our breasts for these lives, but still largely ignore the deaths of so many others.