I won’t add much to the frustration with US media coverage of Hillary Clinton’s seven-nation African tour, except to link to a few sources. With few exceptions (NPR), US media have either played stenographer, reduced her actions to a Desperate Housewives episode (like this NBC report above) that’s more about US domestic politics or avoided it altogether to do PR for the Republican Party campaign to derail health care reform.

“What’s More Important: Rape In Congo Or Hillary’s Bad Hair Day?” [Jezebel]

“Hillary Clinton in Congo: Tempers, Human Rights, and Media Cliché” [Huffington Post]

“Perhaps I have been too cynical” [Texas in Africa]

But more than protecting women and lecturing African leaders about democracy, there’s another reason for Clinton’s trip to Africa: By 2025 the US government expects to import at least 25% of its oil suppliers from African sources–Clinton is visiting three suppliers on this trip: Angola, Nigeria, and Cape Verde. Obama visited a fourth, Ghana (they discovered oil in 2007), a month ago. Right now Nigeria is the 5th largest, and Angola the 6th largest exporters of oil to the United States. Oh, and the US is facing competition from China (who operate by a different, easier, set of rules for foreign investment) for African oil and other resources.

Report that.