Why doesn't the media cover Syria?

According to reports from Syria, about another 100 people were killed today in that country as they protested against the Baathist government fo Bashir Assad. Have you seen the big news stories trumpeting this slaughter? Today's killing brings to over 1000 the number of folks killed by the government in Syria in the last few months. These have included a 13 year old boy who had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time even though he was not involved in the protests at all. The government recently returned his mutilated body to his family for burial, and when his family expressed outrage, the boy's uncle was abducted by government troops for torture. These are stories of unspeakable horror. There is no justification whatsoever for the actions of the Syrian government. Indeed, that government has snipers on rooftops shooting random people who go to demonstrations in order to instill fear in the populace.

The problem is that there is almost no coverage of these events. In the mainstream media, unless one searches for it, coverage of events in Syria is hard to find. How can this be?

Now contrast this with the coverage of those killed on Nakhba Day at the borders of Israel. At that time, crowds of people climbed over the international borders between Israel and its neighbors and refused to stop when ordered to do so by police. Instead, the crowds attacked the police with stones, bottles and other weapons. In the resulting melee, about 9 people were killed. There was non-stop coverage of this event in the media. It was impossible to turn on the news without watching the clashes hour after hour. Even though less than 1% as many people were killed compared to Syria, and even though the Israelis were protecting their international borders against people who attacked them (compared to the Syrian forces that use snipers against those who are merely marching in the street), the media covered Israel like it was the beginning of World War III.

Can it really be that the US media is so easy to manipulate? Sure, there is no video to use from Syria since the Assad government has expelled all the foreign reporters. Is the US media so sure that its audience will not listen to news where it is only told rather than being shown what is happening?