Clinton recovering after fall, surgery. Clinton rests in hospital after knee-repair surgery.

Clinton is back home after stay in hospital.

These headlines and similar others have plastered the pages of newspapers across the country since last Saturday. Electronic media have kept listeners updated on the latest medical information about the president’s little mishap when he was visiting pro golfer Greg Norman last Thursday.

We know Clinton’s knee operation, which repaired a ripped tendon in his kneecap, took 124 minutes. We saw detailed graphics of Clinton’s femur and tibia. We know after the most powerful man in the free world was out of surgery he watched college basketball, worked on a crossword puzzle and read a novel between his naps.

Basically, we know too much, way too much. Does anyone really care that during the operation Clinton’s surgeons listened to country swooner Lyle Lovett?

This is a sad example of the media emphasizing an event that just isn’t that big of a deal. Media outlets have thoroughly informed us of Clinton’s late night journey in search of Norman’s john, but who cares?

Was it more important to tell us Russian leader Boris Yeltsin sent Clinton a get-well card, instead of telling the American public about the funerals of seven Israeli school girls who were slaughtered last week while they were on a field trip?

Is our leader’s knee-surgery recovery more important than the hundreds of foreigners who are being forced to flee the violence in Albania?

It’s a sad day when the American media are so focused on our president’s relatively minor surgery that we forget about the atrocities taking place in the rest of the world.