A horse is a horse of course of course

The amount of coverage for Barbaro is mind-boggling. I'd never even heard of the animal until today and boom, he's the most important story of the day, and the feature of Close-Up on the "Today" show -- a segment which usually deals with, oh, presidents, the economy, mining disasters... Katie Couric did ask at one point, "Why should we care?" but I'm not sure anyone actually answered her. While I feel bad for the horse and hope it doesn't have to be put down, is it *really* more important than the 80 Taliban who were killed in Afghanistan today (oh yeah, btw, the Taliban are baaaaaaaaack!)?