That's not it. It's that people set themselves on fire in protest in DC all the time. It's simply not noteworthy. Now, granted, the news loves to take common occurrences and make a big story out of a random one, but I guess setting yourself on fire just isn't cool anymore. There used to be a wiki article that kept a list, but I can't find it now. If I remember correctly it was about once a week or two.