Millions of mourners have filled Tehran's streets for days for the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the February airstrikes that opened the US-Israel war on Iran. * NBC's headline: "Supreme leader's coffin creeps through crowds in Tehran as Trump effigy is hanged." CNN's: "Iran sends defiant message to Trump with colossal funeral for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei." Two of America's biggest networks covering another country's funeral, and the main character is somehow Trump. ("Creeps," for what it's worth, is doing a lot of quiet judgment for a two-word verb — and it's not aimed at Khamenei.) * To be fair, the material's there. A eulogist called for Trump's death. Mourners stoned his photo. An effigy went up on a rope. All real, all coverable. * But there's a stranger story sitting right next to the spectacle: nobody has actually seen Iran's new Supreme Leader. Mojtaba Khamenei was named successor the day his father died. He hasn't appeared at the mosque, the procession, or beside his own brothers, who did show up. * Al Jazeera followed that thread instead: "Khamenei family mourns, but Mojtaba's absence fuels public insecurity" — Tehran residents telling them the missing man at this funeral is more conspicuous than everyone who came. * That's the actual story: the country's most-watched successor in a generation may be too wounded, too sidelined, or too something to show his face while it's being decided who really runs Iran next. American networks had 15 million mourners and a Trump effigy to work with, and ran with the show. Just don't confuse the show with the story.