Courthouse shooting coverage had ups, downs

Expect the excess.

Our 24/7 newsy-go-round demands no less than too much, exemplified anew as stations swamped the airwaves Monday with courthouse shooting coverage -- five hours, from about 8 a.m. when the gunbattle erupted, to 1 p.m., when Channel 8 finally relented to "As the World Turns." That reality is unalterable.

That said, here's two caveats before comments commence: Newscasters riffing off the cuff for hours inevitably slip into occasional hyperbole, inarticulateness and other verbal/mental traps, their professional polish notwithstanding. And media monitoring gives media critics migraines when playing Spin the Remote between four stations through five hours of breaking news, and some notable moments can escape unnoticed. So, first things first ...

Per overnight numbers, Channel 8 rocked the ratings to the point of pummeling, often outscoring their three competitors combined. ... Kudos to morning anchors Dave McCann, Dayna Roselli, Casey Smith, Lisa Remillard, Heidi Hayes and the Wagners, all pulling triple duty on-air. ... Channel 13 was a tad late jumping into the pool. ...

Such events are chilling enough without Fox-5's Bob Massi declaring that "this should scare the hell out of us." ... Casey Smith rightly reminded us "to keep this in perspective. Things like this happen very rarely and it could've been a lot worse." ...

News-3's sometimes dizzying aerial shots should've come with Dramamine prescriptions. ... Dizziness beats nothingness, though, as Channel 13, having let go of "Captain Paul" Hollenbeck, lacked an eye-in-the-sky. ...

Spitballing over the dead shooter's motivation, even while noting an absence of facts supporting one, Kim Wagner inferred one possibility by referencing the 1981 bomb attempt on the life of Sen. Harry Reid, who has a courthouse office. That supposition was best left un-supposed. Instead, it lent TV's air of authority to a provocative piece of pure guesswork. ... Channel 8 might've sooner dumped a "source" claiming eight federal agents exchanged gunfire with four suspects. ...

Tons of professionally shot footage and the most gripping -- of the shooting itself -- was captured on cell phone and grabbed off YouTube? Happenstance, yes, also prophetic. Meet journalism's future, where technology provides every breaking story its own Zapruder film. .... Who knew dignified Gary Waddell, waxing eloquent on the mechanics of firearms, is actually an articulate Rambo? ...

Reporting the descriptions of witnesses, Channel 13 correspondent Tina Patel marveled at their calm demeanors, deducing that their trauma must not have registered yet. As Lucy told Charlie Brown at her psychiatric booth, that'll be 5 cents, please. ... Think coverage can conclude when Kim Wagner says, "You're looking at live pictures of the calm after the storm"? It didn't. ... Face it: Jon Ralston's sterling "Face to Face" debut interviewing Dario Herrera wound up demoted from being News-3's Big Deal of the Day. ...

Most surreal moment? Fox-5's comic promo -- between covering a deadly shooting live -- of Carrot Top fake-attempting a weathercast, accompanied by a "live" graphic. That's so double take-worthy it could justify a lawsuit for whiplash. ...

So concludes this CliffsNotes assessment of Monday morning coverage by a Thursday morning quarterback.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.