TV news needs jolt of adrenaline

News needs some noise -- reasonably raucous without erupting into a ruckus.

So ... paging the pundits.

Expanding last week's rethinking of local news to repel advancing armies of online media and their ratings-draining appeal, stations might consider swapping a slice of dignity for a dose of conflict, emulating their cable cousins.

President Obama last week cast the chief-exec fish eye on the pontificating pooh-bahs of "cable chatter." But the punditocracy of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News often pumps an electric surge of energy into evenings of otherwise by-the-numbers news.

For our own staid brigade -- the "Action"/"Eyewitness"/ "Fox-5"/"News 3" newsies -- it's a lesson in liveliness: Breach the perimeter of propriety surrounding TV news.

So informative and dignified are Gary Waddell and Paula Francis. So fact-filled and friendly are Sue Manteris and Jim Snyder. So newsy and affable are Steve Wolford and Nina Radetich. So they should remain. But a jolt of adrenaline awaits adventurous news directors willing to unleash ... The Opinionators:

Daily debates among a roundtable of reporters, public officials and experts chewing over politics, policies, trials, crime, sports, entertainment and all matters of the moment on morning/midday/late-day news. Without verbal street-brawling. ... But without maximum manners, either.

Gnaw on some local news but acknowledge the obvious: Workplace hallways more often crackle with comments about New York Post cartoons, Rush Limbaugh rants and A-Rod steroid sagas than CityCenter financing, Gaming Control Board rulings and Culinary union court actions.

Choose from, among others: Jon Ralston and George Knapp. Oscar Goodman and Dina Titus. The R-J's John L. Smith and Sherman Frederick. CityLife's Steve Sebelius and blogger Steve Friess. Radio pot-stirrers Alan Stock and Heidi Harris. (Something's screwy when she's seen waxing political on national cable, but not here.) Local doctors and lawyers. Businessmen and casino operators. Economists and professors.

Sacrifice the super-civility of "Nevada Week in Review." Outspoken (and often ornery and offensive) online discourse reflects a coarsening of the national conversation. We need not wallow with them, or ape cable's split-screen creation of bickering bathroom tiles, but rather re-create how the off-camera world hashes over headlines in lunchrooms and living rooms: Spirited arguments affably colliding, interrupting and overlapping.

Keep The Opinionators clear of evening and late-night newscasts to maintain the straight-news mission of those flagship broadcasts. But shift from pointless repetition to pointed debate elsewhere. Channel 13's 60-minute 11 a.m. news, Channel 3's hourlong noon show and Channel 8's 90-minute late-day news block are rife for reshuffling: Roll back the weather report. Banish the puff pieces. Send in the Gladiators of Gab.

Biting back at new media requires TV with teeth.

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