Curtis coverage ranked high, low in newscasts

Whither Tony?

Curious question -- how to cover celebrity death in a town fueled by famous folks more than nearly every city on Earth -- arising as Las Vegas bid bye-bye to favorite adopted son and movie great Tony Curtis earlier this week.

Full disclosure-wise, we begin with the elephant in the column: This writer contributed to R-J coverage of Curtis' death and memorial service. We went big.

Now a recap of how stations played it at the main hours that anchor their early evening news schedules: KVVU-TV Channel 5 at 5 p.m., the rest at 6 p.m.

Announcing his Sept. 29 death on Sept. 30, newscasts played it high -- except KLAS-TV, Channel 8, not noting it until a tease at the bottom of the first news block, not reporting it until the top of the second block.

Turning to Monday's funeral filled with fresh footage, rather than rehashed Curtis clips, both Fox-5 and KTNV-TV, Channel 13 ran the pieces second after flooding stories. Over at KSNV-TV, Channel 3, Curtis coverage placed third, after flood reports and proposed retroactive pay cuts for county workers.

Yet it was back-burner redux on Channel 8, which shoved it to sixth, after the "bully-free zones" rally, flooding, child deaths by accidental drug overdoses, two local neighborhoods ranked as dangerous, and the "Impact Nevada" poll.

Serious stories all, but Curtis was still too much of an also-ran.

Celebrity news is highly flexible -- and oft-debated -- in how it's handled, but what arches the eyebrow about Channel 8's Curtis coverage was not quality of the report or time allotted to it -- both perfectly fine -- but its positioning in a centerpiece newscast, as if fearing appearing frivolous by hitting it sooner.

Granted, Curtis was decades removed from his movie-star heyday, his death after a recent hospital stay at age 85 no surprise, his funeral planned out rather than breaking news.

However, Channel 8 wasn't averse to me-too! celebrity coverage when they pre-empted programming to conduct live reaction interviews on the Strip for Michael Jackson's death last year -- the only station to succumb to the staggeringly overwrought coverage beyond brief news flashes -- though Jackson's ties here were transient and the story belonged to network/cable news, the Internet and the Twitterverse.

Vegas viewers, as one competing news director noted, weren't tuning in locally for running coverage of that bombshell. Still, Channel 8 news director Ron Comings said then: "He's made a big impression here on his previous visits so we felt he was an important figure for the community."

Curtis -- a longtime resident, colorful character around town, animal advocate, Vegas goodwill ambassador on his travels and, most notably, still Hollywood royalty -- was not "an important figure for the community"? At least enough to rank higher up than a half-dozen down?

News judgment is always up for discussion and one can't deny Channel 8's top five stories Monday night were newsworthy, while Curtis' funeral certainly needn't have led any newscast.

Yet compared to its competitors, Channel 8 called it wrong. On a respected newscast in his adopted hometown, a timeless star who enhanced Vegas luster and gave to this city deserved more upon his death than a lukewarm slot.

Fortunately, most stations liked it hot.

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