Most local newscasts downplay debate

Immediately, I was disappointed that Jim Bruade on NECN didn’t hang around the studio after doing his show “Broadside” at 6 p.m. and do a second, live “Broadside” with reaction to the debate at 8 p.m. But I can’t blame Jim for wanting to go home and have dinner with his family instead of hanging around NECN half the night.

NECN’s 9 o’clock newscast led with coverage of the wake for murdered pizza delivery driver Richel Nova and the first court appearance of the three people charged with his killing. It’s a powerful — and still shocking — story: the video of the suspects in court, the lines outside the door at the funeral home where Nova was being waked, the interviews with Nova’s friends. The video made it a compelling TV story, and I can’t fault NECN for leading with it.

The gubernatorial debate was the second story in the newscast, and NECN was the only local newscast (other then WBZ) to feature the debate so prominently.

Over on Channel 38, the WBZ News at 9 led with the debate and Keller’s analysis. He gave Gov. Deval Patrick “a slight edge,” praised the performance of Republican Charlie Baker “in his first televised debate” and suggested Independent Tim Cahill “left work undone” in Cahill’s effort to “jump-start” his campaign.

Fox25 News at 10 didn’t get to the debate until the sixth story of its newscast, leading with the story of an 83-year-old World War II vet who fought off a teenager who broke into his Yarmouth home and attacked him, followed by a stories on Nova, a man who was hit by a firehose in Somerville, an armed robbery that ended in a fatal shoot-out in Malden and the death in Afghanistan of a soldier from New Hampshire.

Fox25 didn’t even send its political editor, Joe Battenfeld, one of the most experienced and best political reporters in the state, to the gubernatorial debate. He instead covered the debate in Newton between U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and his Laroucheite opponent Rachel Brown (who called health care reform a “Nazi policy”). A much more amusing story, for sure, and Joe put together a pretty funny package. But why would a TV news organization not have its top political reporter cover the gubernatorial debate?

The Channel 7 News at 10 didn’t get to the debate until its eleventh story, leading with the Nova story and judging more newsworthy than the debate stories about state police in Maine finding buckets of cash in a man’s car during a traffic stop, police in Arizona releasing a sketch of a woman who is suspected by police of throwing acid into the face of another woman, a cluster of 20 house fires in Detroit, and a pastor in Florida who plans to burn copies of the Koran on 9/11.

Huh?

After Channel 7’s report on the debate — we’re well into the newscast now — the station’s long-time political reporter Andy Hiller came on for his “The Hiller Instinct” segment. Ah, I thought, now we’ll we get some interesting analysis of the debate.

Wrong.

Hiller did a post-Labor Day package introducing viewer to the candidates for governor. There was no debate coverage in his package.

That was enough for me. I set the TiVo to record the Channel 5 News at 11 and went to bed.

Turns out Channel 5 didn’t get to the debate until the sixth story, after Nova, the feisty 83-year-old Yarmouth man, a weather preview, the man who got hit by the firehose in Somerville, a woman who was stung more than 500 wasps in Attleboro (that was a big TV news story Tuesday night) and a group a students on a nature hike who were stung by yellowjackets — all stories (except the weather forecast), as you will have noted, in which people were killed or seriously injured.

The next day’s newspapers, by the way, featured the debate prominently: the Globe led the paper with the story and the Herald featured it on page 4, one if its main display pages for news.

I draw two conclusions:

1. Local TV newscasts (except for NECN) decided to play down the story of the debate because it was on a rival station, WBZ. They’ll give the next two debates, which will be aired on all Boston TV news stations, much more prominently. This is petty.
2. Except for WBZ and NECN, local TV newscasts don’t find debates among the four people from whom the voters will choose the most powerful person in state government particularly newsworthy.

That’s depressing.

Follow Mark Leccese on Twitter at @mleccese.