Ebola in New York fires up the media

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New York papers' front-page reactions Friday to Dr. Craig Spencer's exposure to Ebola ranged from the expected to the outlandish. But the apocalyptic novel plot — a sickly doctor with a scary communicable disease going bowling and wandering unwittingly about in Gotham — has reinvigorated a story line that was seemingly retreating from the fever pitch reached in Dallas earlier this month when a nurse, Nina Pham, contracted the virus. The optics were just too tempting for news editors.

All the elements of hysteria were there in print and online — the large font headlines; hazmat suits, police in masks. As more than one person noted on Twitter, there were far more reporters covering Thursday's development than the number of those infected by the virus in the U.S.

"Initially, when the first case of Ebola was reported, you saw the media, especially the tabloids, go full throttle," said David Uberti, a reporter at Columbia Journalism Review who's been writing about Ebola media coverage. "In the middle of last week, they tapped the brake. But I expect to see them amp up coverage in the next few days."

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CNN's heavy coverage ran for hours Friday, with expert talking-heads adding very little to the story — until the cable news pioneer shifted gears to a school shooting in Washington state.