Even if nothing unexpected happens, there will be a lot of news today — the Alito confirmation, the State of the Union, the death of Coretta Scott King, the Oscar nominations. But today, or soon, it seems likely that someone will take a critical look at the extensive coverage the television networks gave to the wounding of ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt. Yesterday, all the television networks — not just ABC — devoted an extraordinary amount of time to the incident. While the story was certainly news, did it warrant two pieces at the top of “World News Tonight” and another at the end? Did the incident, in which the journalists were wounded when they partially emerged from an armored vehicle to shoot a standup, illustrate something essential about the war in a way that other attacks on U.S. and coalition forces did not?

Perhaps some press critic will explore that question. And perhaps that critic will compare coverage of the Woodruff attack with coverage of the deaths of U.S. Army Private Brian J. Schoff, of Manchester, Tennessee, and Sergeant David L. Herrera, of Oceanside, California, who, according to Army records listed in icasualties.org, were killed in action — hostile fire, IED attack — in Baghdad on January 28. Now, not every one of the 2.242 U.S. deaths in Iraq can be covered at length. And of course what happens to high-profile people is news. But unlike the U.S. and coalition troops there, Woodruff and Vogt could leave when they wanted and, in Woodruff’s case, were being paid millions of dollars to be there. At some point, the coverage of the incident got out of balance.